Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
data, related literature and workshops in the organization. To ensure that the patterns
were feasible the proposed process patterns have been tentatively validated by dis-
cussing the patterns with key persons.
2.2 Evaluating Process Patterns
The evaluation technique used here for the pattern language is called Q-PAM [8]. The
basic idea of Q-PAM is to use scenarios as test cases which are analyzed against the
patterns, in the same way as scenarios have been used in ATAM [12] for assessing the
quality attributes of software architecture.
The first step in Q-PAM is to create a quality profile for the process (here, a proc-
ess pattern language). The quality profile is a set of quality factors considered essen-
tial in the assessment of the process. The quality profile thus depends not only on the
quality requirements of the process, but also on the purpose of the assessment: the
same process may be assessed with different profiles. Quality profiles are assumed to
be obtained by extracting them from quality attribute lists available in standards e.g.
ISO 9126 [13].
When the quality profile has been constructed, each quality attribute is associated
with scenarios that serve as test cases for the quality attribute. A scenario is a concrete
desired situation in an imaginary instance of the process where the existence or non-
existence of the required quality property can be verified. Scenarios can also be pri-
oritized for more focused processing, if needed.
The next step is the actual quality analysis. Each (possibly prioritized) scenario is
analyzed against the process patterns: which patterns (if any) support the realization
of the scenario, and which patterns counteract the scenario (if any). A tag is attached
to the scenario, characterizing the extent to which the pattern language is considered
to pass the scenario test, on the basis of the analysis.
3 GSD Pattern Language
In this section we introduce the GSD pattern language and present the organisation of
the GSD patterns based on PRINCE2 which is a project management method [14].
3.1 GSD Patterns
The purpose of the Global Software Development for Project Management Pattern
Language is to enhance performance of project management work through improved
global software project management practices. The GSD Pattern Language includes
18 process patterns which have been found to be important in the area of project man-
agement in GSD. The current version of GSD Pattern Language includes process
patterns supporting both traditional waterfall and agile project management.
GSD patterns are presented in Table 1. The first column contains the name of the
pattern, the second describes the problem the pattern is supposed to solve, and the last
column gives the solution outline of the pattern. An example of a more detailed pat-
tern is in Table 2.
