Online Method Engine: A Toolset for Method Assessment, Improvement and Enactment

Software companies keep evolving their methods for software production, due to the continuous changes in the organizational, technological, and societal context. Implementing changes to existing methods is a complex activity, which depends not only on understanding 'what' to alter, but also on defining 'how' to apply the changes. Approaches in the literature are mainly focused on the 'what', provide only partial answers to the 'how' question, and offer no concrete toolset to support change. In this paper, we propose and discuss a software toolset that realizes the online method engine (OME) concept and provides a concrete answer to the 'how' question by supporting the iterative and incremental assessment, improvement, and enactment of methods for software production. The authors describe the technical architecture of our toolset that concretely realizes our previously proposed OME concept, provide details on the method enactment mechanism, and report on a qualitative evaluation based on interviews with experienced industrial practitioners in process improvement.

[1]  Inge van de Weerd,et al.  Improving software product management: a knowledge management approach , 2013, Int. J. Bus. Inf. Syst..

[2]  Fredrik Karlsson,et al.  Longitudinal use of method rationale in method configuration: an exploratory study , 2013, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[3]  Slinger Jansen,et al.  Incremental Method Enactment for Computer Aided Software Engineering Tools , 2013, BMMDS/EMMSAD.

[4]  Inge van de Weerd,et al.  On the Design of a Knowledge Management System for Incremental Process Improvement for Software Product Management , 2012, Int. J. Inf. Syst. Model. Des..

[5]  Inge van de Weerd,et al.  Documenting Evolutionary Process Improvements with Method Increment Case Descriptions , 2012, EuroSPI.

[6]  Emilia Mendes,et al.  Software process improvement success factors for small and medium Web companies: A qualitative study , 2012, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[7]  Sjaak Brinkkemper,et al.  Identifying commonalities in web content management system engineering , 2011, Int. J. Web Inf. Syst..

[8]  Javier García,et al.  Design guidelines for software processes knowledge repository development , 2011, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[9]  Jan vom Brocke,et al.  Culture in business process management: a literature review , 2011, Bus. Process. Manag. J..

[10]  Claes Wohlin,et al.  Software process improvement through the Lean Measurement (SPI-LEAM) method , 2010, J. Syst. Softw..

[11]  Inge van de Weerd,et al.  Incremental method evolution in global software product management: A retrospective case study , 2010, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[12]  Inge van de Weerd,et al.  A Situational Assessment Method for Software Product Management , 2010, ECIS.

[13]  Kesav V. Nori,et al.  Scoping software process lines , 2009 .

[14]  Fredrik Karlsson,et al.  A wiki-based approach to method tailoring , 2008, ICPW '08.

[15]  Inge van de Weerd,et al.  The Influence of Situational Factors in Software Product Management: An Empirical Study , 2008, 2008 Second International Workshop on Software Product Management.

[16]  Brian Henderson-Sellers,et al.  A work product pool approach to methodology specification and enactment , 2008, J. Syst. Softw..

[17]  Jurriaan Souer,et al.  A Component Based Architecture for Web Content Management: Runtime Deployable WebManager Component Bundles , 2008, 2008 Eighth International Conference on Web Engineering.

[18]  Mario Piattini,et al.  Software process improvement in small and medium software enterprises: a systematic review , 2008, Software Quality Journal.

[19]  Isabelle Mirbel,et al.  Connecting method engineering knowledge: a community based approach , 2007, Situational Method Engineering.

[20]  Jörg Becker,et al.  Reuse Mechanisms in Situational Method Engineering , 2007, Situational Method Engineering.

[21]  Inge van de Weerd,et al.  Concepts for Incremental Method Evolution: Empirical Exploration and Validation in Requirements Management , 2007, CAiSE.

[22]  P. Fettke.  Unified modeling language 2.0 , 2007 .

[23]  Jürgen Münch,et al.  Process Evolution Supported by Rationale: An Empirical Investigation of Process Changes , 2006, SPW/ProSim.

[24]  Isabelle Mirbel,et al.  Situational method engineering: combining assembly-based and roadmap-driven approaches , 2005, Requirements Engineering.

