Data from configuration management tools as sources for software process mining

Process mining has proven to be a valuable approach that provides new and objective insights into processes within organizations. Based on sets of well-structured data, the underlying ‘actual’ processes can be extracted and process models can be constructed automatically, i.e., the process model can be ‘mined’. Successful process mining depends on the availability of well-structured and suitable data. This paper investigates the potential of software configuration management (SCM) and SCM- tools for software process mining. In a validation section, data collected by a SCM tool in practice are used to apply process-mining techniques on a particular software process, i.e., a Change Control Board (CCB) process in a large industrial company. Application of process mining techniques revealed that although people tend to believe that formally specified and well-documented processes are followed, the ‘actual’ process in practice is different. Control-flow discovery revealed that in the CCB process in most of the cases, i.e., 70%, an important CCB task ‘Analysis’ was skipped

Discovering changes of the change control board process during a software development project using process mining

During a software process improvement program, the current state of software development processes is being assessed and improvement actions are being determined. However, these improvement actions are based on process models obtained during interviews and document studies, e.g. quality manuals. Such improvements are scarcely based on the practical way of working in an organization; they do not take into account shortcuts made due to e.g. time pressure. Becoming conscious about the presence of such deviations and understanding their causes and impacts, consequences for particular software process improvement activities in a particular organization could be proposed. This paper reports on the application of process mining techniques to discover shortcomings in the Change Control Board process in an organization during the different lifecycle phases and to determine improvement activities. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Data from configuration management tools as sources for software process mining

Process mining has proven to be a valuable approach that provides new and objective insights into processes within organizations. Based on sets of well-structured data, the underlying ‘actual’ processes can be extracted and process models can be constructed automatically, i.e., the process model can be ‘mined’. Successful process mining depends on the availability of well-structured and suitable data. This paper investigates the potential of software configuration management (SCM) and SCM- tools for software process mining. In a validation section, data collected by a SCM tool in practice are used to apply process-mining techniques on a particular software process, i.e., a Change Control Board (CCB) process in a large industrial company. Application of process mining techniques revealed that although people tend to believe that formally specified and well-documented processes are followed, the ‘actual’ process in practice is different. Control-flow discovery revealed that in the CCB process in most of the cases, i.e., 70%, an important CCB task ‘Analysis’ was skipped

Data from configuration management tools as sources for software process mining

Process mining has proven to be a valuable approach that provides new and objective insights into processes within organizations. Based on sets of well-structured data, the underlying ‘actual’ processes can be extracted and process models can be constructed automatically, i.e., the process model can be ‘mined’. Successful process mining depends on the availability of well-structured and suitable data. This paper investigates the potential of software configuration management (SCM) and SCM- tools for software process mining. In a validation section, data collected by a SCM tool in practice are used to apply process-mining techniques on a particular software process, i.e., a Change Control Board (CCB) process in a large industrial company. Application of process mining techniques revealed that although people tend to believe that formally specified and well-documented processes are followed, the ‘actual’ process in practice is different. Control-flow discovery revealed that in the CCB process in most of the cases, i.e., 70%, an important CCB task ‘Analysis’ was skipped