Development of a lightweight object-based software process model under pragmatic constraints

Abstract

The improvement of the software development process from the perspective of individual projects is the subject considered in this contribution. First, a four-phase life-cycle model of the development process is proposed. In the process establishment, adjustment, enactment, and judgement phases of the model, three activities, analysis, simulation, and execution were found to be a useful source of process improvement proposals. The second part of the paper describes how an engineering team improved their process in the course of two projects. This experience is presented in the frame of the process life-cycle mentioned above. The different process versions developed have their origins In an objectbased approach in which reactive behavior is specified with state machines, and in a strong emphasis on achieving a stable system architecture by means of scenariobased verification. Although the process may be interesting by itself, the main goal has been to describe its evolution.