Software Process Definition and Management

The concept of processes is at the heart of software and systems engineering. Software process models integrate software engineering methods and techniques and are the basis for managing large-scale software and IT projects. High product quality routinely results from high process quality.

Software process management deals with getting and maintaining control over processes and their evolution. Becoming acquainted with existing software process models is not enough, though. It is important to understand how to select, define, manage, deploy, evaluate, and systematically evolve software process models so that they suitably address the problems, applications, and environments to which they are applied. Providing basic knowledge for these important tasks is the main goal of this textbook.

Münch and his co-authors aim at providing knowledge that enables readers to develop useful process models that are suitable for their own purposes. They start with the basic concepts. Subsequently, existing representative process models are introduced, followed by a description of how to create individual models and the necessary means for doing so (i.e., notations and tools). Lastly, different possible usage scenarios for process management are highlighted (e.g. process improvement and software process simulation).

Their book is aimed at students and researchers working on software project management, software quality assurance, and software measurement; and at practitioners who are interested in process definition and management for developing, maintaining, and operating software-intensive systems and services.

From the reviews:

"The Book (...) is very precise and accurate. This is important because process management is a practice-driven field and the literature is quite uneven. (...) It is an ideal book for a graduate course in software project management, where student teams can engage in a semester-long team project of designing a process model for an external software organization." (Don Chand, Computing Reviews, October, 2012)

“Münch (Univ. of Helsinki, Finland) and colleagues provide a thoughtful overview of the software development process, covering the gamut of the various software process models and their notations, tools, and improvement approaches. The book nicely covers the two main types of software process models, prescriptive and descriptive. Prescriptive models tell people what to do in projects and are used as guidance during daily work, while descriptive models describe the currently used real-world process. … Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through professionals/practitioners in software development.” (C. Tappert, Choice, Vol. 50 (6), February, 2013)

Jürgen Münch is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki. His research in software and systems engineering centers on the measurement and quantitative analysis of software processes and systems, on software process modeling and management, cloud-based software engineering, global software development, and empirical software engineering. Prior to his current position, Prof. Dr. Münch was a division head at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE in Kaiserslautern, Germany, where he was responsible for research and technology transfer in the area of software process and quality engineering. He was also an executive board member of the temporary research institute SFB 501 at the University of Kaiserslautern. Prof. Dr. Münch has been awarded the Distinguished Professor Award (FiDiPro), the IFIP TC2 Manfred Paul Award for Excellence in Software Theory and Practice, several best paper awards, and the technology innovation award from the Rhineland-Palatinate Lotto Foundation.

Ove Armbrust is Software Engineering Process Group Lead at Alpine Electronics Research of America. In this position, he is responsible for all software development processes of Alpine’s U.S. R&D operations, including product development, customer interaction, and standards compliance. Prior to his current position, Dr. Armbrust was a researcher and senior engineer at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE in Kaiserslautern, Germany. In its Processes and Measurement department, he focused his research activities on context-specific process adaptation, process compliance, and process scoping. In 2010, he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. Besides his academic work, Dr. Armbrust has provided consultation services to a wide range of organizations from the automotive, aerospace, and finance domains regarding process improvementissues.

Martin Kowalczyk graduated from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a Diplom degree in Industrial Engineering in 2009 and started working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) thereafter. He is a member of the Processes and Measurement department and works on subjects concerning software development processes and goal-oriented measurement approaches such as GQM+Strategies®. In the context of industrial projects, he has worked for several organizations from the aerospace, finance, and services domains on topics from the area of process improvement and measurement. His current research interests focus on measurement-based alignment of goals and activities within software-based organizations.

Martín Soto was born in Bogotá, Colombia, where he received his master's degree in Computer Science in 1995 from the Universidad de los Andes. In 2009, he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. From 2000 to 2010, he was a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) in the Processes and Measurement department, where he was working on process modeling for industrial and research purposes. His research interests concentrate on change management for process models. Since 2010, Dr. Soto has been Senior Developer at eleven GmbH.