Process Evolution for the MARVEL Environment

Abstract

We present a schema and process evolution tool, called the Evolver, for the MARVEL process-centered environment. The Evolver analyzes the differences between the new and installed process models of an existing environment, detecting each case where the notion of consistency defined by the process model has been strengthened or weakened. The Evolver then automatically updates the environment's objectbase to guarantee that the objects are consistent according to the new specifications. The Evolver can be applied while the installed process is in progre,,s, temporarily halting normal operation while it updates the objectbase, after which development continues using the new process. We have had several months of experience using the Evolver to make repeated changes in the process that supports our own further development of MARVEL, and include in this paper one small but practical example of a recent change made to a real MARVEL process.

Integrating groupware activities into workflow management systems

“…Figure 5 shows two sample rules from the process (a full realization of a comprehensive m ulti-user \benchmark" process appears in 2]): the groupware conference rule and the personal review rule that precedes it. The conference activity binds all members of a group that is linked to the document (lines 3-6, 12) it is enabled only if a conference is requested on the document (line 13) it invokes the conference groupware tool (line 15) and it asserts one of the three possible outcomes of the conference that correspond to the three boxes in Figure 1: revise, reject, or accept (lines [16][17][18][19][20][21]. Depending on the outcome of the conference, the proper rule will be triggered and assigned to the proper user.…”

Towards a new approach on software process evolution

“…Some of these systems have tempted to propose approaches to evolve software process [2,5,12,141. However, it seems that each system applies its own and unique evolution policy.…”