A MDA proposal to integrate the measurement lifecycle Into the process lifecycle

Abstract

Context: Measurement enables organizations to gain knowledge about its processes and projects, also to reach predictable performance and high capability processes, which places organizations in better positions to make appropriate decisions. Measuring the software development process supports organizations in its endeavor to understand, evaluate, manage, and improve its development processes and projects. In the last decades, the software development process has evolved to meet the market needs and to keep abreast of modern technologies and infrastructures that have influenced the product development and its use. These changes in the development processes have increased the importance of the measurement and caused changes in the measurement process and the used measures. Objective: This thesis aims to contribute to the software process measurement domain in two main aspects; first, propose a novel solution to support the identification and the operational definition of the measurement concepts and objectives. The second is defining a measurement lifecycle and integrate it into the process lifecycle. Method: We have carried out a survey and mapping study to understand the current state of the art, and to identify existing gaps. After that, we have proposed a theoretical solution to support the software process measurement, and finally, we have developed this solution to allow its practical use in real environments, enabling its application and evaluation in a real project. Results: The proposed solution consists of three main components: (i) Measurement lifecycle; which define the measurement activities throughout the process lifecycle, (ii) Measurement metamodels; these metamodels support the measurement lifecycle and its integration into the process lifecycle, (iii) Transformation process; which allow the derivation of the necessary measurement models, artifacts, and activities throughout the process lifecycle. Conclusion: The solution presented in this dissertation allows organizations to manage and improve their processes and projects; the proposed information model supports the unification of the measurement concepts vocabulary, coherently connects them, and ensures the traceability between these concepts. The defined measurement process lifecycle provides a clear and comprehensive guide for the organizations to establish the measurement objectives and carry out the necessary activities to achieve them. The proposed measurement definition metamodel support and guide the engineers to define the measurement concepts and their relationships completely and operationally. Moreover, the proposed transformations use this metamodel to support the measurement process and to derive the necessary measurement artifacts and activities throughout the process lifecycle.