Graph-Based Models for Managing Development Processes, Resources, and Products

Management of development processes in di erent engineer ing disciplines is a challenging task We present an integrated approach which covers not only the activities to be carried out but also the re sources required and the documents produced Integrated management of processes resources and products is based on a model which is for mally speci ed by a programmed graph rewriting system Management tools are generated from the formal speci cation In this way we obtain a management system which assists in the coordination of developers cooperating in the development of a complex technical product Introduction Development of products in disciplines such as mechanical electrical or software engineering is a challenging task Costs have to be reduced the time to market has to be shortened and quality has to be improved Skilled developers and sophisticated tools for performing technical work are necessary yet not su cient prerequisites for achieving these ambitious goals In addition the work of developers must be coordinated so that they cooperate smoothly To this end the steps of the development process have to be planned a developer executing a task must be provided with documents and tools the results of development activities have to be fed back to management which in turn has to adjust the plan accordingly the documents produced in di erent working areas have to kept consistent with each other etc Management can be de ned as all the activities and tasks undertaken by one or more persons for the purpose of planning and controlling the activities of others in order to achieve an objective or complete an activity that could not be achieved by the others acting alone Management is concerned with processes resources and products Process management covers the creation of process de nitions their instan tiation to control development processes as well as planning enactment and monitoring project manager project management tool database access restricted access developer domain-specific development tools