AbstractsPsychology

The most costly phase in the software life cycle is the software maintenance phase. It consumes between 40% and 90% of a software project’s budget. Software applications play an important role in e-commerce companies and the significance of software systems and their maintenance cannot be ignored. In order to improve the software maintenance process, a comprehensive understanding of the different factors involved in software maintenance in e-commerce companies is necessary. Thus, this study aims to identify and investigate the key factors that influence the software maintenance relevant to e-commerce in the country of Jordan. Furthermore, it hopes to provide a framework to address factors that affect the context described. A preliminary study was conducted in order to gain an insight into software maintenance issues faced by e-commerce companies in Jordan and also, to obtain further details of the main study requirements, such as participant numbers. This study adopted an interpretivist philosophy, qualitative approach. It was conducted in six e-commerce companies in Jordan. Each company was divided into two groups: Group A represents employees who work in software maintenance; Group B represents senior management of e-commerce companies. The total is 15 participants: 9 participants from Group A and 6 participants from Group B. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews, documents and archival records were selected as the data collection instruments for this study. Also, the qualitative data was analysed using NVivo software application. The findings of the study revealed that there is an absence of systematic approach regarding work in software maintenance in e-commerce companies in Jordan. Moreover, the study contributes to knowledge regarding the key factors that affect software maintenance activities in e-commerce companies in Jordan. Twenty-three factors were identified in the study as factors that affect software maintenance and those were classified into five main categories: human resources, organisation environment, operational environment, software characteristics and external factors. Also, the research contributes new knowledge by identifying three new factors affecting software maintenance: native language, operation users, and views of people about software maintenance jobs. Furthermore, the study developed a framework for software maintenance processes in e-commerce companies in Jordan to improve the effectiveness of maintenance work and reduce the negative impact on company operation.