Requirements and constructors for tailoring software processes: a systematic literature review

Organizations developing software-based systems or services often need to tailor process reference models—including product-oriented and project-oriented processes—to meet both their own characteristics and those of their projects. Existing process reference models, however, are often defined in a generic manner. They typically offer only limited mechanisms for adapting processes to the needs of organizational units, project goals, and project environments. This article presents a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed conference and journal articles published between 1990 and 2009. Our aim was both to identify requirements for process-tailoring notation and to analyze those tailoring mechanisms that are currently in existence and that consistently support process tailoring. The results show that the software engineering community has demonstrated an ever-increasing interest in software process tailoring, ranging from the consideration of theoretical proposals regarding how to tailor processes to the scrutiny of practical experiences in organizations. Existing tailoring mechanisms principally permit the modeling of variations of activities, artifacts, or roles by insertion or deletion. Two types of variations have been proposed: the individual modification of process elements and the simultaneous variation of several process elements. Resolving tailoring primarily refers to selecting or deselecting optional elements or to choosing between alternatives. It is sometimes guided by explicitly defined processes and supported by tools or mechanisms from the field of knowledge engineering. The study results show that tailoring notations are not as mature as the industry requires if they are to provide the kind of support for process tailoring that fulfills the requirements identified, i.e., including security policies for the whole process, or carrying out one activity rather than another. A notation must therefore be built, which takes these requirements into consideration in order to permit variant-rich processes representation and use this variability to consistently support process tailoring.     

A semi-automated filtering technique for software process tailoring using neural network

It is widely known that implementation of the software development process to fit a given environment is the key to develop software at the lowest cost and highest quality. In general, applying an off-the-shelf software development process or an organizational process to a specific project can cause a lot of overhead if no effort is made to customize the given generic processes. Even though the process tailoring activities are done before starting a project, they are not given high importance. These activities depend on several process engineers who have a lot of experience and knowledge about process tailoring. Because of this dependence on human experience, it takes a long time to have a tailored process fit the project. To decide whether a specific task should be part of a given project or not is very time-consuming. Therefore, we suggest a semi-automated process tailoring method, which uses the artificial-neural network-based learning theory to reduce this time. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of our process filtering technique with a case study using process tailoring historical data as learning data.     

RUP在小型J2EE项目中的应用

RUP是IBM公司的一个软件过程产品,适合于规模比较大的软件项目和大型的软件开发组织或团队。在实际中,软件项目团队根据自身客观条件的限制和技术的影响,应该对RUP进行必要的裁剪,从而最大限度地发挥RUP的作用。论文讲述了如何把RUP应用到小型项目团队开发J2EE应用系统的过程中,并且结合J2EE技术的特点从项目管理、架构设计、开发和测试等方面重点阐明了对RUP的裁剪。     

BPMNt: A BPMN extension for specifying software process tailoring

ContextAlthough SPEM 2.0 has great potential for software process modeling, it does not provide concepts or formalisms for precise modeling of process behavior. Indeed, SPEM fails to address process simulation, execution, monitoring and analysis, which are important activities in process management. On the other hand, BPMN 2.0 is a widely used notation to model business processes that has associated tools and techniques to facilitate the aforementioned process management activities. Using BPMN to model software development processes can leverage BPMN’s infrastructure to improve the quality of these processes. However, BPMN lacks an important feature to model software processes: a mechanism to represent process tailoring.ObjectiveThis paper proposes BPMNt, a conservative extension to BPMN that aims at creating a tailoring representation mechanism similar to the one found in SPEM 2.0.MethodWe have used the BPMN 2.0 extensibility mechanism to include the representation of specific tailoring relationships namely suppression, local contribution, and local replacement, which establish links between process elements (such as in the case of SPEM). Moreover, this paper also presents some rules to ensure the consistency of BPMN models when using tailoring relationships.ResultsIn order to evaluate our proposal we have implemented a tool to support the BPMNt approach and have applied it for representing real process adaptations in the context of an academic management system development project. Results of this study showed that the approach and its support tool can successfully be used to adapt BPMN-based software processes in real scenarios.ConclusionWe have proposed an approach to enable reuse and adaptation of BPMN-based software process models as well as derivation traceability between models through tailoring relationships. We believe that bringing such capabilities into BPMN will open new perspectives to software process management.     

