AHEAD: A Graph-Based System for Modeling and Managing Development Processes

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Hammori

et al. 2006

Abstract. Car development is based on long running, concurrently executed and highly dependent processes. The coordination and synchronization of these processes has become a complex and error-prone task due to the increasing number of functions and embedded systems in modern cars. These systems realize advanced features by embedded software and enable the distribution of functionality as required, for example, by safety equipment. Different life cycle times of mechanical, software and hardware components as well as different duration of their development processes require efficient coordination. Furthermore, productdriven process structures, dynamic adaptation of these structures, and handling real-world exceptions result in challenging demands for any IT system. In this paper we elaborate fundamental requirements for the IT support of car development processes, taking release management as characteristic example. We show to which extent current product data and process management technology meets these requirements, and discuss which essential limitations still exist. This results in a number of fundamental challenges requiring new paradigms for the product-driven design, enactment and adaptation of processes.

“…AHEAD [14] deals with dynamic (software) development processes. It offers dynamic support for project management, process management, and engineering data management.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

IT Support for Release Management Processes in the Automotive Industry

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Hammori

et al. 2006

“…The concrete activity execution order at runtime then depends on the availability of data. Another approach integrating control and data ow is provided by AHEAD [22], which oers dynamic support for (software) development process structures. The approach enables the integration of control and data ow, by relating activities to the objects dened in the data model.…”

Section: Practical Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data-Driven Modeling and Coordination of Large Process Structures

Reichert

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

137

Abstract. In the engineering domain, the development of complex products (e.g., cars) necessitates the coordination of thousands of (sub-)processes. One of the biggest challenges for process management systems is to support the modeling, monitoring and maintenance of the many interdependencies between these sub-processes. The resulting process structures are large and can be characterized by a strong relationship with the assembly of the product; i.e., the sub-processes to be coordinated can be related to the dierent product components. So far, sub-process coordination has been mainly accomplished manually, resulting in high eorts and inconsistencies. IT support is required to utilize the information about the product and its structure for deriving, coordinating and maintaining such data-driven process structures. In this paper, we introduce the COREPRO framework for the data-driven modeling of large process structures. The approach reduces modeling eorts signicantly and provides mechanisms for maintaining data-driven process structures.

“…Approaches utilizing product structures for deriving process structures (e.g., Product Driven Workflow Design [9]) do not allow for the detailed specification of multiple sub-process dependencies based on an object relation. Even approaches aiming at the support of engineering processes (e.g., AHEAD [3]) lack mechanisms for mapping object relations to sub-process dependencies. Currently, the way to cope with these problems is the manual integration of all necessary information into one large and inflexible process (structure).…”

Section: Figure 1 Data-driven Process Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Data-Driven Design of Engineering Processes with COREPROModeler

Reichert

16th IEEE International Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE 2007)

et al. 2007

Enterprises increasingly demand IT support for the coordination of their engineering processes, which often consist of hundreds up to thousands of sub-processes. From a technical viewpoint, these sub-processes have to be concurrently executed and synchronized considering numerous interdependencies. So far, this coordination has mainly been accomplished manually, which has resulted in errors and inconsistencies. In order to deal with this problem, we have to better understand the interdependencies between the subprocesses to be coordinated. In particular, we can benefit from the fact that sub-processes are often correlated to the assembly of a product (represented by a product data structure). This information can be utilized for the modeling and execution of so-called data-driven process structures. In this paper, we present the COREPRO demonstrator that supports the data-driven modeling of these process structures. The approach explicitly establishes a close linkage between product data structures and engineering processes.