Walt Scacchi's Publications Page (Home Page)

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• Understanding the Social, Technological, and Policy Implications of Open Source Software Development. Interest in open source software development has emerged in many different research communities. Much of this interest has focused attention primarily onto the products of open software development (source code), and secondarily onto the processes and productive units that facilitatre such development. This position paper identifies what I believe are areas, topics, or basic questions requiring further research in the arena of open source software development. Position paper presented at the NSF Workshop on Advancing the Research Agenda on Open Source, 28 January 2002, Revised August 2002.
• Understanding the Requirements for Developing Open Source Software Systems. This study presents an initial set of findings from an empirical study of social processes, technical system configurations, organizational contexts, and interrelationships that give rise to open software. The focus is directed at understanding the requirements for open software development efforts, and how the development of these requirements differs from those traditional to software engineering and requirements engineering. Four open software development communities are described, examined, and compared to help discover what these differences may be. Eight kinds of software informalisms are found to play a critical role in the elicitation, analysis, specification, validation, and management of requirements for developing open software systems. Subsequently, understanding the roles these software informalisms take in a new formulation of the requirements development process for open source software is the focus of this study. (IEE Proceedings--Software, 149(1), 24-39, February 2002).
• Hypertext for Software Engineering. This chapter provides a survey of tools, techniques, and concepts for how hypertext capabilities can be employed to support large team-oriented software development projects. (appears in J. Marciniak (ed.), Encyclopedia of Software Engineering, 2nd. Edition , Wiley, 612-621, 2002).
• Process Models in Software Engineering. This chapter provides a survey of tools, techniques, and concepts for how alternative softwre process models and modeling capabilities can be employed to support large team-oriented software development projects. (revised version appears in J. Marciniak (ed.), Encyclopedia of Software Engineering, 2nd. Edition, 993-1005, Wiley, 2002).
• Software Development Practices in Open Software Development Communities. This study presents an initial set of findings from an empirical study of social processes, technical system configurations, organizational contexts, and interrelationships that give rise to open software. "Open software", or more narrowly, open source software, represents an approach for communities of like-minded participants to develop software system representations that are intended to be shared freely, rather than offered as closed commercial products. While there is a growing popular literature attesting to open software, there are very few systematic empirical studies that informs how these communities produce software. Similarly, little is known about how people in these communities coordinate software development across different settings, or about what software processes, work practices, and organizational contexts are necessary to their success. To the extent that academic research communities and commercial enterprises seek the supposed efficacy of open software, they will need grounded models of the processes and practices of open software development to allow effective investment of their resources. This study investigates four communities engaged in open software development. Case study methods are used to compare practices across communities. (Position paper presented at the 1st Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering, Toronto, Ontario, May 2001).
• Modeling and Simulating Software Acquisition Process Architectures. (with S. James Choi), In this paper, we describe our efforts to support the modeling and simulation of processes associated with software system acquisition activities. Software acquisition is generally a multi-organization endeavor concerned with the funding, management, engineering, system integration, deployment and long-term support of large software systems. We first describe a language for modeling software acquisition processes at the architectural level. We then describe our approach supporting the simulation of software acquisition processes within a process architecture. Along the way, we introduce how we employ the High-Level Architecture (HLA) and Run-Time Infrastructure (RTI) to support the distribution, concurrent execution and interoperation of multiple software process simulations to address the complexity of software acquisition process architectures. In addition, we also introduce the design and prototyping of a Web-based environment which supports the modeling and simulation of acquisition process architectures. (appears in Journal of Systems and Software , 59(3), 343-354, 15 December 2001).
• Specifying Process-Oriented Hypertext for Organizational Computing. (with John Noll), Organizations deploy intranets to provide access to documents for those who use them. But the web of computing comprises more than just documents: people, tools, and processes are critical to organizational function. In particular, people may need guidance on how to perform tasks, as well as access to information necessary to carry out those tasks. In this paper, we present a language for describing process-oriented hypertexts. A process-oriented hypertext links information, tools, and activities into a seamless organizational web. Using such a hypertext, and process performer can enact a process by browsing, and receive guidance on how to perform the process activities, where to and relevant information, and what tools to use. The PML process modeling language provides a way for process engineers to specify process models in terms of activities, and the sequence in which they should be performed. The specifcation can be elaborated with descriptions of resources and tools required and provided by activities, and the skills necessary to carry out an activity. The resulting models are then translated into one or more process-oriented hypertexts that represent instances of the process currently being performed. PML includes features that allow the modeler to specify how the process activities should be dynamically linked to information and resource nodes at the time the process is performed. This enables processes to be described as abstract models that can be instantiated as process-oriented hypertexts in different organizational settings. We used PML to model processes in a case study of the grants management process at the US Office of Naval Research. We describe some of our experiences applying PML to this study, and conclude with lessons learned and directions for future study. (appears in Journal of Network Computing and Applications , 24(1):39-61, 2001).
