| Summary: | The aim of this paper is to challenge and push back against the view that making and maintaining artefacts should be regarded an action where a maker's intentions are imposed on matter. It addresses software maintenance and how to best conceptualize it to clarify aspects such as software's formal nature, how it is conceived and produced, and its relation to users and their expectations. The paper diverges from a tradition in the philosophy of artefacts focused on maker's intentions to clarify the ontological nature of artefacts and their maintenance. It starts from a conceptual analysis of software maintenance and identifies important differences of software to other artefacts including inherent faultiness and functional change. In discussing the ontology of software, the paper proposes a shift from maker's intentions to functional and organisational criteria and on development processes involving interactions of users and designers to anticipate users' future needs.
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