Interesting Statistics – Numbers of Programmers in Maintenance vs. Development
In my ongoing effort to educate people about how software maintenance work outweighs development work, here are some interesting numbers about the evolution of software professionals and their work. I found this in a presentation at the International Conference on Software Maintenance 2008, in Beijing a couple months ago. These statistics were in the keynote address by Harry Sneed, ANECON GmbH in Germany, who credited long-time software authority, Capers Jones.
| Year | Pgmrs in Development | Pgmrs in Maintenance | Percent in Maintenance |
| 1950 | 90 | 10 | 10% |
| 1960 | 8,500 | 1,500 | 13% |
| 1970 | 65,000 | 35,000 | 38% |
| 1980 | 1,200,000 | 800,000 | 40% |
| 1990 | 3,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 57% |
| 2000 | 4,000,000 | 6,000,000 | 60% |
| 2010 | 5,000,000 | 9,000,000 | 64% |
| 2020 | 7,000,000 | 14,000,000 | 67% |
What is interesting about this is that it shows the ever growing heap of software that must be maintained. The duration of software maintenance on an application easily exceeds the duration of its original development.
Why is this important? Two reasons: 1) when planning new software development I think it should be becoming very clear that organizations must build solid maintenance plans into the development plan. In particular, maximizing maintainability of the software; and 2) AS/400 iSeries IT management needs to educate execute management about the long-term cost of software and seek to maximize the long-term value of the software through effective maintenance.