• Redesigning Contracted Service Procurement for Internet-based Electronic Commerce: A Case Study. This paper describes a case study focused on redesigning procurement processes for research grants at the Office of Naval Research. These processes focus on the procurement of research (R&D) services and how they can be redesigned and supported using Web-based capabilities. By examining these processes, we gain insight into issues and challenges to be addressed in    redesigning service procurement with Internet-based Electronic Commerce capabilities. In collaboration with other participants in this effort, we found that we could contribute to a substantial reduction in process cycle time and operational costs associated with the funding of thousands of research grant procurement actions. Accordingly, this investigation will focus on topics that underlie these results. This includes defining an approach to redesign procurement processes for Internet-based EC, a case study applying this approach and technology at ONR, and a discussion of lessons learned. Along the way, challenges, issues, and possible solutions are identified that foreshadow   the development of a new generation of Internet-based procurement processes and supporting Web-based environments. (Revised version appears in J. Information Technology and Management , 2(3), 313-334, 2001).
• An Environment for Research in Software Systems Acquisition. (with A. Valente, J. Noll, and J.S. Choi),  In this paper, we present initial results from basic research and exploratory studies in the area of software systems acquisition. This research sought to design a web-based, computer-supported work environment that facilitates research and development in the area of software systems acquisition. This environment supports the capture, representation, and operationalization of various forms of knowledge associated with a new vision for virtual system acquisition, called VISTA. The schemes for organizing and managing knowledge rooted in software feasibility heuristics and informal/formal models of software acquisition and systems engineering processes are called knowledge webs. Accordingly, the environment that provides the mechanisms for capturing, representing, interlinking and operationalizing access to these knowledge webs is called a knowledge web management system (KWMS). Thus, the environment that is the focus of this research effort is designed to provide a KWMS capability that provides access to an incrementally evolving knowledge web for software acquisition research and practice in line with the VISTA vision. This environment for software acquisition web management is called SAWMAN (submitted for publication, June 2001).
• Experience with Software Architectures and Configured Software Descriptions. (with S. J. Choi), In this position paper, we highlight some of the things we have learned over the past 15 years in our experience with software architectures. Much of what we have learned results from our experience in the specification, design, implementation and evolution of software engineering environments and process-driven software environments. Along the way, we have developed or used a variety of alternative architectural notations to support these efforts. We also have employed architectural design concepts and notations to specify, "code" and evolve a variety of configured software descriptions, including software life cycle documents, software hypertexts, software processes, and others. In this regard, we have found it useful to explore alternative schemes for combining software architecture concepts, techniques, notations and tools with those for software configuration management. Accordingly, we will highlight some of our experiences in these areas or topics. (Position paper presented at the Workshop on Evaluating Software Architectural Solutions  -  2000, Irvine, CA May 2000).
• Understanding Software Process Redesign using Modeling, Analysis and Simulation. This paper introduces the problem of understanding what software process redesign (SPR) is, and how software process modeling, analysis and simulation may be used to support it. It provides an overview of research results from business process redesign to help draw attention to the importance of treating process redesign as a process of organizational and process transformation. This in turn requires examining and practicing SPR through an approach that combines organizational change management together with process management technologies. A discussion follows which then identifies a number of topic areas that require further study in order to make SPR a subject of software process research and practice. (Presented at ProSim'99 , Silver Falls, OR, June 1999. Revised version appears in Software Process --Improvement and Practice 5(2/3):183-195, 2000).
• Developing a Knowledge Web for Business Process Redesign. (with Andre Valente), We describe our effort at developing and demonstrating a prototype knowledge-based Web environment for modeling, diagnosing and redesigning complex business processes. Our goal was to investigate how a modern knowledge representation system, Loom [MB95], can favorably leverage the development and evolution of a knowledge web that links narrative, informal and formal descriptions of cases on business process redesign found on the Web. In so doing, we demonstrate concepts, techniques and tools that facilitate the development of a knowledge web management system (KWMS) in an application domain of interest to enterprises throughout the world. (Presented at the 1999 Knowledge Acquisition Workshop, Banff, Canada, October 1999).
