Software Maintainability
Software maintainability is a software quality attribute that refers to the ease with which a software system can be modified to correct faults, improve performance, or adapt to a changed environment. It encompasses aspects like code readability, modularity, documentation, and testability, ensuring that software remains functional and efficient over its lifecycle. High maintainability reduces technical debt and lowers long-term costs associated with updates and bug fixes.
Developers should prioritize maintainability to ensure software can evolve with changing requirements and technologies, which is critical in long-lived projects or enterprise applications. It is especially important in agile development environments where frequent iterations and updates are common, as it minimizes disruption and speeds up development cycles. Learning maintainability principles helps teams avoid costly rewrites and improves collaboration by making codebases more understandable and manageable.