Adapting standards to facilitate the transition from situational model to reference model

Abstract

Reference Models comprise information on best or common prac tices for reuse. However, they commonly originate from individual projects. Yet, project models are usually situational and often inconsistent due to a lack of expertise of the employees or the sheer complexity of the specification. Con sequently, the transfer of these models into universal reference models is prob lematic at best. Standards are unified and generally accepted means of con ducting or producing something. Thus, they provide a means to transport and interface knowledge of different parties. Since standards tend to be exhaustive, they commonly provide more than is needed for any given situation. We pro pose to adapt standards to provide a view that is better suited for a task at hand. In this way, standards can help to unify situational models and provide assis tance for the transition to reference models. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.