---
title: "Short note: operations and maintenance stage"
subject: "Information System"
chapter: 6
key: "semester_8/information_system:short-note-operations-maintenance"
source: https://www.bctengineer.com/q/semester_8/information_system/short-note-operations-maintenance
site: BCT Engineering
---

# Short note: operations and maintenance stage

Information System · Chapter 6: Implementations of Information Systems

- Asked in: 2069 Bhadra (old course), 4 marks
- Video: [System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) - Operation and Maintenance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhhJlHiF_2I) — Arra Shah
- Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort) on 2026-10-14
- Page: https://www.bctengineer.com/q/semester_8/information_system/short-note-operations-maintenance
- Whole chapter: https://www.bctengineer.com/md/semester_8/information_system/chapter-6

## Question

Write a short note on System operations and maintenance stage.

## Short answer

The operations and maintenance stage involves daily system running, monitoring, backup, security, and user support. Maintenance types: corrective, adaptive, perfective, and preventive. It consumes 60-70% of life-cycle cost and requires change control.

## Answer

The **operations and maintenance stage** is the last and longest stage of the system life cycle, after implementation. The system is used for daily work, and support activities keep it working correctly, efficiently and up to date until it is retired.

#### System operations
- Running the system daily: job scheduling, data entry, report generation.
- Monitoring performance, capacity and availability.
- Backup, recovery and disaster recovery.
- Security administration: user accounts, access control and patches.
- Help desk and user support; incident and problem handling.
- Documentation and service level agreements.

#### System maintenance
| Type | Purpose |
|---|---|
| **Corrective** | Fix errors found after delivery |
| **Adaptive** | Change the system for a new environment, law or platform |
| **Perfective** | Add new features or improve performance on user request |
| **Preventive** | Improve structure to avoid future problems |

#### Related points
- Maintenance often takes 60 to 70 percent of the total life-cycle cost.
- Changes must follow change control with testing and version control.
- A post-implementation review checks whether goals and benefits are being achieved.
- When maintenance becomes too costly or the system is obsolete, a new system is planned and the cycle restarts.

## Check yourself

The answer's key points as multiple-choice questions, with the correct option and why.

1. Where does the operations and maintenance stage fall in the system life cycle?
   A. It is the first stage, before feasibility
   B. It happens between design and coding
   C. It is a short stage lasting only a few days
   D. It is the last and longest stage, after implementation
   Answer: D. The system is used and supported from implementation until it is retired. (Key point: Position in life cycle)

2. A law changes and the system is modified to comply. Which maintenance type is this?
   A. Corrective
   B. Perfective
   C. Adaptive
   D. Preventive
   Answer: C. Adaptive maintenance changes the system for a new environment, law or platform. (Key point: Adaptive maintenance)

3. Which maintenance type fixes errors found after delivery?
   A. Adaptive
   B. Corrective
   C. Perfective
   D. Preventive
   Answer: B. Corrective maintenance repairs faults found in use. (Key point: Corrective maintenance)

4. Roughly what share of total life-cycle cost does maintenance often take?
   A. 60 to 70 percent
   B. Less than 5 percent
   C. About 10 percent
   D. 100 percent
   Answer: A. Maintenance is usually the largest part of the life-cycle cost. (Key point: Maintenance cost)

## Related in Information System

- [Define IS and its types](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_8%2Finformation_system%3Adefine-information-system-types) — Information System, chapter 1, asked 4×

## Related in other subjects

- [Control unit sub-operations of GPP](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_6%2Fembedded_system%3Acontrol-unit-sub-operations) — Embedded System, chapter 2, asked 4×
- [Types of sampling operations compared](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_6%2Fdigital_control_system%3Acompare-sampling-operations) — Digital Control System, chapter 1, asked 3×
- [Protection and maintenance of water supply](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_5%2Fwater_supply_engineering%3Aws-maintenance-types) — Water Supply Engineering, chapter 7, asked 4×
- [Operations of a modern DFS](https://www.bctengineer.com/question.md?key=semester_7%2Fdistributed_system%3Adfs-modern-operations) — Distributed System, chapter 2