DISTRIBUTED PROCESS PLANNING SUPPORT WITH MILOS

Abstract

Software development processes are highly creative, and therefore prone to change frequently. Also, recent developments show that most software projects require knowledge and skills in a lot of areas. Since the necessary expertise often cannot be found at one development site, the necessity arises to distribute projects among several sites, or form "virtual" corporations, where software development is shared between several companies. The first point makes it necessary to support changes by identifying and notifying the people affected by a change. The second point emphasizes this necessity, while also complicating project planning and management: changes in one development site or company might necessitate replanning in several locations. In this paper, we introduce the MILOS approach, which provides concepts to integrate process modeling, planning, scheduling and enactment in one system. Thus dynamic plan changes, as well as automated feedback from execution to the project plan can be supported.