A Metamodel for Assessable Software Development Methodologies

Software development methodologies usually contain guidance on what steps to follow in order to obtain the desired product. At the same time, capability assessment frameworks usually assess the process that is followed on a project in practice in the context of a process reference model, defined separately and independently of any particular methodology. This results in the need for extra effort when trying to match a given process reference model with an organisation’s enacted processes. This paper introduces a metamodel for the definition of assessable methodologies, that is, methodologies that are constructed with assessment in mind and that contain a built-in process reference model. Organisations using methodologies built from this metamodel will benefit from automatically ensuring that their executed work conforms to the appropriate assessment model. Cesar Gonzalez-Perez is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Faculty of Information Technology at UTS, where he is currently researching with Professor Henderson-Sellers in object-oriented methodologies, with particular emphasis on metamodelling and component-based, assessable methodologies. He is the founder and former technical director of Neco, a company based in Spain specializing in software development support services, which include the deployment and use of the OPEN/Metis methodology at small and mid-sized organizations. He has also worked for the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain as a researcher in computing & archaeology, and received his Ph.D. in this topic in 2000. Tom McBride has more than twenty years in the computer industry in positions ranging from computer operator, developer, project manager to QA manager. He is significantly involved in standards development, both locally in Australia and internationally for the International Standards Organisation. Tom is Chairman of the Australian Computer Society National Standards Committee and is assisting the development of the OOSPICE Component Based Development methodology. He is also a lecturer in software development-related subjects at the University of Technology, Sydney and is currently enrolled as a Ph.D.student investigating coordination in software development. Brian Henderson-Sellers is Director of the Centre for Object Technology Applications and Research and Professor of Information Systems at UTS. He is author of eleven books on object technology and is well-known for his work in OO methodologies (MOSES, COMMA, OPEN, OOSPICE) and in OO metrics. Brian has been Regional Editor of Object-Oriented Systems, a member of the editorial board of Object Magazine/Component Strategies and Object Expert for many years and is currently on the editorial board of Journal of Object Technology and Software and Systems Modelling. He was the Founder of the Object-Oriented Special Interest Group of the Australian Computer Society (NSW Branch) and Chairman of the Computerworld Object Developers’ Awards committee for ObjectWorld 94 and 95 (Sydney). He is a frequent, invited speaker at international OT conferences. In 1999, he was voted number 3 in the Who’s Who of Object Technology (Handbook of Object Technology, CRC Press, Appendix N). He is currently a member of the Review Panel for the OMG’s Software Process Engineering Model (SPEM) standards initiative and is a member of the UML 2.0 review team. In July 2001, Professor Henderson-Sellers was awarded a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) from the University of London for his research contributions in object-oriented methodologies.