An environment for reusing software processes

Abstract

While many reusable methods assume that developers will eventually become motivated to search for reusable components, few have addressed the issue of identifying when in the development process potentially reusable information exists. In this paper, a method is introduced that embeds reusable information in a process model that is customized to the specific needs of development efforts. By reusing these processes, projects draw on the collective experiences of the organization to apply known best practices to specific business requirements. A formal deviation process is used to allow development efforts to modify the process to suit their needs. To ensure continuous acquisition of reusable process information, deviations become part of the defined process so that future efforts with similar characteristics can use the same processes.