問41
頻出度★★★
システム開発における保守プロセスの目的に関する説明として, 次の記述中の a, b に入れる字句の適切な組合せはどれか。 保守プロセスは, 障害への対応, 性能の改善などを行うために, [a] のシステムやソフトウェアを [b] すること, 又は変更された環境に適合させることを目的とする。
平成25年度 春期 ITパスポート試験 問41
マネジメント系システム開発技術 › システム開発技術
This question's explanation and your answers so far.
解説
問 41
Incorrectア
a-before delivery, b-operate; both are wrong. Work performed on a system or software before delivery belongs to the development process, such as design, programming, and testing, and is not the object of the maintenance process. Maintenance always targets a product after delivery. In addition, putting operate in b yields the sentence “to operate a system that is before delivery”, which holds neither chronologically nor in meaning. Operation is the activity of running the system and keeping it in a state where users can use it; it is not a word used to explain a means of handling failures or improving performance.
Incorrectイ
The modify in b is correct, but the before delivery in a is wrong. Finding and fixing defects before delivery is debugging in the testing stage, work that is completed within the development process. The maintenance process is positioned as handling failures, improving performance, and adapting to environmental changes for a system that has finished development, been handed over to the user, and actually started to be used in business. In other words, maintenance is an activity after the dividing point of delivery, so treating it as before delivery does not match the explanation in this question.
Incorrectウ
The after delivery in a is correct, but the operate in b is wrong. Running a delivered system day by day, executing jobs, taking backups, and responding to inquiries from users so as to keep it in service, is the role of the operation process, which is distinguished from the maintenance process. What characterizes the maintenance process is that it makes changes to the running system or software itself. The wording of the question, “in order to handle failures, improve performance, and so on” and “or to make it conform to a changed environment”, also shows that what goes into b is not running it but working on it, that is, modify.
- エ
正解 The correct answer is エ (a-after delivery, b-modify). The maintenance process is the process of making modifications to a system or software after it has been delivered (handed over) to the user. JIS X 0160 (software life cycle processes) likewise defines maintenance as making modifications to a software product after delivery, for the purposes of removing failures, improving attributes such as performance, and adapting it to a changed environment. First, blank a can be judged from the fact that the question says “in order to handle failures, improve performance, and so on”. Failures actually surface, and insufficient performance becomes a problem, only after the system has reached the user and started running, so the target is a system that is after delivery. Fixing defects before delivery is debugging in the testing stage, a matter inside the development process, and is not maintenance. Next, blank b is determined by the structure of the description. Because “to [b] it, or to make it conform to a changed environment” places the two side by side, b must take an action of the same kind as adapting to the environment, namely modify, which means working on the system itself. If operate is substituted, it becomes “to operate a system that is after delivery”, which turns into an explanation of the operation process that keeps the system running every day, and it does not hold up as an explanation of the purpose of handling failures or improving performance. Therefore エ, the combination a-after delivery and b-modify, is correct.
ここがポイント
- Definition of the maintenance process: a process that makes modifications to a system or software after delivery (handover), for the purpose of removing failures, improving performance and the like, and adapting it to a changed environment (JIS X 0160, software life cycle processes). Remember it as distinct from fixing defects before delivery, which is testing and debugging and belongs to the development process.
- Difference between the operation process and the maintenance process: both are post-delivery activities, but operation is the activity of running the system day to day and supporting users (making the system run), while maintenance is the activity of making changes to the system or software itself (fixing or altering the system). It is useful to organize the software life cycle as planning to requirements definition to development to operation to maintenance.
用語