计算机软件过程控制的实施

软件过程控制模型,如CMM(后更名为SW-CMM)模型是一种软件过程能力评估标准,现已得到了众多国家软件产业界的认可,成为从事规模软件生产的有效性依据之一.企业的软件能力取决于该企业的过程能力,特别是在软件开发和生产中的成熟度.在CMM2模型中,将这种能力归结为可重复级别.CMM2级模型是使软件企业从开发过程的杂乱无章走向受控制管理的基础.近年来,我国的软件事业飞速发展,大量的软件企业纷纷建立.但是,在软件过程控制方面也存在一些问题,有相当一部分企业也认识到了软件过程规范管理的重要性,开始实施CMM2级管控.但是,有相当多的企业一直徘徊不前,其原因是对CMM2级理解不够透彻,本文针对CMM2级中的关键过程域和实施中的技术问题进行分析,希望为此提供一些有用的参考.     

Best practice fusion of CMMI-DEV v1.2 (PP,PMC, SAM) and PMBOK 2008

ContextThe establishment of effective and efficient project management practices still remains a challenge to software organizations. In striving to address these needs, “best practice” models, such as, CMMI or PMBOK, are being developed to assist organizations interested in improving project management. And, although, those models share overlapping content, there are still differences and, therefore, each of the models offers different advantages.ObjectiveThis paper proposes a set of unified project management best practices by integrating and harmonizing on a high-level perspective PMBOK (4th ed.) processes and CMMI-DEV v1.2 specific practices of the basic project management process areas PP, PMC and SAM.MethodBased on the analysis of both models, a unified set of best practices has been defined by a group of researchers with theoretical and practical expertise on the CMMI framework and software process improvement as well as project management and the PMBOK. The proposed set has been revised by different researchers from different institutions in several review rounds until consensus was achieved.ResultsAs a result, a set of unified best practices is defined and explicitly mapped to the correspondent PMBOK processes and CMMI specific practices of the current versions of both models.ConclusionWe can conclude that an integration and harmonization of both models is possible and may help to implement and assess project management processes more effectively and efficiently, optimizing software process improvement investments.     

Validating the ISO/IEC 15504 measure of software requirementsanalysis process capability

ISO/IEC 15504 is an emerging international standard on software process assessment. It defines a number of software engineering processes and a scale for measuring their capability. One of the defined processes is software requirements analysis (SRA). A basic premise of the measurement scale is that higher process capability is associated with better project performance (i.e., predictive validity). The paper describes an empirical study that evaluates the predictive validity of SRA process capability. Assessments using ISO/IEC 15504 were conducted on 56 projects world-wide over a period of two years. Performance measures on each project were also collected using questionnaires, such as the ability to meet budget commitments and staff productivity. The results provide strong evidence of predictive validity for the SRA process capability measure used in ISO/IEC 15504, but only for organizations with more than 50 IT staff. Specifically, a strong relationship was found between the implementation of requirements analysis practices as defined in ISO/IEC 15504 and the productivity of software projects. For smaller organizations, evidence of predictive validity was rather weak. This can be interpreted in a number of different ways: that the measure of capability is not suitable for small organizations or that the SRA process capability has less effect on project performance for small organizations     

CMM实践中的软件开发过程与过程裁剪

CMM要求软件组织的软件过程标准化，不同的项目有不同的需求，允许对标准过程进行裁剪来适合一个特定的项目，裁剪被错综复杂地联系到过程定义上，必须把过程定义与裁剪放在一起讨论，为了便于进行过程定义，本文剖析了开发过程的一般特性，介绍了概要裁剪与详细裁剪应遵循的一般规则。     

Applying Value-Based Software Process:An ERP Example

Commercial organizations increasingly need software processes sensitive to business value, quick to apply, supportive of multi-stakeholder collaboration, and capable of early analysis for the cost- e ectiveness of process instances This paper presents experience in applying a lightweight synthesis of a Value-Based Software Quality Achievement process and an Object-Petri-Net-based process model to achieve a stakeholder win-win outcome for software quality achievement in an on-going ERP software project in China The application results con rmed that 1) the Object-Petri-Net-based process model provided project managers with a synchronization and stabilization framework for process activities, successcritical stakeholders and their value propositions; 2) process visualization and simulation tools signi cantly increased management visibility and controllability for the success of the software project     

Understanding the use of an electronic process guide

This paper presents a case study of the installation and use of an electronic process guide within a small-to-medium software development company. The purpose of the study is to better understand how software engineers use this technology so that it can be improved and better used to support software process improvement. In the study the EPG was used to guide new processes in a software improvement programme. The use of the EPG was studied over a period of 8 months with data collected through access logs, by questionnaires and by interviews. The results show that the improvement programme was successful in improving project documentation, project management and the company's relationship with its customers. The EPG contributed to the improvement programme by providing support for the creation of templates for key project documentation, assisting with project planning and estimation and providing a forum for discussion of process and work practices. The biggest improvements that could be made to the EPG would be to provide better navigation tools including a graphical overview of the process, provide tailoring facilities, include examples and experience and link to a project management tool.     

