Software Process Automation: Experiences from the Trenches.

Abstract

The ideas and findings in this report should not be construed as an official DoD position. It is published in the interest of scientific and technical information exchange.

Integrating Knowledge and Processes in A Learning Organization

“…These developments, emphasizing the roles of processes and knowledges, have evolved in parallel more or less separately. On one hand, the process movement has favored a trend toward establishing fairly formal business and work processes to ensure that highly technical work gets done on time, within budget, and with quality assured and customer satisfaction maintained [2,3,4] a sense, the emphasis on processes represents a modification and extension of principles of Taylorism and Fordism; and while more flexible, the new approach still remains largely managerial-and controloriented [5]. We might argue that adaptive organizations need a process focus that balances discipline and innovation, an environment where many voices can be heard and exclusionary interests are resisted.…”

“…Defining work processes has made inroads into practice over the last 10 years and extends to process modeling, simulation, and automation, as understood in the context of the organization's larger business processes [3,4,5]. In parallel, a second trend in response to the coming of the knowledge society [6,7], has seen the creation of knowledge-based organizations [8] as being enhanced by integration of quickly evolving information technology [9,10].…”

“…For example, development teams may be over-eager to automate processes, which have not been fully defined or used in manual operations [5]. Similarly, doing computer-supported cooperative work does not guarantee that contributors are collaborating, in the best sense of the word, or working productively as a team.…”

“…This may have occurred for any number of reasons, including the relative immaturity of the technologies in question and risks associated with the same. 5 …”

Across the Divide: Two Organisations Form a Virtual Team and Codevelop a Product

“…Using more advanced forms of collaborative technologies was a relatively new experience for both organisations. The SEI had done research on supporting collaborative processes, but the focus had been on process formalisation and automation (Heineman et al, 1994;Christie et al, 1996). Platinum's teams collaborated internally and with business partners.…”