This book is aimed at the business and professional market (more than the academic market) as a guide to managing and administering software maintenance (more than doing it). Software maintenance is defined (page 5) as:

• Correcting defects

• Enhancing software functionality

• Improving the quality of existing software.”

The plan of the book is well summarized by the chapter titles. In the following list, the italicized phrases are the reviewer’s assessment of the theme; other phrases are chapter titles (in the book’s order):

• Orientation

• Software evolution and maintenance

• Administrative topics

• Change management

• Impact analysis

• System release planning

• Types of software maintenance

• Corrective maintenance

• Adaptive maintenance

• Perfective maintenance

• Reengineering source code

• Technical topics

• Software testing

• System release and configuration management

• Orientation

• Implementing software evolution

• Managing software maintenance

Uncertainty may be understandable but ignorance and inattention are not. Arthur makes little attempt to report or interpret what is known or inferred by others on the topic of software maintenance. He tramples around the term “evolution,” apparently more to use it as a euphemism for “maintenance” than to explain the issues surrounding this term, and does not reference Lehman and Belady [3]. Similarly, he tramples around the “Perfective/Adaptive/Corrective” classification from Swanson [4] without referencing that paper, noticing that Swanson used the terms differently, or pausing to wonder if this 1976 pail is the right packaging for 1988 milk.

This reviewer would feel more confidence in Arthur’s competence to guide professionals in managing existing software if Arthur showed more competence in managing existing knowledge.