A generic agent framework to support the various software project management processes

Abstract

Despite various research efforts originating from both academia and industry, software projects have a high rate of failure, more specific, software projects often do not comply with the traditional standard measurements of success, namely time, cost and requirements specification. Thus, there is a need for new methods and measures to support the software project management process. Globalisation and advances in computing technologies has changed the software project management environment. Currently software projects are developed and deployed in distributed, pervasive and collaborative environments and traditional project management methods cannot, and do not, address the added complexities inherent to this environment. In this paper the utilisation of stationary and mobile software agents is investigated as a potential tool to assist with the improvement of software project management processes. In particular we propose and discuss a software agent framework to support software project management. Although still in its initial phases, this research shows promise of significant results in enabling software developers to meet market expectations, and produce projects on time, within budget and to users' satisfaction.