E/VPL a system for modelling and enacting software processes

摘要

This research addresses the technical issues involved in specifying and mechanically supporting software development processes and is related to the view of processes as “software”, i.e. as a specifiable and executable entity.ududSoftware processes can be described using textual and graphical techniques. This allows interested parties to agree that it reflects the true process, to reason about the process and to identify potential improvements. In designing new or improved processes, an ability to simulate these processes is invaluable. Such simulations, based on the process descriptions, allow one to step through the process tasks in an interactive manner. Thus one can evaluate the effectiveness of processes, assess their behaviour and ask “what-if ’ questions based upon proposed modifications. Simulations with the help of quantitative data, can be run for statistical purposes, where parameters can be varied.ududProcess descriptions can be used as a basis for process automation, as they contain much of the information needed to build a process-centred environment However, many currently available tools, whose origins lie in process definition, allow simulation, but do not generally support real-time execution of process descriptions.ududThis thesis reviews the current state-of-the-art in automated systems that enact software development processes and proposes a system called Enhanced Visual Process Language (E/VPL), which is a graphically-oriented process modelling system. A prototype system has been constructed to implement E/VPL and is evaluated to assess its potential as a process modelling system.