Improving Parallelism in Software Development Process

摘要

Software development process basically consists of phases, planned and executed in series: 1) feasibility study;2) requirements;3) design and 4) implementation, prior to production and maintenance. At the end of each phase, there may be an official management decision (go/not go) depending upon cost, time or other reasons. Within each phase or across-phases, parallelism or concurrency can be achieved if modularity and/or independence of functionality exist(s). We propose a different approach to software development process that allows an improved parallel planning and execution of development effort beyond modularity and functionality independence. The goal is to shorten development time while possibly cutting cost and maintaining the same intended quality of performance. An example development is sketched.