Software Maintenance And Support After Launch
Software maintenance keeps a live product secure, fast and working after launch, through updates, fixes, monitoring and small improvements. Our engineers have worked on Autobuffy for around 28,000 hours and on Coach Catalyst across a 30-month roadmap.
Reviewed by Azmat Rana, CEO & Founder · Updated
What Maintenance Covers
Software that nobody looks after slows down, breaks with each operating system or package update, and turns into a security risk.
Core capability
Security and version updates
Framework, package and server updates applied and tested on a regular schedule, before old versions stop getting security fixes.
Bug fixes
Problems reported by users or caught by monitoring, fixed in order of impact, with each fix tested before release.
Monitoring and alerts
Error tracking, uptime checks and alerts for failed jobs, routed to an engineer who can act on them.
Performance upkeep
Slow pages and queries found and fixed as data grows, through indexing, caching and background jobs.
Small improvements
The changes that keep a product useful between big releases, such as a new report, an integration or a better form.
How Ongoing Support Works
Support starts with learning the system, then settles into a steady routine.
Onboard
Learn The System
We get access, read the code and hosting, and set up monitoring if it is missing.
Agree
Set The Routine
We agree what gets checked, how often updates happen and how quickly each kind of issue gets a response.
Run
Maintain And Improve
Updates, fixes and small features ship on a regular cycle, each one tested on staging first.
Report
Show The Work
You see what changed, what was fixed and what is coming next, so the system never becomes a black box.
Tools We Support With
Monitoring, deployment and data tools we use to keep products healthy.
Signs Your Software Needs Ongoing Support
Most products need some upkeep after launch. These are the signs it has fallen behind.
Updates keep getting postponed
Each skipped framework or package update makes the next one bigger. Nextflag’s slowdown came from falling behind on them.
Nobody knows the code any more
When the original developers leave, small changes start taking weeks. A team that knows the system fixes that.
Customers find the errors first
If you hear about problems from users, monitoring is missing or nobody is watching it.
It slows down as data grows
Queries that were fine at launch get slow at scale. Autobuffy’s part search needed Elasticsearch and new indexes to stay fast.
Security notices pile up
Outdated packages are a common way in for attackers. Regular updates close those gaps.
Small requests wait for months
If a new report or field needs a full project, an ongoing team can deliver it in the normal cycle instead.
Products We Look After
Long-running products our engineers have worked on for years.
Related services
Projects like this one usually involve these as well.
- Legacy software modernization
- QA and test automation
- DevOps consulting
- Cloud migration and cloud services
Further reading: Upgrading a live store from Angular 8 to 13 in 20 days
Prefer to add engineers to your own team?
Hire full-time developers in the stacks we use for this work.
Maintenance And Support FAQs
What teams ask before handing over a live product.
Security and version updates, bug fixes, monitoring, performance work and small improvements to a live product, on an agreed routine rather than as one-off projects.
Yes. We start by reading the code, getting it running and adding monitoring, then take over updates and fixes once we know how it behaves.
We agree response times with you at the start, and urgent production issues come first. The routine depends on how critical the system is to your business.
Yes. Mobile apps need regular updates for new iOS and Android versions and store rules, so we keep them building and releasing on current versions.
Yes. Most support work mixes upkeep with small improvements. Larger features are scoped separately so they do not crowd out the essential work.
You do. Everything we build for you, including the source code and the intellectual property in it, belongs to you.
Need Someone To Look After Your Software?
Tell us what you are running and what worries you about it, and we will suggest a support routine.