[25]  Juha-Pekka Tolvanen,et al.  Managing Evolutionary Method Engineering by Method Rationale , 2004, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[26]  Sjaak Brinkkemper,et al.  A Combined Runtime Environment and Web-Based Development Environment for Web Application Engineering , 2004, CAiSE.

[27]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Science in Information Systems Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[28]  Juha-Pekka Tolvanen,et al.  MetaEdit+: defining and using domain-specific modeling languages and code generators , 2003, OOPSLA '03.

[29]  Tracy Hall,et al.  De-motivators for software process improvement: an analysis of practitioners' views , 2003, J. Syst. Softw..

[30]  M. Lindvall,et al.  Knowledge management in software engineering , 2002, IEEE Software.

[31]  Robert de Hoog,et al.  Supporting knowledge management: A selection of methods and techniques , 1997 .

[32]  Khaled El Emam,et al.  Spice: The Theory and Practice of Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination , 1997 .

[33]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  MetaEdit+: A Fully Configurable Multi-User and Multi-Tool CASE and CAME Environment , 1996, CAiSE.

[34]  Colette Rolland,et al.  MENTOR: A Computer Aided Requirements Engineering Environment , 1996, CAiSE.

[35]  Sjaak Brinkkemper,et al.  Design and implementation of a method base management system for a situational CASE environment , 1995, Proceedings 1995 Asia Pacific Software Engineering Conference.

[36]  Philippe Kruchten,et al.  Architecture blueprints—the “4+1” view model of software architecture , 1995, TRI-Ada '95.

[37]  Philippe Kruchten,et al.  The 4+1 View Model of Architecture , 1995, IEEE Softw..

[38]  Sjaak Brinkkemper,et al.  Configuration of Situational Process Models: an Information Systems Engineering Perspective , 1995, EWSPT.

[39]  Sjaak Brinkkemper,et al.  Situational method engineering for informational system project approaches , 1994, Methods and Associated Tools for the Information Systems Life Cycle.

[40]  Victor R. Basili,et al.  The Experience Factory and its Relationship to Other Improvement Paradigms , 1993, ESEC.

[41]  Masanori Shinohara,et al.  A Meta-Model for Representing Software Specification & Design Methods , 1993, Information System Development Process.

[42]  Watts S. Humphrey,et al.  Software process development and enactment: concepts and definitions , 1993, [1993] Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Software Process-Continuous Software Process Improvement.

[43]  M. Heym,et al.  A semantic data model for methodology engineering , 1992, [1992] Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Computer-Aided Software Engineering.

[44]  J. Nunamaker,et al.  Systems development in information systems research , 1990, Twenty-Third Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[45]  W. Edwards Deming,et al.  Out of the Crisis , 1982 .

[46]  Jolita Ralyté,et al.  TOWARDS SITUATIONAL METHODS FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT: ENGINEERING REUSABLE METHOD CHUNKS , 2014 .

[47]  A. Mishra,et al.  Situational Requirement Method System: Knowledge Management in Business Support , 2012, ADBIS Workshops.

[48]  Anasis Majumdar,et al.  Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) , 2011 .

[49]  Inge van de Weerd,et al.  Meta-Modeling for Situational Analysis and Design Methods , 2009 .

[50]  Fredrik Karlsson,et al.  Method Tailoring as Negotiation , 2008, CAiSE Forum.

[51]  Jörg Becker,et al.  Configurative Method Engineering - On the Applicability of Reference Modeling Mechanisms in Method Engineering , 2007, AMCIS.

[52]  Sjaak Brinkkemper,et al.  A product software knowledge infrastructure for situational capability maturation: Vision and case studies in product management , 2006 .

[53]  M. Saeki.  CAME : The First Step to Automated Method Engineering , 2003 .

[54]  Naveen Prakash,et al.  An Architecture for a CAME Tool , 1998, EJC.

[55]  S. Brinkkemper.  Method engineering: engineering of information systems development methods and tools , 1996, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[56]  Philippe Krutchen,et al.  Architectural blueprints--the '4+1' view model of software architecture , 1995 .