Domain modeling of software process models

Abstract

The paper presents a novel application involving two important software engineering research areas: process modeling and software reuse. The Spiral Model is a risk-driven process model, which, depending on the specific risks associated with a given project, may be tailored to create a project-specific process model. The software reuse area is that of domain modeling of families of systems, which capture the similarities and variations among the members of the family. The domain modeling approach is used to create a domain model of a Spiral Process Model (SPM), thereby capturing the similarities and variations among a family of process models. The SPM domain model has been extended to capture the key process areas of the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (CMM). The domain model is used to generate project-specific process models. This approach allows managers to configure and reuse process models that manage the risks associated with new software development.