Assessment methodology for software process improvement in small organizations

ContextDiagnosing processes in a small company requires process assessment practices which give qualitative and quantitative results; these should offer an overall view of the process capability. The purpose is to obtain relevant information about the running of processes, for use in their control and improvement. However, small organizations have some problems in running process assessment, due to their specific characteristics and limitations.ObjectiveThis paper presents a methodology for assessing software processes which assist the activity of software process diagnosis in small organizations. There is an attempt to address issues such as the fact that: (i) process assessment is expensive and typically requires major company resources and (ii) many light assessment methods do not provide information that is detailed enough for diagnosing and improving processes.MethodTo achieve all this, the METvalCOMPETISOFT assessment methodology was developed. This methodology: (i) incorporates the strategy of internal assessments known as rapid assessment, meaning that these assessments do not take up too much time or use an excessive quantity of resources, nor are they too rigorous and (ii) meets all the requirements described in the literature for an assessment proposal which is customized to the typical features of small companies.ResultsThis paper also describes the experience of the application of this methodology in eight small software organizations that took part in the COMPETISOFT project. The results obtained show that this approach allows us to obtain reliable information about the strengths and weaknesses of software processes, along with information to companies on opportunities for improvement.ConclusionThe assessment methodology proposed sets out the elements needed to assist with diagnosing the process in small organizations step-by-step while seeking to make its application economically feasible in terms of resources and time. From the initial application it may be seen that this assessment methodology can be useful, practical and suitable for diagnosing processes in this type of organizations.     

面向小型软件企业/小型软件项目的CMM应用研究*

通过对广东省韶关地区小型软件企业的调查和笔者参与的一个小型企业软件过程改进项目,提出了一个适合于小型软件企业和小型软件项目的CMM可重复级裁减模型,并给出了实施方案框架,对CMM在我国小型软件企业和小型软件项目的应用具有借鉴意义.     

基于度量能力成熟度模型的组织级度量过程改进研究

文章讨论了软件企业在采用同一度量方法度量软件过程和产品得到的质量差别却很大的现状。通过分析度量能力成熟度模型及通用过程改进模型,研究得出组织要改进度量效果,必须把精力集中于提高度量能力。该文提出了基于度量能力成熟度模型度量过程改进方法及流程,通过案例实施明显地提高了公司的项目管理的成熟度水平,使公司产品研发和项目管理的能力得到很大程度的提升。     

Defining stakeholder relationships

Jointly developed by the ISO and IEC in 1995, the ISO/IEC 12207 standard, Software Life Cycle Processes, provides specific guidance in defining the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in the life cycle of a software project, product, or service. And the software community is beginning to take heed. The standard itself is relatively brief, detailing 17 processes in less than 40 pages. The 17 processes are divided into three main process groups: primary processes include acquisition, supply, development, operation, and maintenance; supporting processes include documentation, configuration management, quality assurance, verification, validation, joint review, audit, and problem resolution; organizational processes include management, infrastructure, improvement, and training. Each process breaks down into relevant activities and tasks that reflect a clear plan-do-check-act cycle. One further process, tailoring, specifies the activities and tasks to follow in adapting the standard to a particular situation or application. But just how useful is this standard? Based upon personal mentoring experiences, the author describes two case studies that demonstrate the standard's importance and versatility: Haldex Traction AB of Landskrona, Sweden, the supplier of a safety-critical automotive component; and Cambiot Healthcare Systems AB of Linkoping, Sweden, the supplier of a medical information system for hospitals and clinics. In these two cases, ISO/IEC 12207 has provided important value-added guidance in both systems and software engineering     

The tailoring process in the German V-Model

V-Model is the Software Development Standard of the German Federal Authorities and is to be used for all projects in defense and commercial areas. The standard has been in use since summer 1992. V-Model is a life cycle process model that consists of activities and products for software development, quality assurance, configuration management and project management. Explained in this paper is the selection process (tailoring) of the activities and products for specific project needs. Tailoring is achieved by means of deletion conditions for activities or by means of tailoring forms for various project types.     

