After Go-Live: 7 Things to Plan for Software Maintenance and Support
Launching a new website, web application or mobile app is an exciting milestone. But go-live is not the finish line. From the day real users start relying on it, software needs steady care to stay secure, fast and useful. Organisations that plan for this early avoid surprise outages, security gaps and costly rebuilds a few years later.
Here are seven practical things to plan for after your software goes live.
1. Agree on who looks after it
Decide clearly who is responsible once the project is handed over: your in-house IT team, the original developer, or a support partner. Write down who receives problem reports, who can approve changes and how urgent issues are escalated. When everyone knows the process, small problems get fixed before they grow.
2. Keep software and dependencies updated
Most modern systems are built on frameworks, plugins, libraries and server software that receive regular updates, many of them security fixes. Schedule time to apply these updates, test them first where possible, and keep a record of what changed. Outdated components are one of the most common ways websites and applications get compromised.
3. Back up data and test restores
Your database, uploaded files and configuration are often more valuable than the code itself. Make sure backups run automatically, are stored in more than one place, and are tested by actually restoring them from time to time. A backup that has never been tested is only a hope.
4. Monitor uptime, performance and errors
Do not wait for customers or staff to tell you the system is down. Simple monitoring can alert you when a site stops responding, when pages become slow, or when errors start appearing in the logs. Watching disk space, SSL certificate expiry dates and domain renewals also prevents some very avoidable outages.
5. Review security and user access regularly
Staff change roles and leave, and accounts are often forgotten. Review administrator and user accounts every few months, remove those that are no longer needed, and enforce strong passwords or two-factor authentication where the system supports it. Check that sensitive data is only visible to the people who genuinely need it.
6. Listen to users and plan improvements
Real-world use always reveals things nobody expected during development: a confusing form, a missing report, a step that takes too long. Collect this feedback in one place, group it, and plan small improvements in regular cycles rather than waiting for a large and risky overhaul.
7. Keep documentation up to date
Good documentation covers how the system is hosted, where the source code lives, how to deploy updates, which accounts and services it depends on, and how to restore it after a failure. Keeping this current means your organisation is not dependent on one person’s memory, and it makes any future handover much smoother.
Plan maintenance from day one
The best time to think about maintenance is before launch, when you are setting the scope and budget for a project. Including updates, backups, monitoring and support in your plan from the start keeps your software reliable for years instead of months.
Talk to eDruk
eDruk Private Limited has been building and supporting software in Bhutan since 2004, including websites, web applications and mobile apps. If you would like help reviewing an existing system or planning maintenance and support for a new one, get in touch with our team.
Email: edruk@edruk.com.bt
Phone: +975 2 332277
Website: www.edruk.com.bt