Process Evolution Supported by Rationale: An Empirical Investigation of Process Changes
This addresses the problem of inefficient performance and compliance difficulties in software development organizations due to arbitrary process changes, but it is incremental as part of ongoing research.
The study investigated the nature of software process changes in an aerospace context, identifying key issues that motivated engineers to modify standards, as part of efforts to develop a systematic mechanism for process evolution.
Evolving a software process model without a retrospective and, in consequence, without an understanding of the process evolution, can lead to severe problems for the software development organization, e.g., inefficient performance as a consequence of the arbitrary introduction of changes or difficulty in demonstrating compliance to a given standard. Capturing information on the rationale behind changes can provide a means for better understanding process evolution. This article presents the results of an exploratory study with the goal of understanding the nature of process changes in a given context. It presents the most important issues that motivated process engineers changing important aerospace software process standards during an industrial project. The study is part of research work intended to incrementally define a systematic mechanism for process evolution supported by rationale information.