The Triptych Process Model 1 Process Assessment and Improvement Dines

The triptych approach to software engineering proceeds on the basis of carefully monitored and controlled possibly iterated progression through domain engineering and requirements engineering to software design. In this paper we will outline these three phases, show the many stages of development within each and also indicate the many steps within each stage. We will ever so briefly touch upon informal narration and formal description (prescription and specification) of domains (requirements and software designs), and the verification (theorem proving, model checking and testing) and validation of domain descriptions (requirements prescriptions and their relations to domain descriptions, as well as the software design specifications and their relations to requirements prescriptions). The importance of process management and its relations to software process assessment (SPA) and software process improvement (SPI) will then be underscored. Our measuring “stick” is that set up by Watts Humphrey’s capability maturity model (CMM). We will suggest and discuss seven assessment and eight improvement categories. In closing we will have some few words to say about software procurement.