• Supporting Software Development in Virtual Enterprises. (with John Noll), This paper presents recent developments in a distributed semantic hypertext framework called DHT that supports software development projects within virtual enterprises. We show how hypertext functionality embodied in DHT solves the practical problems of project coordination including, collaborative sharing data in a virtual enterprise of distributed teams, integrating existing tools and environments, and enacting software processes to coordinate development activities for teams across wide-area networks. In particular, we describe how software process enactment can be achieved within a virtual enterprise without centralized mechanisms. This is when the process description is represented as a user navigable hypertext graph whose nodes associate process steps, staff roles, and associated tools with designated software products. Overall, these capabilities provide support for coordinating software development projects across a virtual enterprise of teams connected via the Internet. (appears in Journal of Digital Information, 1(4), February 1999). The original version of this paper was presented at The Second International Workshop on Incorporating Hypertext Functionality Into Software Systems, Washington, DC, March 1996.
• Virtual System Acquisition: Approach and Transitions. (with Barry Boehm), In this paper, we describe a radically new approach for the acquisition of software-intensive systems. We start be reviewing problems and opportunities for improving the acquisition of these systems. We put forward a statement of objective on the need to make the software system acquisition more agile and adaptive, through the evolutionary modeling, simulation, and development of the system being acquired. We describe a new vision for the re-tooling and re-engineering software system acquisition into a form we call, VISTA, denoting an approach to the virtual acquisition of these systems. We then outline the VISTA approach to software acquisition. This is followed by a discussion of the technical and organizational transitions that must be investigated and managed to ensure the eventual success of such a radical change to software system acquisition. (appears in Acquisition Review Quarterly, 5(2):185-216, Spring 1998).
• Experience with Software Process Simulation and Modeling . This paper describes an approach taken and experiences encountered in developing and applying simulation and modeling technologies to software processes. Processes for both software development and use have been investigated. As such, the focus of this paper is aimed at addressing three aspects of software process simulation and modeling. First, I describe an approach and examples of software simulation and modeling as investigated with the Articulator environment developed at USC. Second, I describe how by focusing on process modeling, analysis, and simulation, we are led to expand the scope of work with software processes toward a more comprehensive software process life cycle engineering. Third, I describe some of the lessons learned from applying modeling and simulation concepts, techniques, and tools to software processes in a variety of organizational settings. Conclusions then stress the complementary value arising from the use of both qualitative and quantitative technologies for software process simulation and modeling. ( Journal of Systems and Software , 46(2/3):183-192,1999. The original version of this paper presented at ProSim'98, Silver Falls, OR, 22-24 June 1998).
• Computational Business Process Components for Electronic Commerce. In this position paper, I focus on addressing computational business processes as software components for  Electronic Commerce. These components can be configured into an organizational process architecture that serves as a reusable framework for developing an EC information infrastructure. Process-driven Intranets then serve as a distributed development and run-time support environment for the framework. Since PDIs can span organizational boundaries, and since PDIs in different organizations may be interconnected, then process-driven extranets can be created and deployed. PDIs and PDEs enable the design, integration, and enactment of virtual enterprises. When a community of virtual enterprises emerges and begins to support business transactions among these enterprises, then virtual markets can appear, as can different kinds of computational economies. With the exception of this last item, I have experience in developing and applying these capabilities in different organizational settings. My experience leads me to believe that CBPs are viable components for EC. Furthermore, such components address an orthogonal set of issues compared to those addressed by other potential EC technologies such as CORBA/DCOM, EDI X12 transaction standards, Java/ActiveX, UML, and others. Subsequently, the potential value of CBPs can be assessed independent of choices made in using or evolving other EC technologies. Thus, CBPs merit consideration as a foundational software technology for EC. (Presented at the 1998 Intern. Workshop on Component-Based Electronic Commerce, Berkeley, CA, July 1998).
