Business domain knowledge libraries to support software maintenance activities

Abstract The crisis in software development and maintenance has been widely stated. A great deal of effort has, and is, being made towards its solution (CSM 1985 to 1990). However, the problem persists and it is tending to get worse (Pressman, 1987). Considering the dimension of the software crisis, the authors believe that the solutions required must cover a wide spectrum. The software maintenance component of software development has been recognized as the main factor responsible for the actual crisis. Domain knowledge is a key to requirements recovery and, therefore, for software maintenance. However, it is usually difficult to assimilate because of its nature, its dispersion and the lack of availability of its sources. Commercial business software accounts for the vast majority of existing software and consequently the financial burden is high in maintaining such software. A proposal (purely theoretical) is postulated of a global system for business domain knowledge capture for future reuse. The aim is to make business knowledge maximally reusable by making it publicly accessible in a knowledge repository. The proposed system, the Business Knowledge Library System (BKLS), consists of two types of library: A knowledge library per organization. This library stores knowledge relevant to the execution of that particular organization's activities, including application‐dependent knowledge to support the software maintenance process. Every kind of knowledge related to the organization, from its objectives to knowledge about its most elementary activities, would be deposited there. Public business knowledge libraries with general business knowledge; this knowledge is a result of generalizations based on non‐confidential business knowledge from organizations. It is relevant for software maintenance, since it works as a context for the exploitation of applications‐dependent business knowledge.