Software Process Modeling with Eclipse Process Framework

The software development industry is constantly evolving. The rise of the agile methodologies in the late 1990s, and new development tools and technologies require growing attention for everybody working within this industry. The organizations have, however, had a mixture of various processes and different process languages since a standard software development process language has not been available. A promising process meta-model called Software & Systems Process Engineering Meta- Model (SPEM) 2.0 has been released recently. This is applied by tools such as Eclipse Process Framework Composer, which is designed for implementing and maintaining processes and method content. Its aim is to support a broad variety of project types and development styles. This thesis presents the concepts of software processes, models, traditional and agile approaches, method engineering, and software process improvement. Some of the most well-known methodologies (RUP, OpenUP, OpenMethod, XP and Scrum) are also introduced with a comparison provided between them. The main focus is on the Eclipse Process Framework and SPEM 2.0, their capabilities, usage and modeling. As a proof of concept, I present a case study of modeling OpenMethod with EPF Composer and SPEM 2.0. The results show that the new meta-model and tool have made it possible to easily manage method content, publish versions with customized content, and connect project tools (such as MS Project) with the process content. The software process modeling also acts as a process improvement activity.Ohjelmistoprosessin mallinnus Eclipse Process Frameworkilla ja SPEM 2.0 metamallilla Ohjelmistot ja ohjelmistoteollisuus kehittyvät jatkuvasti. Ketterien menetelmien tulo 1990-luvun loppupuolella, uudet kehitystyökalut ja teknologiat vaativat yhä enemmän huomiota alalla työskenteleviltä ihmisiltä. Organisaatioilla on kuitenkin ollut sekalainen kirjo prosesseja ja erilaisia prosessikuvauskieliä, koska standardia kuvauskieltä ei ole ollut saatavilla. Prosessimetamalli SPEM 2.0 julkaistiin hiljattain. Tätä mallia hyödyntää mm. Eclipse Process Framework Composer (EPFC) –työkalu, joka on suunniteltu prosessien ja menetelmäsisällön kehittämiseen ja ylläpitoon. Työkalun tavoitteena on tukea useita erilaisia projektityyppejä ja kehitystyylejä. Tässä työssä esitellään seuraavat aiheet ja käsitteet: ohjelmistoprosessit, mallit, perinteiset ja ketterät lähestymistavat, metoditekniikkaa sekä prosessien kehittäminen. Lisäksi tutustutaan muutamiin tunnetuimmista metodologioista (RUP, OpenUP, OpenMethod, XP ja Scrum) ja vertaillaan näitä. Työssä tutkitaan tarkemmin Eclipse Process Framework Composer –työkalua, SPEM 2.0 metamallia, näiden ominaisuuksia, käyttöä sekä mallintamista. Esitän tutkimustulokset ja tutkimuksenkulun OpenMethodin mallintamisesta EPFC –työkalulla sekä SPEM 2.0 -metamallilla. Tulokset osoittavat, että uusi metamalli ja työkalu helpottavat prosessin ja menetelmäsisällön hallintaa, mahdollistavat räätälöityjen julkaisujen teon sisällöstä, sekä yhdistävät prosessin projektityökaluihin kuten MS Projectiin. Mallinnus voidaan lisäksi ymmärtää osana prosessin kehittämistä.Siirretty Doriast

Software Development Process Modeling. Developers Perspective to Contemporary Modeling Techniques

Formal software development processes and well-defined development methodologies are nowadays seen as the definite way to produce high-quality software within time-limits and budgets. The variety of such high-level methodologies is huge ranging from rigorous process frameworks like CMMI and RUP to more lightweight agile methodologies. The need for managing this variety and the fact that practically every software development organization has its own unique set of development processes and methods have created a profession of software process engineers. Different kinds of informal and formal software process modeling languages are essential tools for process engineers. These are used to define processes in a way which allows easy management of processes, for example process dissemination, process tailoring and process enactment. The process modeling languages are usually used as a tool for process engineering where the main focus is on the processes themselves. This dissertation has a different emphasis. The dissertation analyses modern software development process modeling from the software developers’ point of view. The goal of the dissertation is to investigate whether the software process modeling and the software process models aid software developers in their day-to-day work and what are the main mechanisms for this. The focus of the work is on the Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) framework which is currently one of the most influential process modeling notations in software engineering. The research theme is elaborated through six scientific articles which represent the dissertation research done with process modeling during an approximately five year period. The research follows the classical engineering research discipline where the current situation is analyzed, a potentially better solution is developed and finally its implications are analyzed. The research applies a variety of different research techniques ranging from literature surveys to qualitative studies done amongst software practitioners. The key finding of the dissertation is that software process modeling notations and techniques are usually developed in process engineering terms. As a consequence the connection between the process models and actual development work is loose. In addition, the modeling standards like SPEM are partially incomplete when it comes to pragmatic process modeling needs, like light-weight modeling and combining pre-defined process components. This leads to a situation, where the full potential of process modeling techniques for aiding the daily development activities can not be achieved. Despite these difficulties the dissertation shows that it is possible to use modeling standards like SPEM to aid software developers in their work. The dissertation presents a light-weight modeling technique, which software development teams can use to quickly analyze their work practices in a more objective manner. The dissertation also shows how process modeling can be used to more easily compare different software development situations and to analyze their differences in a systematic way. Models also help to share this knowledge with others. A qualitative study done amongst Finnish software practitioners verifies the conclusions of other studies in the dissertation. Although processes and development methodologies are seen as an essential part of software development, the process modeling techniques are rarely used during the daily development work. However, the potential of these techniques intrigues the practitioners. As a conclusion the dissertation shows that process modeling techniques, most commonly used as tools for process engineers, can also be used as tools for organizing the daily software development work. This work presents theoretical solutions for bringing the process modeling closer to the ground-level software development activities. These theories are proven feasible by presenting several case studies where the modeling techniques are used e.g. to find differences in the work methods of the members of a software team and to share the process knowledge to a wider audience.Siirretty Doriast

