Fine-grain process modelling
Bashar Nuseibeh, Anthony Finkelsteiin, Jeff Kramer · 1993
In this paper, we propose the use of fine-grain process modelling as an aid to software development. We suggest the use of two levels of granularity, one at the level of the individual developer and another at the level of the representation scheme used by that developer. The advantages of modelling the software development process at these two levels, we argue, include respectively: (1) the production of models that better reflect actual development processes because they are oriented towards the actors who enact them, and (2) models that are vehicles for providing guidance because they may be expressed in terms of the actual representation schemes employed by those actors. We suggest that our previously published approach of using multiple “ViewPoints ” to model software development participants, the perspectives that they hold, the representation schemes that they deploy and the process models that they maintain, is one way of supporting the fine-grain modelling we advocate. We point to some simple, tool-based experiments we have performed that support our proposition. Software Process Modelling descriptions of the activities by which software is developed. In the area of software development environments, the focus is on models that are enactable; that is, executable, interpretable or amenable to automated reasoning. Modelling the software development process is a means of understanding the ways in which complex software systems are designed, constructed, maintained and improved [7]. A software process model may also be used for method guidance; that is, as a vehicle for answering questions such as “what should I do next? ” or more importantly “how do I get out of this mess I’m now in?”. Software process modelling is a complex activity that can span the entire software development life cycle, from requirements analysis and specification to system implementation, evolution and maintenance. From an organisational point of view,