ProjectConnections Print View
888-722-5235
7am-5pm Pacific
Monday - Friday
We'd love to talk to you.
Learn more about ProjectConnections and who writes our content.
Site Help
| Content Levels | |
 | Register for free access to papers, case studies, and almost 50 templates. |
 | Subscribe for complete access: $14.95 monthly or $149/year |
| Risk-free 15-day trial!
Compare levels View sample templates Corporate subscriptions | |
Maintenance Planning Guidelines and Plan Outline
Quick Summary
This guideline will help you identify the appropriate types and timing of maintenance planning for your project, integrate it into your over all project plan, and eventually produce a full-blown maintenance plan.
What this is
A guideline for planning ahead for the work that happens after releasing a product or system to its customers, and an annotated outline for writing a Maintenance Plan. The guideline information includes an introduction to what Maintenance is, types of maintenance, and how maintenance planning fits within the development of the system or product to be maintained.
Why it's useful
Although the development project may be done and released, the deliverable from the project simply enters a new phase of its lifecycle. Whether hardware, software or system, the major project deliverables require ongoing support from the company. That support will include activities such as responding to user issues, maintaining the system physically, incorporating enhancements, and performing preventative maintenance. For the success of the product or system in the field, planning ahead thoroughly for proper maintenance support will be crucial.
How to use it
Read the guidelines material starting on page 2, including
- Introduction to Maintenance
- Defining the "Maintenance Concept"
- Maintenance Planning Overview - Types and Timing
Determine which aspects of that maintenance apply to the deliverables from your project.
Using the information on page 4, "Maintenance Planning Overview, Types and Timing," determine when in your project cycle you should begin writing a maintenance plan.
Adapt the Maintenance Plan outline starting on page 5 to your specific projects.
Add maintenance planning activities to your project schedule (if your project is in its earlier days).
If your project is well down the road, call a meeting to discuss maintenance planning and get "caught up." For example, if you're in development and have not created a maintenance concept yet, it would be a high priority to do so quickly, so that insights from that can be fed into the detailed design work happening.
Ensure that maintenance planning has a specific owner going forward, continues to be a regular part of your project look-ahead, and has adequate inputs to development and test reviews.
Update the plan iteratively as you move through the project, yielding a full-blown maintenance plan later in the project, in time to ensure all aspects of personnel and processes will be in place when the product or system is released to production/deployment.
©Copyright 2000-2008 Emprend, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
About us Site Map View current sponsorship opportunities (PDF)
Contact us for more information or e-mail info@projectconnections.com
Terms of Service and Privacy Policy