BIM : a methodology to transform business processes into software systems

This manuscript proposes a guiding methodology to obtain a software system that supports the execution of the business processes existing within an organization. The methodology promotes the usage of business process reference models and intends to reduce the implementation time of the software systems. The methodology assumes four distinct phases and several abstraction levels and is applicable both when developing systems from scratch or in re-engineering contexts. The methodology embodies a special phase to handle the diversity of the business processes of an organization. By tailoring process reference models and by considering the characteristics of a specific organization, a proper set of business processes is derived for that organization. Then, we can obtain a suitable information system and implement its automatable parts in a software solution that can run on top of open source software frameworks. We also present four new supporting concepts to the methodology, and a summarized execution of it

Iterative criteria-based approach to engineering the requirements of software development methodologies

Software engineering endeavours are typically based on and governed by the requirements of the target software; requirements identification is therefore an integral part of software development methodologies. Similarly, engineering a software development methodology (SDM) involves the identification of the requirements of the target methodology. Methodology engineering approaches pay special attention to this issue; however, they make little use of existing methodologies as sources of insight into methodology requirements. The authors propose an iterative method for eliciting and specifying the requirements of a SDM using existing methodologies as supplementary resources. The method is performed as the analysis phase of a methodology engineering process aimed at the ultimate design and implementation of a target methodology. An initial set of requirements is first identified through analysing the characteristics of the development situation at hand and/or via delineating the general features desirable in the target methodology. These initial requirements are used as evaluation criteria; refined through iterative application to a select set of relevant methodologies. The finalised criteria highlight the qualities that the target methodology is expected to possess, and are therefore used as a basis for de. ning the final set of requirements. In an example, the authors demonstrate how the proposed elicitation process can be used for identifying the requirements of a general object-oriented SDM. Owing to its basis in knowledge gained from existing methodologies and practices, the proposed method can help methodology engineers produce a set of requirements that is not only more complete in span, but also more concrete and rigorous

OpenUP/MDRE: A Model-Driven Requirements Engineering Approach for Health-Care Systems

The domains and problems for which it would be desirable to introduce information systems are currently very complex and the software development process is thus of the same complexity. One of these domains is health-care. Model-Driven Development (MDD) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) are software development approaches that raise to deal with complexity, to reduce time and cost of development, augmenting flexibility and interoperability. However, many techniques and approaches that have been introduced are of little use when not provided under a formalized and well-documented methodological umbrella. A methodology gives the process a well-defined structure that helps in fast and efficient analysis and design, trouble-free implementation, and finally results in the software product improved quality. While MDD and SOA are gaining their momentum toward the adoption in the software industry, there is one critical issue yet to be addressed before its power is fully realized. It is beyond dispute that requirements engineering (RE) has become a critical task within the software development process. Errors made during this process may have negative effects on subsequent development steps, and on the quality of the resulting software. For this reason, the MDD and SOA development approaches should not only be taken into consideration during design and implementation as usually occurs, but also during the RE process. The contribution of this dissertation aims at improving the development process of health-care applications by proposing OpenUP/MDRE methodology. The main goal of this methodology is to enrich the development process of SOA-based health-care systems by focusing on the requirements engineering processes in the model-driven context. I believe that the integration of those two highly important areas of software engineering, gathered in one consistent process, will provide practitioners with many benets. It is noteworthy that the approach presented here was designed for SOA-based health-care applications, however, it also provides means to adapt it to other architectural paradigms or domains. The OpenUP/MDRE approach is an extension of the lightweight OpenUP methodology for iterative, architecture-oriented and model-driven software development. The motivation for this research comes from the experience I gained as a computer science professional working on the health-care systems. This thesis also presents a comprehensive study about: i) the requirements engineering methods and techniques that are being used in the context of the model-driven development, ii) known generic but flexible and extensible methodologies, as well as approaches for service-oriented systems development, iii) requirements engineering techniques used in the health-care industry. Finally, OpenUP/MDRE was applied to a concrete industrial health-care project in order to show the feasibility and accuracy of this methodological approach.Loniewski, G. (2010). OpenUP/MDRE: A Model-Driven Requirements Engineering Approach for Health-Care Systems. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/11652Archivo delegad

