在整個軟體發展生命週期裡，主要包含了兩個重要的階段：「軟體發展階段」與「軟體維護階段」，而軟體維護階段被公認是在整個軟體生命週期中最耗費成本的階段。然而，有許多問題因素是發生在軟體發展階段，它們最終會影響軟體的可維護性，並造成軟體難以維護。因此，瞭解影響軟體可維護性之軟體發展問題因素與專案屬性，不僅有助於降低軟體專案的失敗率，而且有助於確保軟體的可維護性。
本研究主要是在探討哪些軟體發展問題因素可能會影響軟體可維護性，造成軟體難以維護，並探討「軟體流程改善」、「軟體委外型式」與「多重角色衝突」三項專案屬性，是否會影響軟體發展問題因素及軟體可維護性。本研究藉由文獻探討，找出25個軟體發展問題因素，區分為五個問題構面，並設計問卷與進行問卷調查，總共蒐集了137個專案的歷史資料。本研究運用k-means分群技術，將這137個專案，依據其軟體可維護性，區分為相對性的低、中、高三群，並探討這三群專案的重要特徵。本研究同時運用迴歸分析及ANOVA分析技術，探討三項專案屬性與「軟體發展問題因素」及「軟體可維護性」之間的相互影響關係。
研究結果發現：(1)當專案問題因素的嚴重程度較高時，對於軟體可維護性的影響便愈趨明顯；(2)軟體流程改善可以有效降低「文件品質問題」及「流程管理問題」的嚴重程度，並可以有效提昇軟體可維護性至中級程度；(3)軟體委外專案相較於軟體內製專案，前者在「流程管理問題」構面的嚴重程度顯著偏高；(4)「多重角色衝突」會藉由「文件品質問題」及「程式品質問題」構面，間接的影響軟體可維護性。最後，本研究條列出在軟體專案開發過程中，所面臨嚴重程度最高的前十項軟體發展問題因素，並討論前述研究結果的管理意涵。

There are two major phases in the software life cycle: the software development phase and the software maintenance phase. Software maintenance has been recognized as the most costly and difficult phase in the software life cycle. Many problem factors in the software development phase may affect the maintainability of the delivered software systems. Therefore, understanding software development problem factors and project attributes can help in not only reducing the incidence of project failure but can also ensure software maintainability.
This study focuses on those software development problem factors which may possibly affect software maintainability. The influence of three project attributes (i.e., software process improvement (SPI), sourcing type, and inter-role conflict) on software development problems and the associated software maintainability was also examined. Twenty-five problem factors were classified into five dimensions; a questionnaire was designed and 137 software projects were surveyed. A k-means cluster analysis was performed to classify the projects into three groups of low, medium and high maintainability projects. Regression and ANOVA analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among project attributes, software development problems and the associated software maintainability.
The results reveal the facts that (1) for projects which have a higher level of severity of problem factors, the influence on software maintainability becomes more obvious; (2) SPI can help reduce the level of severity of the documentation quality and process management problems, and is only likely to enhance software maintainability to a medium level; (3) the outsourced projects have significantly higher levels of severity on the process management problems than the insourced projects; and (4) the inter-role conflict can indirectly affect software maintainability via documentation quality and programming quality problems. Finally, the top 10 list of higher-severity software development problem factors was identified, and the management implications were also discussed in this study.

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