Optimal release and patching time of software with warranty

Abstract

As we know in a competitive market, software firms are looking to sell their products at the earliest for maximum gains. Early delivery of a product is beneficial in terms of gaining market potential but may include some defects in it. On the other hand late delivery of a product ensures reliability but may results into disinterest of the customers. Thus, a vendor must focus on the best time for releasing the software. In recent times, early software release and updating it by providing patches in the operational phase is in trend. Also to satisfy customer’s primary concern of reliable software, firms are providing warranty on their products. Warranty period is the time in which firm provide assurance to the customers that under this period product will work properly and if any defect is found, firm will either repair or replace the software without charging the customer. But servicing during warranty period by updating with patches is also not economical from firm’s point of view. Hence it is important to find the optimal patch release time. In this paper we have proposed a generalized framework to find out the optimal release and patching time of software under warranty so that the total cost is minimized. Numerical example is given at the end to validate the proposed cost model.