Maintenance is a market you have to make

Web application maintenance isn't a thing, but it should be. I was drafting an article with that title in October 2017.

The problem for anyone selling it: hardly anyone searches for it. Owners don't know they need it until something breaks.

So it's not a market you find, it's one you make.

Why apps need it

Some people treat an application as build it and forget it, a one-off cost. That doesn't work for your car, and it doesn't work for software.

• Technology changes. Libraries the app depends on disappear or go out of date. The longer an app goes without updates, the harder the next one gets, especially on an old framework or an unpatched server, until moving or upgrading it is a project in itself.
• Scale. As usage grows, problems turn up that nobody planned for.
• Outside services go away. A third-party API shuts down and a feature quietly stops working.

Offline software has known this for years. One paper I found put maintenance at 60 to 90 percent of the total lifetime cost of enterprise software (Wiederhold, Stanford). It also makes the point that maintenance isn't low-skill janitorial work.

How to frame it

• An MOT every year. A year-long programme of maintenance, with an annual check-up.
• A business cost. Benchmark what the application is worth to you, then measure its performance against that. The more business-critical it is, the more it should get.
• Not new features. Maintenance is the essential work to keep the app standing still. Give the client the list of what you'll do.
• Put it in the contract from the first quote. Clients need to understand that updates are the cost of owning an app; it often isn't explained.
• Tell them what you fixed. Regular "here's what we did" updates are the evidence they're paying for something.

Small agencies worry that a monthly fee means being bombarded with small requests. In practice, when we did this, it didn't happen.

Selling it as a monthly product: retainers, not discounted hours. Where it starts: the inherited web app checklist. The big decision that maintenance puts off: upgrade or rewrite.