Definition of the Formal Decision Model and Tool Support for Adapting Software Development Process to Particular Project Circumstances

ALJAZ ZRNEC, MARJAN KRISPER DEFINITION OF THE FORMAL DECISION MODEL AND TOOL SUPPORT FOR ADAPTINGSOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS TO PARTICULAR PROJECT CIRCUMSTANCESMethodology is a recommended collection of phases, procedures, rules, techniques, tools, documentation,management, and training used to develop a software system. We can also say that beside the description of theprocess and its products, methodology also incorporates philosophy of the organization, ideas, principles, andpoint of view of the organization stuff or its users. Motivations for adopting a methodology vary by organizationand individual, and are generally classified into several groups: achieving better end products, achieving betterdevelopment process, easier process users training, and giving the impression on customers. The development ofmodern software systems is very complex process and it requires disciplined methodological approaches. Thereexist many different arguments underpinning the use of systems development methodologies, but empiricalstudies show that methodologies are still underused in practice. What is more, their use is not increasing. Thesituation may change with the advent of agile approaches, which promise the methodologies to become moreadaptable to continuous changes in the environment. In contrast to method engineering, where the element ofadaptation is a method or its product, agile methodologies focus on the adaptation of the process – e.g. processengineering. Moreover, agile methodologies seem to give more attention to sociological aspects of themethodology, which have been rather ignored in method engineering.In the paper, we discuss our proposal of doctoral thesis, which debates adaptation of software developmentprocess to project specific needs on the basis of findings from the field of method engineering and agile softwaredevelopment approaches. The thesis introduced in this article is part of a larger research project aimed atdetermination of the scenario and appropriate tool support for constructing flexible, people focused systemsdevelopment methodologies, for their adaptation to project specific circumstances and for their continuousimprovement. On the basis of literature review about method engineering, we believe that the methodengineering techniques could be used in our approach to process adaptationWe propose a decision model and adequate tool support for process adaptation, which takes into accountseveral types of criteria. We are especially interested in how sociological viewpoint influences the processelement selection.