Changes and continuous progress in logistics and productive systems make the realization of improvements in
decision making necessary. Simulation is a good support tool for this type of decisions because it allows reproducing
processes virtually to study their behavior, to analyze the impact of possible changes or to compare
different design alternatives without the high cost of scale experiments. Although process simulation is usually
focused on industrial processes, over the last two decades, new proposals have emerged to bring simulation
techniques into software engineering. This paper describes a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) which returned
8070 papers (published from 2013 to 2019) by a systematic search in 4 digital libraries. After conducting this
SLR, 36 Software Process Simulation Modeling (SPSM) works were selected as primary studies and were
documented following a specific characterization scheme. This scheme allows characterizing each proposal
according to the paradigm used and its technology base as well as its future line of work. Our purpose is to
identify trends and directions for future research on SPSM after identifying and studying which proposals in this
topic have been defined and the relationships and dependencies between these proposals in the last five years.
After finishing this review, it is possible to conclude that SPSM continues to be a topic that is very much
addressed by the scientific community, but each contribution has been proposed with particular goals. This
review also concludes that Agent-Based Simulation and System Dynamics paradigm is increasing and decreasing,
respectively, its trend among SPSM proposals in the last five years. Regarding Discrete-Event Simulation paradigm,
it seems that it is strengthening its position among research community in recent years to design new
approaches.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-
