Early deviation detection in modeling activities of MDE processes

Abstract

Software Process Models (SPM) are used to communicate around the processes and analyze it. They represent the entry point to PSEEs (Process-centered Software Engineering Environments) which use them to coordinate process agents in their tasks. When the process execution doesn't match the model, the common option in PSEEs is ignoring the model. If the actions of the agents are not tracked during deviations it is impossible to evaluate the effect of these deviations on the success or failure of the process. In this paper we propose to deal with agent deviations during process execution. The originality of our approach comes from the fact that it is Process Modeling Language's (PML) independent and that it proposes early deviation detection. We validate our approach by implementing a prototype of a process definition and execution environment and evaluating its effectiveness to a group of developers enacting a process defined in it. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.