Software Process Patterns: A Roadmap

J Software Evolu Process

2022

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Many software process modeling languages are available today, but the majority do not meet the community's expectations. They are complex, difficult for enactment, and so forth. After studying the state of the art, we asked this research question: Is it possible to have an easy to read and use Software Process Modeling Language (SPML), which is abstract enough but also expressive enough to suit different domains of process modeling and allowing the orchestration and execution of the process models it expressed? Our contribution consists in answering this question by defining Process Orchestration, Execution and Modeling Language (POEML), an SPML that supports the static process modeling and also the dynamic aspects of orchestration and execution. This language is governed by a metamodel, according to MDE principles, and provides graphic notation and a support tool. Its demonstration involves a benchmark that assesses the applicability of the language. We evaluate our language through a set of SPMLs quality criteria. Our contribution is discussed in terms of adopted choices and is compared with different related works. POEML contributes to software processes practice by linking modelization to execution while compensating some gaps still posed in SPMLs, which is an important improvement in this field.

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Section: Historical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

POEML: a Process Orchestration, Execution, and Modeling Language

J Software Evolu Process

2022

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“…In the present work we are interested only in the solution offered by the pattern to be reused, since it is the part of the pattern that will be involved in the merging; we omit thus the patterns formalism. Indeed, patterns representation requires on the one hand a formalism to structure the patterns content and on the other hand a language and therefore a metamodel to represent their solutions (a pattern solution is itself a process model). The choice of a formalism is not dealt with in this work.…”

Section: Problem and Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reusing process patterns in software process models modification

J Software Evolu Process

2018

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Process patterns offer proven solutions to reuse in process modeling. This reuse can take many forms; however, we are particularly interested in the form where patterns are merged with already existing process models to enrich or to correct them to satisfy certain constraints or to increase their efficiency.We aim through the present work to propose an approach that proceeds the merging automatically. The difficulty is that some conflicts may arise between the pattern being reused and the model being modified, resulting in an incoherent process model. We start this work by studying possible conflicts (especially that of first order), which can be encountered when merging, and then we propose an algorithm ensuring the automatic reuse and managing these conflicts. We highlight through a comparison the benefits of our proposal.The difficulty of patterns reuse to modify existing models gives rise to very few works in the literature. Our approach aims to offer a possible solution that ensures conflicts management.Automating such form of reuse will enhance patterns exploitation within the software community, as well as it will open many perspectives based on process models merging. KEYWORDSfirst-order conflict, model merging, pattern reuse, process model, process pattern 1 | INTRODUCTION Software products are becoming more and more rich and complex, and their use reaches more and more areas. The trend was summarized succinctly in Andreessen 1 : software is eating the world. The dual challenge of software engineering is that of quality and productivity. This creates a context where software patterns emerge as a powerful mean, offering reusable proven solutions to overcome these challenges. The scale of published patterns is however reaching a point where the need for tools to find, understand, and apply patterns becomes a critical requirement. 2 Among software patterns there are process patterns. The concept of process pattern was first introduced by Coplien 3 at the 1994 PLoP conference, 4-7 in the sense of patterns that capture process knowledge. Later, Ambler 8 defines a process pattern as follows: describing a proven, successful approach and/or series of actions for developing software.It is known in software engineering that to improve the developed product it is important to master its development process. [9][10][11] This leads the concept of process model to appear, such model is a detailed representation of software development real-world activities, using a process modeling language. Thus, "methods and processes along with the tools supporting them are at the heart of software engineering." 12 Besides, process improvement is nowadays a challenge to improve software quality and productivity, 13 and even small companies are interested in process models to keep up their competitiveness by improving their products quality. 14 Consequently, process patterns as they concern process models became relevant elements in software engineering. In the present work, we are interested in process patterns, which are called in...

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Conflict Resolution in Process Models Merging

Software Engineering Perspectives in Intelligent Systems

2020