• Comparative Case Analysis for Understanding Software Processes. This paper provides an exploration of the analysis and use of comparative case studies as an approach to understanding software processes in complex organizational settings. Case studies are well suited to capture and describe how software processes occur in real-world settings, what kinds of problems emerge, how they are addressed, and how software engineering tools, techniques, or concepts are employed. The overall purpose of comparative case analysis is to discover and highlight second- or higher-order phenomena or patterns that transcend the analysis of an individual case. Comparative case analysis provides a strategy that enables the development of more generalizable results and testable theories than individual or disjoint case studies alone can provide. This study incorporates an examination and review of four empirical studies of processes involved in developing, using, or evolving software systems that employ comparative case analyses. Finally, a meta analysis of these four studies then highlights the strengths and weaknesses of comparative case analyses when used to empirically examine and understand software processes. (Draft for review, 1998).
• Modeling, Integrating, and Enacting Complex Organizational Processes, or an html presentation version can be found here. We describe our approach and mechanisms to support the engineering of organizational processes throughout their life cycle. We describe our current understanding of what activities are included in the process life cycle. We then go on to describe our approach, computational mechanisms, and experiences in supporting many of these life cycle activities, as well as compare it to other related efforts. Along the way, we present examples drawn from a current study aimed at modeling, analyzing, and integrating an order fulfillment process in a product development organization. (appears in K. Carley, L. Gasser, and M. Prietula (eds.), Simulating Organizations: Computational Models of Institutions and Groups, 153-168, MIT Press, 1998).
• Process Life Cycle Engineering: A Knowledge-Based Approach and Environment. (with P. Mi), We describe our approach and mechanisms to support the engineering of organizational processes throughout their life cycle. We describe our current understanding of what activities are included in the process life cycle. We then go on to describe our approach, computational mechanisms, and experiences in supporting many of these life cycle activities, as well as compare it to other related efforts. Along the way, we present examples drawn from a recent study that uses the approach and the mechanisms of our knowledge-based process engineering environment to support the (re)engineering of corporate financial operations in a mid-size consumer products organization. (NB : Contains 12 image files).(appears in Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance, and Management ,  6(1):83-107, 1997). In addition, an interactive presentation on this subject can be found here .
• Process-Driven Intranets: Life Cycle Support for Process Reengineering. (with John Noll), In this paper, we describe our approach and experience in a case study focused on redesigning processes for research grant funds management at the Office of Naval Research. We found that we could contribute to a substantial reduction in process cycle time and operational costs associated with the funding of thousands of research grant procurement actions. Accordingly, we focus our discussion on topics that underlie these results. This includes defining our approach process design, the technology of process-driven intranets for electronic commerce, our case study applying this approach and technology at ONR, and a discussion of lessons learned. Along the way, we identify challenges, issues, and possible solutions that foreshadow the development of a new generation of intranet-based networked information systems. (appears in IEEE Internet Computing, 1(5):42-49, 1997).
• Supporting Distributed Configuration Management in Virtual Enterprises. (with John Noll), This paper presents a semantic hypertext-based framework called DHT that supports distributed software configuration management, provides transparent access to heterogeneous, autonomous software repositories, and enables an implementation strategy with low cost and effort. We show how DHT solves the practical problems of sharing and updating heterogenous multi-version software in a virtual enterprise of distributed teams, integrating existing CM tools and environments, executing CM processes to coordinate development activities across wide-area networks. This is when the process model is represented as a user navigable hypertext graph whose nodes associate process steps, user roles, and associated tools with designated software product versions and configurations. Furthermore, we show that this can require the support for alternative policy models for the commitment of software updates into local CM repositories. Overall, these capabilities provide support for product-centered enactment of CM policies and processes across a virtual enterprise of teams connected via the Internet. (appears in R. Conradi (ed.), Software Configuration Management , Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 1235, Springer-Verlag, New York, 142-160, 1997) .
• (Re)Engineering Research Grants Management: From Acquisition Reform to Knowledge Brokering at ONR. (with John Noll, Cedric Knight, Capt. J. F. Miller), In this paper, we briefly describe our approach and experience in a research effort focused on (re)engineering the activity of research grants management at the Office of Naval Research. We found that we could contribute to a substantial reduction in process cycle time and operational costs associated with the funding of thousands of research grant procurement actions. Accordingly, we focus our discussion on topics that underlie these results. We also observe that knowledge brokering is an area where a new R&D initiative could lead to more effective and efficient research funding and research program management, as well as serve the mutual self-interests of the Federal research funding agency and researcher communities. (presented at NSF Workshop on Research and Development Opportunities for Federal Information Services, Arlington, VA, http://www.isi.edu/nsf, May 1997).
