A Framework for Process Maintenance

Software processes are now increasingly being recognized to be critical for software development and maintenance. Like software, software processes also need to be evolved lest they become obsolete. Consequently, it is important to maintain software processes such that their maturity would be improved and their decay over a period of time would be minimal. This paper presents a framework, called the process cycle, which can assist in supporting and controlling process maintenance. The process cycle incorporates engineering, management, performance, and improvement of processes by human agents subjected to desirable goals and policy constraints. Process maintenance is supported by incorporating feedback cycles so that processes, goals and policies can be assessed and improved. In particular this paper addresses the identification of the reasons why processes change, the overall process change process, and the issue of policy improvement. Furthermore, this paper assesses the applicability of the process cycle framework by relating it to current process maintenance practices. Only by a miracle can the quality of sofnvare product be better than that of the process that produced it and that maintains it satisfactory as the application and its operational environment evolve. Quality sofnvare is the output of a quality process.