To validate the SMLC model, we have applied this model to three empirical cases
using large application software: Ciba’s Environmental Compliance Management System
(ECMS), Rensselaer’s Financial and Administrative Information Management System
(FAIMS) and M etlife’s Unified Disability System (UDS). The results indicate that all three
software systems are consistent with the SMLC pattern; i.e., they exhibit life cycles as the
model prescribes and their evolutions have been described by the model. Furthermore, we
have also interviewed IS managers at these companies about how they have used the
maintenance decision information delivered by the SMLC model. The results show that the
decision method is useful to them for balancing their resources among maintenance
projects and the software systems that they support, as postulated in the development o f the
model