• Simulation and Modeling for Software Acquisition (SAMSA). (with Barry Boehm), In this extended final report, we describe the results from a series of workshops and contributions from a Blue Ribbon Panel of government, industry, and academic experts addressing alternative approaches to the acquisition of large software systems. The results focus attention on redesigning the process of software acquisition around the use of (a) a knowledge-based Feasibility Analysis Modeling system to assist assessing the costs, risks, and technical feasibility of a new software system to be acquired; (b) research on software architectures to help better characterize whether proposed system requirements can be satisfied by a given system architecture; and (c) the overall integration of simulation and modeling technologies to support a new approach to the "virtual information systems acquisition" (VISTA). Other reports from the workshops can be accessed through links within this report. (Final Report, March 1996).
• A knowledge-based environment for modeling and simulating software engineering processes. (with P. Mi), In this paper, we describe the design and representation schemes used in constructing a prototype computational environment for modeling and simulating multi-agent software engineering processes. We refer to this environment as the Articulator. We provide an overview of the Articulator's architecture which identifies five principal components. Three of these components, the knowledge meta-model, the software process behavior simulator, and a knowledge base querying mechanism are detailed and examples are included. The conclusion reiterates what is novel to this approach in applying knowledge engineering techniques to the problems of understanding the statics and dynamics of complex software engineering processes. (appears in IEEE Trans. Data and Knowledge Engineering, 2(3):283-294, September 1990. Reprinted in Nikkei Artificial Intelligence, 20(1):176-191, January 1991, (in Japanese). Reprinted in Process-Centered Software Engineering Environments, P.K. Garg and M. Jazayeri (eds.), IEEE Computer Society, 119-130, 1996).
• A Meta-Model for Formulating Knowledge-Based Models of Software Development.(with P. Mi), In this paper, we introduce a knowledge-based meta-model which serves as a unified resource model for integrating characteristics of major types of objects appearing in software development models (SDMs). The URM consists of a taxonomy of resource classes and a web of relations that link different types of resources found in different kinds of models of software development. The URM includes specialized models for software systems, documents, agents, tools, and development processes. The URM has served as the basis for integrating and interoperating a number of process-centered CASE environments. The major benefit of the URM is twofold: First, it forms a higher level of abstraction supporting SDM formulation that subsumes many typical models of software development objects. Hence, it enables a higher level of reusability for existing support mechanisms of these models. Second, it provides a basis to support complex reasoning mechanisms that address issues across different types of software objects. To explore these features, we describe the URM both formally and with a detailed example, followed by a characterization of the process of SDM composition, and then by a characterization of the life cycle of activities involved in an overall model formulation process. (appears in Decision Support Systems, 17(4):313-330, 1996).
• The SMART Approach to Software Process Engineering. (with P. Garg, P. Mi, and G. Thunquest), In this paper, we describe a methodology for software process engineering and an environment, SMART, that supports it. SMART supports a process life-cycle that includes the modeling, analysis, and execution of software processes. SMART's process monitoring capabilities can be used to provide feedback from process execution to the process model. SMART represents the integration of three separately developed process mechanisms, and it uses two modeling formalisms (object-oriented data representation and imperative-style programming language) to bridge the gap between process modeling, analysis, and execution. SMART demonstrates the meta-environment concept, using a process modeling formalism as input specification to a generator that produces Process-Centered Software Engineering Environments (PSEEs). Furthermore, SMART supports a team-oriented approach for process modeling, analysis, and execution. (appears in, Proc. 16th. Intern. Conf. Software Engineering, IEEE Computer Society, Sorrento, Italy, pp. 341-350, May 1994. Reprinted in Process-Centered Software Engineering Environments, P.K. Garg and M. Jazayeri (eds.), IEEE Computer Society, pp. 131-140, 1996).
• Understanding the Requirements for Information System Documentation: An Empirical Investigation.(with A. Jazzar), Software and Information Systems (IS) documents are a common product of large IS development efforts. These documents are produced and consumed through a variety of documentation processes. These  processes involve developers and users working within complex organizational settings, as well as with the focal system under development. These organizational settings facilitate and constrain IS documentation and development efforts in complicated ways. Accordingly, we present, analyze, and compare cases from field studies of three different IS development efforts in a large industrial corporation. Based on these studies, we identify a new set of variables and hypotheses that we believe represent a more plausible set of requirements for IS documentation products and processes in different organizational settings. In this regard, we utilize the concept of viewing IS documentation requirements as hypotheses to be tested, refined, or refuted. (appears in Proc. 1995 ACM Conf. Organizational Computing Systems, San Jose, CA, 268-279, August 1995).
