Independent cost analysis studies indicate that an inordinately large percentage of the overall life-cycle cost of most systems/products is currently taken up by maintenance and support. In fact, for many large-scale systems, maintenance and support have been shown to account for as much as 60% to 75% of overall life-cycle costs. At a time of fierce global competition, long-term cost effectiveness is a major competitive advantage that manufacturers simply cannot afford to underestimate.

Clearly then, to remain competitive in today's international marketplace, companies must institute programs for reducing system maintenance and support costs - comprehensive programs that are an integral part of the design and development process from its earliest conceptual stages.

This book shows you how to implement such a program within your organization's design and development function.

From program scheduling, organizational interfacing, cost estimating, and supplier activities, to maintainability prediction, task analysis, formal design review, and maintainability tests and demonstrations, it describes all the planning and organizational aspects of maintainability for projects under development while schooling you in the use of the full range of proven design techniques - including methods for quantitatively measuring maintainability at every stage of the development process.

The authors also clearly explain how the principles and practices outlined in Maintainability can be applied to the evaluation of systems/products now in use both to increase their effectiveness and reduce long-term costs.