Software Process Support: a Service-oriented Approach

By providing tools for process modelling andcomputerised enactment support, research on softwareprocess technology aims to aid the management andexecution of distributed software developmentprocesses. This thesis presents recent research inthe softwareprocess area by describing the design,implementation, and evaluation of the IMÅL prototypeprocess management and support environment. The aimof the prototype is to address some of the weaknessesof existing systems. IMÅL consists of a simpleprocess modelling language and tool, as well as amore sophisticated process engine employing somenovel concepts in the software process technologyarea. An underlying service-oriented architecture isthe basis for the engine, which is built as acollection of distributed Web Services with theintent of providing improvement in scalability andstability over previous approaches. Furthermore,multiple processing instances with differentunderlying paradigms are combined into one singleengine, in order to utilise the advantages of severalapproaches. Other essential features of the prototypesystem include a to-do list facility and seamlessintegration with third-party tools.