Reading this article reminded me that we need to think more about the whole lifecylce of a software product. I usually make the mistake developing a product thi

Reading this article reminded me that we need to think more about the whole lifecylce of a software product. I usually make the mistake developing a product thinking that it will exist forever and new features will be added continuously. The truth is: Almost every software product has a point in time where it is obsolete. (Maybe except some really big enterprise solutions or OS libraries). I see these phases for many small software product: 1. Development Phase (Features are added continuously) 2. Maintenance Phase (No features are added, compatibility is ensured and bugs get fixed) 3. End of Support Phase (Basically no development happens for the product any more.) The second phase "Maintenance Phase" is usually much longer than the development phase for a successful product. The cost during this phase heavily depends on the amount of features, that were added in the first phase. So be careful what you develop, you need to maintain it for a long period of time and at one point in time it will be obsolete anyways.