Process support for mobile work across heterogeneous systems

Abstract

The emerging field of mobile computing (MC) studies systems in which computational components may change locations. In terms of hardware, mobile work is usually across heterogeneous systems in Web extended by novel mobile devices. In terms of software, mobile work technically involves mobile agents and new generation of middleware. However, in general mobile work presents a new challenge and great opportunities to research in software engineering as a whole. In this paper, we focus our attention on process support for mobile work, that is an important aspect of software engineering. We present a classiication and characterisation of mobile work mainly from the process point of view, and specify the requirements of process support for mobile work. The last part of the paper compares three process centred environments in regards to mobility support, and identiies their shortcomings.