Process patterns for COTS-based development

Abstract

Software development is increasingly moving away from processes to compose pure-custom software from lines of code, toward processes for assessment, tailoring and integration of COTS or other reusable components with each other and with custom code. Beyond that, there are large variations within COTS based applications (CBA) processes that make a one-size-fits-all COTS process model unworkable. In previous work, we developed a general CBA process framework that provides guidance covering the wide range of possible CBA processes. Here, we provide more particular process patterns that we have identified in analyzing the first 9 projects to use the general CBA process framework, along with refinements of the general framework. These include three levels of process patterns: lifecycle patterns, activity patterns, and workflow patterns. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.