An Assembly Process Model for Method Engineering

Abstract

The need for a better productivity of system engineering teams, as well as a better quality of products motivates the development of solutions to adapt methods to the project situation at hand. This is known as situational method engineering. In this paper we propose a generic process model to support the construction of a new method by assembling method chunks generated from different methods that are stored in a method base. The emphasis is on the guidance provided by the process model, as well as on the means underlying guidelines such as similarity measures and assembly operators. The process model is exemplified with a case study.

OSSAP – A Situational Method for Defining Open Source Software Adoption Processes

“…A detailed state of the art of the SME domain reveals various formalisations of method components as well as their assembly techniques [6]. For constructing the OSSAP method we apply the assembly-based SME approach [7] that supports new method construction as well as method extension by applying three steps: method requirements specification, method chunks selection and assembly of the selected chunks. Method chunks are reusable method components.…”

“…To design the OSSAP method we apply the assembly-based approach outlined in Section 2.1 [7] using the method chunks identified in Section 3.…”

“…In the assembly-based SME approach, there are two assembly strategies: association and integration [7]. Association is used when the method chunks to assemble do not overlap in terms of intention to achieve and product to construct, for example when the results of one chunk are used as an input in the other.…”

A Method Assessment Framework

“…Thus, for assessment purposes the method needs to contain the processes or activities that are capable of achieving the primary purpose. The activities to achieve the primary purpose seem to have been the focus of many proposed situational method engineering methods [1,[23][24][25].…”

Developing Families of Method-Oriented Architecture

“…Method created from scratch); Extension-Based (i.e. Method is created by extending an existing method [6]); Paradigm-based (an existing meta-model is adapted, instantiated, or abstracted to create a new method [6]); and Assembly-based (a method is created by reusing existing method components [7][16] [25]). These approaches mostly focus on reusability and modularity principles.…”