Terry Rout

Using Composition Trees to Model and Compare Software Process

Software processes described by natural languages are frequently ambiguous and it is usually difficult to compare the similarity and difference between one process defined in one standard and its counterpart defined in another standard. This paper proposes Composition Tree (CT) as a graphic language to model software process based on its purpose and expected outcomes. CT is a formal graphic notation originally designed for modeling component based software system. This paper demonstrates that CT can be a powerful notation to give a clear and unambiguous description of a software process as well. This paper also investigates an algorithm which can compare two CT-modeled processes and provide an intuitive view called a Comparison Composition Tree (CCT) to highlight the differences and similarities between the two processes.

Using Composition Trees to Validate an Entry Profile of Software Engineering Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs)

ISO/IEC TR 29110-5-1 provides a Software Engineering life cycle reference model for Very Small Entities on small software projects (less than 6 people month). This paper uses Composition Trees (CT) as a formal notation to model part of this process, and compares it with its counterpart process (which is also modeled in a CT) from ISO/IEC 12207. The outcome of the comparison is a Comparison Composition Tree (CCT). This CCT shows clearly the similarity and difference between the VSE Entry Profile and ISC12207. This information may help people to validate and understand the VSE Profile. This paper also proposes this approach can be used as a general approach for people to develop, study, and implement software processes.

Consistency and conflict in terminology in software engineering standards

The results of a study of consistency of terminology in a group of standards and related documents dealing with software engineering are presented. A lack of consistent definition of some key terms is identified. Possible strategies to address the problem are suggested; such steps would lead in the longer term to a more coherent and understandable set of documents.

Exploring the Impact of IT Service Management Process Improvement Initiatives: A Case Study Approach

IT companies worldwide have started to improve their service management processes based on best practice frameworks, such as IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). However, many of these companies face difficulties in demonstrating the positive outcomes of IT service management (ITSM) process improvement. This has led us to investigate the research problem: What positive impacts have resulted from IT service management process improvement? The main contributions of this paper are 1) to identify the ITSM process improvement outcomes in two IT service provider organizations and 2) provide advice as lessons learnt.

Representing Software Process in Description Logics: An Ontology Approach for Software Process Reasoning and Verification

Software process is critical for producing high quality software. However, software processes are usually described in natural language which makes it difficult to verify if they have been fully or how well implemented in complex software projects. It’s also hard for practitioners to implement processes from different standards and make sure they work harmonically, consistently and completely. Composition Tree (CT) notation, a Behavior Engineering approach has been successfully used to formalize software process in previous work. However, there are no reasoning tools for CT to automatically check and verify the modeled software processes. In this study we explore the synergy of software process modeling and Description Logics (DLs). Given the rich expressiveness of DLs and their efficient and automated reasoning support, DLs can be used to reason and verify software processes more effectively. We propose an algorithm for transforming CT software process model into a DL so that DL reasoning engines can be used to perform automated software process analysis. Case studies and simple examples are also given to justify the feasibility of this proposed approach.

Towards Transparent and Efficient Process Assessments for IT Service Management

IT service organisations recognise the value of conducting regular process assessments for continual service improvement. However lack of transparency and substantial costs deter industry adoption. We propose that the use of the international standard for process assessment ISO/IEC 15504 offers a transparent approach to address this challenge. Moreover, efficiency can be realized by a Decision Support System (DSS) tool to automate data collection and process capability calculations. This paper details a Design Science Research project to develop a software-mediated process assessment (SMPA) approach based on ISO/IEC 15504, ISO/IEC 20000 and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®). We discuss the architecture of the SMPA approach and the role of ISO/IEC 15504 in the approach. This work contributes to practice as it may help IT managers to self-assess their processes using a standard model. The SMPA approach can also support assessors who perform formal assessments.

Evaluation of Software Mediated Process Assessments for IT Service Management

IT service organisations are cognisant that continual service improvement can be achieved by conducting regular process assessments. However, such assessments are expensive and so we have developed a Decision Support System (DSS) tool which uses the international standard for process assessment ISO/IEC 15504 to offer a transparent and efficient approach. This paper provides evidence of evaluation of this software-mediated process assessment (SMPA) approach which was based on ISO/IEC 15504, ISO/IEC 20000 and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®). In a usability evaluation of the online tool, participants reported largely positive experiences finding the online survey easy to use trustworthy, comfortable, generally effective, and more transparent and less costly to implement than a manual assessment. However, to engage in process improvement, human judgment, and possibly expert assessment facilitators are necessary for assessment validation and improvement, that is, a fully automated online survey that is strictly standard-based is not very useful. Further clarification of the survey questions with relevant examples, clearer answer options and having more visible goal statements on every question page were suggested.

Software-Mediated Process Assessment in IT Service Management

Continual service improvement is a crucial aspect of IT service management as it enables organisations to enhance the relevance and responsiveness of their IT services providing outcomes in productivity and competitiveness. This paper describes a research project that is aimed at developing an international standards-based software-mediated process assessment tool to facilitate continual service improvement in IT service management. The project will also evaluate the effectiveness of the tool by implementing it in two large Australian public sector organisations and validating the results against traditional process assessment methods. The significance of the research is that the tool will enable organisations to self-assess and improve their current IT service processes as well as transitioning international standards to industry.

High Levels of Process Capability in CMMI and ISO/IEC 15504

The recent release of CMMI V1.3 incorporates a number of changes to the model and framework; one of the more interesting is the decision to do away with Capability Levels 4 and 5 in the Continuous Representation, while retaining the high levels of Organizational Maturity. This paper examines some of the issues that may have driven this decision, and explores the opportunity provided for greater interaction between CMMI and ISO/IEC 15504.

An axiom based metamodel for software process formalisation: An ontology approach

Software development usually follows well known process models and standards for development processes. However, these are usually diverse and described in natural language which complicates their automation, adaptivity and verification. The need for process formalisation has long been highlighted, and we have provided a formalisation and translation algorithm to that effect in earlier work. However, to systematically and faithfully formalise heterogeneous processes from different standards and process models, there is a need to utilise uniform concepts to underpin the formalisation process. Metamodels and ontologies have been explored recently to lay a foundation for structuring and expressing additional rigour to process formalisation. In this study, we develop an axiom based metamodel utilising powertype patterns as a conceptual framework to underpin homogeneous process formalisation. The advantage of an axiomatic and powertype based metamodel approach lies in its potential to determine the metamodel basic constituents and formalism as well as its extensibility and adaptability. We formalise the metamodel using ontologies while adopting use cases from ISO/IEC 29110 and ISO/IEC 24744 standards for metamodel illustrations. Ontology based process descriptions enable process automated verification and adaptivity capability through the use of ontology reasoning support engines.