软件需求变更管理的系统动力学仿真建模

软件需求变更频繁发生,给软件项目造成了诸多威胁.能否对需求变更进行有效的控制管理,决定着软件的成败.使用系统动力学方法对软件需求变更管理过程进行仿真建模,可以动态地分析并预测需求变更产生的原因以及变更对软件项目造成的影响;对软件需求变更管理过程改进进行系统动力学仿真,亦可以辅助软件项目组织选择合适的过程改进策略.因此,基于系统动力学方法,参考了敏捷过程进行开源软件需求变更管理过程的建模和模型检测.以Spring Framework项目为研究案例,进行该项目3.2.x分支的软件需求变更管理过程的系统动力学仿真分析,并对需求变更管理进行过程改进仿真.通过对过程改进的仿真结果进行比对,说明各改进策略均降低了基线数据的软件缺陷率,提高了软件质量.根据软件项目的成本和进度要求,给出了过程改进建议.     

Requirements Engineering and Downstream Software Development: Findings from a Case Study

Requirements management is being recognized as one of the most important albeit difficult phases in software engineering. The literature repeatedly cites the role of well-defined requirements and requirements management process in problem analysis and project management as benefiting software development throughout the life cycle: during design, coding, testing, maintenance and documentation of software. This paper reports on the findings of an investigation into industrial practice of requirements management process improvement and its positive effects on downstream software development. The evidence reveals a strong relationship between a well-defined requirements process and increased developer productivity, improved project planning through better estimations and enhanced ability for stakeholders to negotiate project scope. These results are important since there is little empirical evidence of the actual benefits of sound requirements practice, in spite of the plethora of claims in the literature. An account of these effects not only adds to our understanding of good requirements practice but also provides strong motivation for software organizations to develop programs for improvement of their requirements processes.     

Managing process diversity while improving your practices

In recent years, the software industry has gradually moved toward implementing standard processes across large organizations. The benefits of doing so include simplified accounting, measuring, and managing. Implementing organization-wide processes also makes it easier to judge the capabilities of an organization as a whole, which is important in large scale software development where organizational structures can have a profound impact on success. The article describes a project in which localized software practice improvements led to process diversity. It describes certain problems that were encountered and resolved during the effort. It also presents some simple techniques that any project, small or large, can use for managing diversity. The techniques discusses in the article evolved in the course of one multiyear project. If you do not carefully plan and manage process diversity, it quickly becomes unmanageable. The author used to advocate process uniformity, warning against the management problems caused by diversity, but recent experiences have suggested more effective ways to address these problems. The article explores these alternative strategies, which include adopting a basic set of practices that are uniformly enforced across all development steps, using risk analysis as a technique for selecting targets for software process improvement, and planning for process diversity     

基于CMMI的小型软件过程自评估工具

CMMI-SW是SEI在CMM-SW的基础上开发并在全世界推广实施的一种软件能力成熟度评估标准，主要用于指导软件开发过程的改进和进行软件开发能力的评估。本文基于CMMI和小型过程评估的思想设计了一个小型软件过程评估工具，帮助中小型软件组织根据CMMI进行快速的软件过程自评估。     

Factors affecting the quality of software project management: an empirical study based on the Capability Maturity Model

Rigorous project management can help raise a software product development process from an initial, immature stage that is unstable and unrepeatable to an optimized maturity level characterized by continuous improvement and innovation. Goals and actions related to a repeatable project management process have been outlined in the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. The CMM provides good guidelines for initiating software process improvement particularly in the project management area; however, the successful implementation of the CMM guidelines is often not accomplished without significant organizational change involving increased emphasis on change management, teams and employee empowerment. This paper is empirically based on observations, surveys, and interviews of project team managers and project team members in a large, multinational organiplanning, change management, quality management, team work, and process control. Findings presented in this paper are correlated with the CMM guidelines as well as organizational factors that were found to enable or impede the successful deployment of various aspects of a project management improvement plan. The role of education and training in process and quality techniques as well as project management tools that support group work is also examined. This paper provides some insight into the issues faced by organizations based on traditional hierarchy or matrix management as they attempt to move into a more process-driven, quality-oriented development environment. As organizations move towards global markets they need increased emphasis on quality, value, teams, standards and global project management strategies based on structured guidelines to handle process flow within and between projects, departments, organizations, and national boundaries.