Software are Processes Too

A process defines the way activities are organized, managed, measured, supported and improved to reach a goal. It has been shown, 15 years ago [1] that processes are software too; more precisely that their description can also be software. We hypothesize that a system can be characterized by its goal and by answering the questions: why, what and how. We show that software process work investigated only a tiny subset of processes, where only the how have been addressed. “Meta-process” research tried to address the why to change a process model, but was largely unfruitful. This paper first relates processes, software production and humans in the framework of the meta pyramid proposed by the OMG MDA. We show that programs and process models are fully similar, but not at the same level in the meta pyramids. Therefore the claim: software are processes too. The meta pyramid framework is used to show and contrast new and original potential uses of process technology. It is shown in particular that strategic software management requires a kind of process support where the what is not humans, but the software itself. Finally it is shown that autonomic computing will soon require process support where the why, the what and the how will have to be fully formalized and the process models automatically executed. We believe that this new and demanding context will foster new research on process modeling and support.