Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Discovering Changes of the Change Control Board
Process during a Software Development Project Using
Process Mining
Jana Šamalíková, Jos J.M. Trienekens, Rob J. Kusters, and A.J.M.M. (Ton) Weijters
University of Technology Eindhoven
Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences
P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, NL
{J.Samalikova,J.J.M.Trienekens,R.J.Kusters,
A.J.M.M.Weijters}@tue.nl
Abstract.
During a software process improvement program, the current state of
software development processes is being assessed and improvement actions are
being determined. However, these improvement actions are based on process
models obtained during interviews and document studies, e.g. quality manuals.
Such improvements are scarcely based on the practical way of working in an
organization; they do not take into account shortcuts made due to e.g. time pres-
sure. Becoming conscious about the presence of such deviations and under-
standing their causes and impacts, consequences for particular software process
improvement activities in a particular organization could be proposed. This
paper reports on the application of process mining techniques to discover short-
comings in the Change Control Board process in an organization during the dif-
ferent lifecycle phases and to determine improvement activities.
Keywords:
Process mining, performance analysis, software process
improvement.
1 Introduction
The quality of software can currently be accomplished through various approaches and
techniques. One of the main quality improvement approaches focuses on the assess-
ment and subsequent improvement of the software development process (e.g. CMMI).
The assumption is that a structured way of developing software products prevents in-
jecting errors and defects into software. Software process improvement models focus
on improving development processes which are obtained e.g. during interviews and the
study of document, such as quality manuals. However, such processes descriptions are
often different from the real practice within an organization, for example due to the
lack of discipline or time pressure. Analyzing information stored in a software project
database or repository could reveal the "real" processes that developers are following,
their deviations from a documented process model and also the causes and impacts of
such deviations. Becoming conscious about the presence of the deviations and under-
standing their causes and impacts, consequences for particular software process im-
provement activities in a particular organization could be proposed.
