Supporting software processes for distributed software engineering teams

Software processes relate to the sequence of steps that must be carried out by humans to pursue the goals of software engineering. In order to have an accurate representation of what these steps actually are, software processes can be modelled using a process modeling language (PML). Some PMLs simply support the specification of the steps, while others enable the process to be executed (or enacted). When enacted, software processes can provide guidance, automation and enforcement of the software engineering practices that are embodied in the model. Although there has been much fruitful research into PMLs, their adoption by industry has not been widespread. While the reasons for this lack of success may be many and varied, this thesis identified two areas in which PMLs may have been deficient: human dimension issues in terms of support for awareness and visualisation; and support for addressing management and resource issues that might arise dynamically when a process model is being enacted. In order to address some of these issues, a new visual PML called Virtual Reality Process Modelling Language (VRPML) has been developed and evaluated. Novel features have been introduced in VRPML to include support for the integration of a virtual environment, and dynamic creation and assignment of tasks and resources at the PML enactment level. VRPML serves as a research vehicle for addressing our main research hypothesis that a PML, which exploits a virtual environment, is useful to support software processes for distributed software engineering teams.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUniversiti Sains, MalaysiaGBUnited Kingdo

The design and implementation of the VRPML support environment.

Proses pembangunan penslan berkait rapat dengan turutan langkah yang mesti dilakukan oleh jurutera perisian untuk memenuhi matlamat kejuruteraan perisian. Untuk menghasilkan proses yang tepat dan lengkap, proses pembangunan perisian boleh dimodel dan dilari menggunakan bahasa pennodelan (PML) dengan dibantu oleh sistem proses bantuan (PSEE). Software processes relate to the sequences of steps that must be performed by software engineers in order to pursue the goals of software engineering. In order to have an accurate representation and implementation of what the actual steps are, software processes may be modeled and enacted by a process modeling language (PML) and its process support system (called the Process Centered Environments i.e. PSEE)

E/VPL a system for modelling and enacting software processes

This research addresses the technical issues involved in specifying and mechanically supporting software development processes and is related to the view of processes as “software”, i.e. as a specifiable and executable entity. Software processes can be described using textual and graphical techniques. This allows interested parties to agree that it reflects the true process, to reason about the process and to identify potential improvements. In designing new or improved processes, an ability to simulate these processes is invaluable. Such simulations, based on the process descriptions, allow one to step through the process tasks in an interactive manner. Thus one can evaluate the effectiveness of processes, assess their behaviour and ask “what-if ’ questions based upon proposed modifications. Simulations with the help of quantitative data, can be run for statistical purposes, where parameters can be varied. Process descriptions can be used as a basis for process automation, as they contain much of the information needed to build a process-centred environment However, many currently available tools, whose origins lie in process definition, allow simulation, but do not generally support real-time execution of process descriptions. This thesis reviews the current state-of-the-art in automated systems that enact software development processes and proposes a system called Enhanced Visual Process Language (E/VPL), which is a graphically-oriented process modelling system. A prototype system has been constructed to implement E/VPL and is evaluated to assess its potential as a process modelling system

Cross organisational compatible workflows generation and execution

With the development of internet and electronics, the demand for electronic and online commerce has increased. This has, in turn, increased the demand for business process automation. Workflow has established itself as the technology used for business process automation. Since business organisations have to work in coordination with many other business organisations in order to succeed in business, the workflows of business organisations are expected to collaborate with those of other business organisations. Collaborating organisations can only proceed in business if they have compatible workflows. Therefore, there is a need for cross organisational workflow collaboration. The dynamism and complexity of online and electronic business and high demand from the market leave the workflows prone to frequent changes. If a workflow changes, it has to be re-engineered as well as reconciled with the workflows of the collaborating organisations. To avoid the continuous re-engineering and reconciliation of workflows, and to reuse the existing units of work done, the focus has recently shifted from modeling workflows to automatic workflow generation. Workflows must proceed to runtime execution, otherwise, the effort invested in the build time workflow modeling is wasted. Therefore, workflow management and collaboration systems must support workflow enactment and runtime workflow collaboration. Although substantial research has been done in build-time workflow collaboration, automatic workflow generation, workflow enactment and runtime workflow collaboration, the integration of these highly inter-dependent aspects of workflow has not been considered in the literature. The research work presented in this thesis investigates the integration of these different aspects. The main focus of the research presented in this thesis is the creation of a framework that is able to generate multiple sets of compatible workflows for multiple collaborating organisations, from their OWLS process definitions and high level goals. The proposed framework also supports runtime enactment and runtime collaboration of the generated workflows

An Architecture-Centric Approach for Information System Architecture Modeling, Enactement and Evolution

International audienc