An Agile Process Model for Product Derivation in Software Product Line Engineering

Software Product Lines (SPL) and Agile practices have emerged as new paradigms for developing software. Both approaches share common goals; such as improving productivity, reducing time to market, decreasing development costs and increasing customer satisfaction. These common goals provide the motivation for this research. We believe that integrating Agile practices into SPL can bring a balance between agility and formalism. However, there has been little research on such integration. We have been researching the potential of integrating Agile approaches in one of the key SPL process areas, product derivation. In this paper we present an outline of our Agile process model for product derivation that was developed through industry based case study research

How to increase efficiency with the certification of process compliance

Certification as well as self-assessment of safety-critical systems is an expensive and time-consuming activity due to the necessity of providing numerous deliverables. These deliverables can be process-related or product-related. Process-related deliverables are aimed at showing compliance with normative documents (e.g., safety standards), which impose specific requirements on the development process (e.g., reference models for the safety life-cycles). In this lecture, we limit our attention to process-related deliverables and we propose a solution aimed at reducing time and cost related to their provision. Our solution consists of the combination of three approaches: the safety-oriented process line engineering approach, the process-based argumentation line approach, and the model driven certification-oriented approach. More specifically, we define how these three approaches are combined and which techniques, tools and guidelines should be used to implement the resulting approach. Then, via small-sized but realistic process-fragments, we illustrate it. Finally, we present a roadmap for future research directions.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Systematische Prozessunterstützung für die Entwicklung laufzeitkritischer Softwaresysteme: Systematische Prozessunterstützung für die Entwicklung laufzeitkritischer Softwaresysteme: PROKRIS-Methodik und -Framework

In vielen Bereichen des täglichen Lebens, angefangen vom Online-Banking bis hin zur Steuerung im Flugzeug, kommt Software mit laufzeitkritischen nicht-funktionalen Eigenschaften (NFE) zum Einsatz. Die Erfüllung der NFE spielt in diesen Anwendungen eine zentrale Rolle. Um dies zu erreichen, ist eine systematische und zielorientierte Behandlung dieser Anforderungen während der Entwicklung zwingend erforderlich. NFE zeichnen sich im Gegensatz zu funktionalen Eigenschaften durch besondere Merkmale aus, die ein adaptives Vorgehen zur Definition des Entwicklungsprozesses erzwingen. In der Arbeit wird eine Methodik zur kontextbasierten Anpassung von Vorgehensmodellen an laufzeitkritische NFE auf der Basis von Prozessmustern sowie das PROKRIS-Framework als unterstützende Umgebung vorgestellt

Propuesta de un proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje para la asignatura Diseño de Software como proceso de software

La cátedra Diseño de Software se dicta actualmente en 4º año de las carreras del Departamento de Informática de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales (FCEFN) de la Universidad Nacional de San Juan (UNSJ). Esta materia se enfoca principalmente al Diseño Orientado a Objetos (DOO), brindando conceptos y conocimientos desarrollados en forma teórica y con un fuerte componente práctico, de todos los diagramas de modelado de software que provee el Lenguaje de Modelado Unificado (UML), con el fin de comprender acabadamente el objetivo que se persigue con cada uno de ellos y en qué casos es conveniente o útil aplicarlos. El presente trabajo se sustenta de la experiencia adquirida en la práctica aplicada para la enseñanza de DOO, utilizando UML para el modelado, donde las actividades prácticas abarcan desde el análisis hasta llegar a una propuesta de diseño de implementación. Se presenta un modelo de proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje, como proceso de software, y los artefactos utilizados para guiar al alumno en la resolución de un problema de desarrollo de software específico, utilizando para su especificación el lenguaje de metamodelado de procesos SPEM 2.0 y para generar el modelado del proceso de software la herramienta Eclipse Process Framework Composer (EPFC).The Software Design Chair is currently being taught in 4th year of the study programs offered by the Computing Science Department in the School of Hard, Physical and Natural Sciences (FCEFyN) of the National University of San Juan (UNSJ). This course mainly focuses on Object Oriented Design (OOD). It offers a theoretical development as well as a practical approach of the concepts and principles for all the software modeling diagrams provided by the Unified Modeling Language (UML). It aims at thoroughly understanding the objectives pursued by each model and in which cases they are more suitable or useful to be applied. The present paper is based on the experience gained through the practical activities applied to the teaching of OOD by using UML for Modeling as well as learning tasks ranging from its analysis to a proposal for an implementation design. In addition a model for the teaching-learning process is presented, as software process, with all the artifacts used to steer the student in the resolution of a specific software development problem. The language used for specification is the process meta-modeling language SPEM 2.0 and the tool to generate the software process modeling is Eclipse Process Framework Composer (EPFC).Facultad de Informátic