• Understanding Software Productivity. What affects software productivity and how do we improve it? This report examines the current state of the art in software productivity measurement. In turn, it describes a framework for understanding software productivity, some fundamentals of measurement, surveys empirical studies of software productivity, and identifies challenges involved in measuring software productivity. A radical alternative to current approaches is suggested: to construct, evaluate, deploy, and evolve a knowledge-based "software productivity modeling and simulation system" using tools and techniques from the domain of software process engineering. (appears in Intern. J. Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, 1(3):293-321, 1991. Revised and reprinted in  Advances in Software Engineering and  Knowledge Engineering , D. Hurley (ed.), Volume 4, 37-70, 1995).
• Meta-Environments for Software Production. (with A. Karrer),  Researchers who create software production environments face considerable problems. Software production environments are large systems that are costly to develop. Furthermore, software production environments which support particular software engineering methods may not be applicable to a large number of software production projects. These conditions have formed a trend towards research into ways which will lessen the cost of developing software production environments. In particular, the trend has been towards the construction of meta-environments from which specific software production environments can be created. In this paper, we attempt to categorize more than 60 meta-environment efforts. For each of the categories, we review research efforts which illustrate different approaches within that category. We conclude by presenting an emerging common thread of requirements which links this field together. (appears in Intern. J. Soft. Engr. and Know. Engr. , 3(2):139-162, May 1993. Revised and reprinted in Advances in Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering , D. Hurley (ed.), Volume 4,  37-70, 1995).
• The Emergence of Electronic Commerce on the Internet, also available in HTML here, or for an interactive presentation version with some interesting WWW links, try here .). In this article, three questions are addressed. First, what is the Internet and what are its implications for modern businesses or strategic planners? Second, what are the current opportunities for using the Internet in different business activities? Third, what research is being persued in the USC School of Business Administration that can help better answer the preceding two questions? (appears in USC Business, 5:32-36, Fall 1994).
• A Hypertext System for Integrating Heterogeneous Autonomous Software Repositories. (with J. Noll), Hypertext is a simple concept for organizing information into a graph structure of linked container objects. This paper examines issues involved in applying hypertext concepts to the integration of heterogeneous, autonomous software repositories, and presents a solution called the Distributed Hypertext System (DHT). Based on a hypertext data model and client-server architecture, DHT features powerful modeling capabilities, integration of heterogeneous, pre-existing repositories, update with concurrency control, and full local autonomy. (appears in Proc. 4th. Irvine Software Symposium, University of California, Irvine, CA, 49-60, April, 1994)
• Process Integration in CASE Environments.(with P. Mi), Integrated CASE Environments (CASEEs) have been focused on tool and object integration. In this paper, we present a new type of integration called process integration as a strategy for creating process-centered CASEEs. We argue that the major benefits of process integration to software development include explicit process guidance and improved project management. We also present a few key components to implement process integration which form the backbone of a process-centered CASEE. These components include software process models, a process enactment mechanism, a developer's interface and a process manager's interface. Furthermore, our strategy implements process integration by merging these key components with existing CASEEs and creates process-centered CASEEs with reasonable effort. To exemplify this strategy, we have migrated an operational CASEE, the SOFTMAN environment, into a process-centered CASEE. (appears in IEEE Software,9(2):45-53, 1992. Reprinted in E. Chikoski (ed.), Computer-Aided Software Engineering (2nd. Edition), IEEE Computer Society Press, 1993).
• Articulation: An Integrated Approach to the Diagnosis, Replanning, and Rescheduling of Software Process Failures. (with P. Mi), This paper presents an integrated approach for how to articulate software engineering process plans that fail. The approach, called articulation, repairs a plan when a diagnosed failure occurs and reschedules changes that ensure the plan's continuation. In implementing articulation, we combine knowledge-based diagnosis, replanning, and rescheduling into a powerful mechanism supporting process-based software development. Use of articulation in plan execution supports recovery and repair of unanticipated failures, as well as revising and improving process plans to become more effective. In this paper, we also describe how a prototype knowledge-based system we developed implements this approach to articulation. (appears in Proc. 8th. Knowledge-Based Software Engineering Conference , Chicago, IL, IEEE Computer Society, 77-85, September 1993).
