An Essay on the Origin of Software Evolution

The biological domain holds interesting keys to the theorists who investigate the root causes of software maintenance. Several authors believe that software systems need to adapt to changing environment, the way the biological systems do. The objections raised against this generic comparison induced the author to attend additional lessons in biology. Living beings exploit three main forms of adaptation: intelligent, specialist, and genetic (or Darwinian). Of these, intelligent adaptation appears to be the most appropriate form to be examined in relation to computational phenomena; besides, it fits with the fundamental ideas of artificial intelligence. This study shows how computers are adaptive devices, which aid general systems (companies, production lines, individuals, etc.) to have successful behavior in the world. This assumption leads to the inference that the root causes of software evolution and those of the software itself coincide. Finally, all the factors that affect software maintenance have been surveyed and a measure to handle the software maintenance processes suggested.