Design and Development of a Portal-Based Tailoring System with Slicing Techniques
Gerhard Dietrichsteiner · 2003
In this thesis we develop a portal-based prototype of a tool that is able to tailor a software development process by using slicing techniques. The tool is developed for IBM’s Global Services Method, but its design is flexible enough to make it adaptable to any other process model, provided that the model is based on the OMG’s Software Process Engineering Metamodel. Program slicing is a program analysis technique that has been developed and researched for many years. Applying program slicing to a new domain is an interesting idea. An essential part of our work is to find and define analogies between software development processes and computer programs. After the analogies are defined, a program slicing algorithm is adapted and extended to fit our needs. We develop an algorithm that computes task and work product dependences in a software development process and use this algorithm in our prototype to supply the user with valuable information about process internal dependences, thus supporting and simplifying the user’s decision-making when he or she tailors a software development process. Another part of this thesis is the discussion of our prototype’s design; especially the structure which makes the prototype adaptable to other software development processes and performance-related design decisions are of interest.