• A Knowledge-Based Software Process Library for Process-Driven Software Development. (with P. Mi and S. Li), Process-driven software development represents a technique for software production, in which a conceptual knowledge representation. called a software process, is used to represent and guide development activities. Management and reuse of software processes therefore becomes a requirement for process-driven software development. In this paper, we present a knowledge-based process library (SPLib) that supports the organization, access and reuse of software processes. SPLib consists of a knowledge base of software process representations. It also provides a set of process operations that support browsing, searching composition and abstraction. These operations reason about the content of software processes as well as maintain proper interdependency relationships among the software processes. To demonstrate the use of SPLib in process-driven software development, we provide a usage scenario where SPLib facilitates the access and reuse of software processes in real applications. (appears in Proc. 7th. Knowledge-Based Software Engineering Conf. , Washington, DC, IEEE Computer Society, 122-131, September 1992).
• Integrating Diverse Information Repositories: A Distributed Hypertext Approach. (with J. Noll), Today's networked information systems and software engineering environment is characterized by a multitude of autonomous, heterogeneous information repositories, a variety of incompatible user interfaces, diverse, unconventional data types, including text, graphics, and possibly video and sound, rapid change, both in structure and content, and multiple ways of viewing relationships among the same information items. Existing information storage mechanisms fail to combine diverse data types/models, complex objects and storage structures, personal views and organizations of shared objects, access to distributed, heterogeneous repositories, and ease of evolution. This paper examines these issues and describes a Distributed Hypertext (DHT) architecture that provides transparent access to autonomous, heterogeneous software object repositories, resulting in both a powerful organizational tool and a simple yet effective integration mechanism. (appears in Computer, 24(12):38-45, December 1991).
• Modeling Articulation Work in Software Engineering Processes.(with P. Mi), Current software process modeling techniques do not generally support articulation work. Articulation work includes the diagnosis, recovery, and resumption of development activities unexpectedly fail. It is an integral part of software process enactment since software processes can sometimes fail or breakdown. This paper presents a knowledge-based model of articulation work in software engineering processes. It uses empirically grounded heuristics to address three problems in articulation work: diagnosing failed development activities, determining appropriate recovery, and resuming software process enactment, We first investigate the role and importance of articulation work with respect to planned software development activities. We then outline a knowledge-based model of articulation work. The model has been implemented in a knowledge-based software process modeling environment called the Articulator. Combining available software process modeling techniques and the model for articulation leads to a better foundation for process improvement and evolution. appears in Proc. 1st. Intern. Conf. Soft. Processes, IEEE Computer Society, Redondo Beach, CA, pp. 188-201, October 1991. 
• The Software Infrastructure for a Distributed Software Factory. This paper presents an innovative approach to the construction, application and deployment of software factories. Based on experience in creating and evolving the System Factory project at USC, the authors present a new experimental project called Distributed System Factory (DSF) project. The DSF project is intended to provide a software infrastructure suitable for engineering large-scale software systems with dispersed teams working over wide-area networks. This software infrastructure is the central focus of the author. As such, he describes the information structures that can be used to model and create the infrastructure, as well as target software applications. He also describes an electronic market-place of logically centralised software services which populate and execute within this infrastructure. A brief view of how the DSF project can grow to accommodate academic and industrial research groups is also given. (appears in the Software Engineering Journal, 6(5), 355-369, September 1991).
• A Hypertext System to Manage Software Life-Cycle Documents. (with P. Garg), The Documents Integration Facility, an environment based on objects and relationships between objects that was constructed for the development, use, and maintenance of large-scale systems and their life-cycle documents, is presented. DIF helps integrate and manage the documents produced and used throughout the life cycle: requirements specifications, functional specifications, architectural designs (structural specifications), detailed designs, source code, testing information, and user and maintenance manuals. DIF supports information management in large systems where there is much natural-language text. The documentation method used by DIF and DIF's structure are described. How DIF is used is discussed, and the DIF environment is examined. Issues that were encountered in the design of DIF are considered. (appears in IEEE Software , 7(3), 90-89, May 1990).
