Richard Schreiber explains how to handle problems after software launches: lock in a maintenance agreement with your vendor to fix defects in later releases, plan for scope creep from missed requirements, and negotiate a warranty period of at least three to six months to catch edge cases and rare scenarios that slip through.
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Hi, Richard Shriver here, the Software Whisperer. And today we're going to continue our conversation about frequently asked question number four about we've gone live and how do we manage the post go live process with defects and other things that may have been missed during our user acceptance testing. And in software, you want to continually engage your technology partner, post go live or your project manager so that bugs and new features get picked up and addressed in subsequent production releases. Or you may even uncover some scope creep because something may have been missed during the requirements gathering phase. Yes, that does happen. The way you keep a software provider engaged, though, is through a maintenance agreement.
Now there are also these things called edge cases that I want to talk about. These are rare but kind of critical scenarios that can come up with the software based on some unusual circumstances and sequences that kind of come together. They don't happen that often, but the challenge is if they happen, they can wreak havoc and cause big problems and perhaps data losses and things of that nature. So they have to be reconciled with as well. So back to our original question about cost. There should always be a warranty period, including with the software, that covers no defects and that the software will deliver what it's supposed to. And again, we suggest at least a three, if not six month or beyond period. How long that time period is depends really on you and what you can negotiate with the vendor. This is Richard Shriver again, the Software Whisperer. Keep asking questions.
