Software Processes Are Software Too, Revisited

Abstract

The ICSE 9 paper, "Software Processes are Software Too," suggests that software processes are themselves a form of software and that there are considerable benefits that will derive from basing a discipline of software process development on the more traditional discipline of application software development. This paper attempts to clarify some misconceptions about this original ICSE 9 suggestion and summarizes some research carried out over the past ten years that seems to confirm the original suggestion. The paper then goes on to map out some future research directions that seem indicated. The paper closes with some ruminations about the significance of the controversy that has continued to surround this work.

Formalisms to Support the Definition of Processes

“…Indeed these, and other, parallels between computer software and processes suggest that processes are indeed a sort of software [5,6] . At the very least, there seem to be enough parallels and similarities that what is known about computer software should be evaluated for its relevance to processes.…”

“…In virtually all cases, however, there seems to be dissatisfaction of one kind or another with the process descriptions. In earlier work it was suggested that processes are a form of software [5,6] . Subsequent work has increasingly confirmed the aptness of this suggestion [7−9] .…”

What is software?

“…The point here was that processes seem as though they might be items of software that execute on virtual machines that consists of more kinds of devices than only computers. Subsequent work has tended to confirm the plausibility of that suggestion [Osterweil 1997, Simidchieva 2008.…”