• ISHYS: Designing and Intelligent Software Hypertext System. (with P. Garg), This paper describes the design of ISHYS, an intelligent software hypertext system, and discuss novel applications that such a system can support. In designing ISHYS, they sought to support the software life cycle from a 'web of computing' framework, which necessarily requires the consideration of sociotechnical factors influencing and influenced by the software life cycle. ISHYS supports functionalities that include influencing work interactions on the basis of social interactions and determining tools and their options on the basis of project status information. Implementation of required enhancements to DIF (documents integration facility), the authors' current software hypertext system, has been completed using Prolog, C, and X Windows. (appears in IEEE Intelligent Systems, 4(3), 52-63, Fall 1989).
  
• On the Power of Domain-Specific Hypertext Environments. What is the potential power of hypertext technology? This article examines this question and outlines the answer by focussing attention to a domaim-specific view of hypertext environments. I first define what domain-specific hypertext environments (DSHE) represent. Next, I examine DSHE for the domains of encyclopedic and classical studies, creative writing and interactive fiction, journal and book publishing, insurance policy management, and computer-aided software engineering. Then I describe in more detail the structure of information to evolve within a DSHE for software engineering in terms of document products, processing tasks and mechanisms, and workplace attributes. In turn, this examination provides the basis for identifying seven dimensions along which the power of DSHE can be defined, experienced, and accumulated. I also address the organizational costs that may be borne to realize this power. I conclude with observations as to the source of DSHE power as well as identifying topics for further investigation. (appears in Journal American Society Information Science, 40(3):183-191, May, 1989).
• Work Structures and Shifts: An Empirical Analysis of Software Specification Teamwork.(with S. Bendifallah), The study and support of teamwork in upstream software development activities (e.g., specification, design) have been approached from a variety of perspectives. Those which address aspects of the division of labor typically focus on authority or communication structures. In this paper, we examine how teams of engineers develop software specifications, from a perspective emphasizing the division of labor in terms of the work structures themselves. We present a new typology of work structures and report on an empirical investigation of these work structures. We examine the teamwork process followed by each of five comparable teams of specification developers. The teams worked over a ten-day period with state-of-the- art specification resources to deliver functional specification documents meeting prescribed quality standards. Our data and analysis show the recurrence of various kinds of shifts in the teams' work structures. We discuss the resulting patterns of work structures and shifts and their implications. In particular, separative work structures were associated with improved specification teamwork efficiency, whereas integrative work structures were associated with improved specification product quality. (appears in Proc. 11th. Intern. Conf. Software Engineering , Pittsburgh, PA, ACM and IEEE Computer Society, 260-270, May 1989).
• Understanding Software Maintenance Work. (with S. Bendifallah), Software maintenance can be successfully accomplished if the computing arrangements of the people doing the maintenance are compatible with their established patterns of work in the setting. To foster and achieve such compatibility requires an understanding of the reasons and the circumstances in which participants carry out maintenance activities. In particular, it requires an understanding of how software users and maintainers act toward the changing circumstances and unexpected events in their work situation that give rise to software system alterations. To contribute to such an understanding, we describe a comparative analysis of the work involved in maintaining and evolving text-processing systems in two academic computer science organizations. This analysis shows that how and why software systems are maintained depends on occupational and workplace contingencies, and vice versa. IEEE Trans. Software Engineering, SE-13(3), 311-323, 1987.
• Maintaining Configurations of Evolving Software Systems. (with K. Narayanaswamy), Software configuration management ( SCM) is an emerging discipline. An important aspect of realizing SCM is the task of maintaining the configurations of evolving software systems. In this paper, we provide an approach to resolving some of the conceptual and technical problems in maintaining configurations of evolving software systems. The approach provides a formal basis for existing notions of system architecture. The formal properties of this view of configurations provide the underpinnings for a rigorous notion of system integrity, and mechanisms to control the evolution of configurations. This approach is embodied in a language, NuMIL, to describe software system configurations, and a prototype environment to maintain software system configurations. We believe that the approach and the prototype environment offer a firm base to maintain software system configurations and, therefore, to implement SCM. IEEE Trans. Software Engineering, SE-13(3), 324-334, 1987.

Contact Information

• Walt Scacchi (previously Director of the USC ATRIUM lab )
• Institute for Software Research
• Information and Computer Science Dept.
• University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3455 USA
• PHONE: +1-949-824-4130
• FAX: +1-949-824-1715
  
• EMAIL: wscacchi  <<@>> ics (.) uci [.] edu