Method Configuration with Development Tracks and Generic Project Types

The world of system development methods is changing as rigorous ‘off-the-shelf’ methods become more popular. The need for configuration of such methods in a structured way is increasing accordingly. In this paper, method configuration is considered as a particular kind of method engineering focusing on adaptation of a base method. We propose a method configuration process based on the concepts of Development Tracks and Generic Project Types. A Development Track is a pre-made ideal process configuration suitable for a delimited characteristic of a (type of) software artefact, or a (type of) software development project, or a combination thereof. Generic Project Types with different characteristics can be related to different Development Tracks and used as a base for a situational method. The aim of the proposed method configuration process is to ease the burden of configuring the base method in order to reach an appropriate situational method more efficiently.