Hisham S. Khdair; Mohammed M. Awad; Zulaiha A. Othman

Formalizing the Software Engineering Process Using a Graphical Software Process Modelling Formalism

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Author(s)

Hisham S. Khdair ^1,* Mohammed M. Awad ² Zulaiha A. Othman ³

1. Faculty of Technology and Information Science, Center of Software Technology and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Reko, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

2. Faculty of Information Technology, University of Palestine, Al-Zahra City, Gaza Strip, Palestine

3. Faculty of Technology and Information Science, Center of Artificial Intelligence, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

* Corresponding author.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2017.06.03

Received: 20 Jun. 2016 / Revised: 10 Nov. 2016 / Accepted: 21 Feb. 2017 / Published: 8 Jun. 2017

Index Terms

Software process, Software process model, Software process modelling, Software process modelling language, BPMN

Abstract

Software process modelling has recently become an area of interest within both academia and industry. It aims at defining and formalizing the software process in the form of formal rigorous models. A software process modelling formalism presents the language or notation in which the software process is defined and formalized. Several software process modelling formalisms have been introduced lately, however, they have failed to gain the attention of the industry. One major objective of formalizing the software process that has ever been an issue of research, is to enhance the understanding and communication among software process users. To achieve this aim, a modelling formalism has to offer a common language to be well-understood by all software process users. BPMN presents a graphical-based widely accepted standard formalism, mainly aimed at business process modelling. This paper illustrates a software process modelling formalism based upon BPMN specifications for representing the software process, named as, SP2MN. The paper also demonstrates the applicability and evaluation of the proposed formalism by; utilizing the standard ISPW-6 benchmark problem, in addition to comparing the expressiveness of SP2MN with similar software process modelling formalisms. The evaluations prove that SP2MN contributes in enhancing software process formalization. SP2MN, accordingly, can be used as a standard software process modelling formalism.

Cite This Paper

Hisham S. Khdair, Mohammed M. Awad, Zulaiha A. Othman, "Formalizing the Software Engineering Process Using a Graphical Software Process Modelling Formalism", International Journal of Information Technology and Computer Science(IJITCS), Vol.9, No.6, pp.18-26, 2017. DOI:10.5815/ijitcs.2017.06.03

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