Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM
Chris Armstrong Armstrong Process Group [Link]
Module Objectives
Introduce the Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM) specification Discuss fundamental process building blocks
Work product, process role, activity, guidances Discipline, process component, work definition
Discuss the process adoption process Discuss how to apply UML diagrams for process modeling
Activity diagrams Class diagrams
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
What Is SPEM?
Specification from the Object Management Group for how to describe software engineering processes Described as a UML profile Provide basis for capturing process models in SPEMcompliant tools
Create base process libraries and components in any
tool Customize organization- and project-specific processes
Current version is 1.0; version 2.0 underway
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Model Hierarchy
M3: MetaObject Facility M2: Process Metamodel
abstraction
OMG meta metamodel; modeling language for modeling languages SPEM specification identifying elements required to describe processes
M1: Process Model
Specific process model for domain or vendor; includes out-of-the-box and customized versions Actual process enacted by a project
M0: Enacted Process
# of elements
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Relationship of SPEM to UML
SPEM is defined as a UML profile
Defines the subset of UML to use Identifies special stereotypes to existing UML elements
Use packages for organizing process model Most SPEM elements are described using UML classes Process behavior described using
Activity diagrams (workflow diagrams) Statechart diagrams (work product state models)
Process structure described using class diagrams
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Core SPEM Elements
process role
1
Process roles responsible for work products
responsible for
Each work product responsibility of single role
0..* performs input
Process roles perform activities
work product
0..* output
0..*
Each activity only performed by single role
0..* 0..* used by 0..* activity produced by
Work products used as inputs to activities and outputs from activities Somebody does something that changes something
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Structure
parent 0..* 0..* subwork
work definition
0..* used by
work 0..* 0..*
1 performer
process performer
produced by
0..* output
0..* input
work product
0..* responsible for
activity
0..*
0..*
step
process role
0..* assistant
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Work Product
Anything produced, consumed, or modified by a process
Known as artifacts or deliverables in certain processes Represent using UML aggregation or composition
Work products can be composed of other work products Represent responsible role using association between role and work product Work products can be of various kinds
Document, model, source code, executable
Work products may have an associated state model Represented as UML class stereotyped as work product Instances of work products shown as object flow states on activity diagrams
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Work Product States
Key factor in modeling adaptive processes is to identify and describe the multiple states an individual work product goes through in its lifetime Most useful when states represent how work product gets more and more complete
Provides objective criteria for determining done-ness Work product is either completely done or not done at all No intermediate stopping points for review and assessment
Traditional processes have work products with a single state
Draw UML statechart diagram to identify states and allowable transitions Show work products as object flows with states on activity diagrams
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Example Work Product States Use Case
Identified (Level 1) Described (Level 2) Outlined (Level 3) Detailed (Level 4)
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
10
Identified with name Described with sentence or two Basic flow steps identified; alternate flows identified by name Basic and alternate flows detailed; special requirements
Work Definition
11
Describes work performed in process Main subclass is activity
Phase, iteration, and lifecycle are also subclasses of work definition Recommend using work definitions to group related activities Can be related to a use case leads to useful results
Can be composed of smaller work definitions
Has input and output work products Can have pre-conditions and goals (post-conditions) Responsibility of specific process performer (usually a process role) Represented as UML class stereotyped as work definition
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Activity
12
Main subclass of work definition Discrete task, relatively short in duration, assignable to one individual playing role Represented as operation (on a class) stereotyped as activity Has input and output work products
Represented as parameters on activity operation
Recommend that activities should either create new work products or change state of existing work product
Otherwise, how do you know if the activity occurred?
Activities can be optionally decomposed into smaller, atomic steps
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Role
13
Defines a role that one or many people may play on project
Software architect, project manager, developer Known as role, worker, or agent in certain processes Often represented as class instead
Represented as UML actor stereotyped as process role
Responsible for one or many work products
May modify other work products
May assist with other activities Superclass occasionally used for work definitions not assignable as activities to process roles
Responsible for performing specific activities Subclass of process performer
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Guidances
14
Can be associated with any SPEM model element to provide more detailed information about the element to the practitioner Most often associated with activities and work products SPEM comes with a set of built-in guidance types
Checklist Template Example Tool mentor Guideline
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Components and Packages
15
package
process component
Process elements should be organized using packages Package groupings of process elements suitable for reuse into process components
Packages stereotyped as process component
discipline
process
A discipline is a set of activities, work products, and roles related to one theme A process is considered to be a stand-alone component Show dependencies between components
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Lifecycle
16
Subclass of work definition
Really should be subclasses of something other than
work definition, such as a time element (not in SPEM 1.0)
Lifecycle
Sequence of phases that achieve a specific goal Governed by a process Sequential chunks of time during process enactment Smaller chunk of time with minor milestone
Phase
Iteration
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Adoption Process
17
Like UML, SPEM only defines a language for how to describe software processes It does not prescribe any particular process or method for assembling the model Also does not provide guidance on model organization and tool support In the Rapid Iterative Process (RIP), there is a separate process adoption discipline that addresses much of this
Also separate process enactment and process audit
disciplines
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
SPEM UML diagrams
18
Process component dependency diagram Discipline workflow diagram Work definition workflow diagram Process role activity diagram Process role work product diagram Work product relationship diagram Work product state diagram
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Component Dependency Diagram
19
discipline Object-Oriented Analysis Discipline
import
import
discipline Architecture Discipline
discipline Requirements Discipline
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Discipline Workflow Diagram
work definition
determine analysis scope analysis model [identified]
20
analyze use case behavior analysis model [described]
decision with guard
analyze use case structure
analysis model [outlined]
[no significant entities]
[significant entities]
Shows general ordering of high-level work definitions for single discipline One discipline usually should between three and six work definitions Show major input and output work products and states
output work product (in this case, same instance but in different state)
entity class [outlined]
describe entity event model
entity class [detailed]
input work product
manage analysis model
analysis model [detailed]
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Work Definition Workflow Diagram
Analyze Use Case Behavior
activity
system actor [described]
21
system use case diagram
identify boundary classes
boundary class [identified]
system use case [detailed]
identify control classes
control class [identified]
domain model identify entity classes analysis class [identified] entity class [identified]
analysis event flow [detailed] model analysis realization behavior
analysis model [described]
analysis model [identified]
analysis realization [identified]
analysis realization [outlined]
Shows general ordering of activities that compose a more coarse-grained work definition Usually more and finergrained work products shown as inputs and outputs One work definition workflow diagram per work definition Coarse-grained input and output work products should be consistent with discipline workflow diagram
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Roles and Activities Diagram
Shows roles in discipline and which activities are responsibility of each role System Analyst Use Case Analyst Leader of all analysis Develops the piece of the activities for the project analysis model associated with one or many use cases
system analyst select analysis pattern ( ) identify analysis event flows ( ) create analysis realization ( ) identify entity states ( ) identify state changes ( ) model entity event states ( ) describe analysis classes ( ) describe analysis package ( ) organize analysis model ( ) produce analysis realization report ( )
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
22
use case analyst identify boundary classes ( ) identify control classes ( ) identify entity classes ( ) model analysis realization behavior ( ) identify analysis class data elements ( ) identify analysis class relationships ( ) identify analysis class responsibilities ( ) model analysis realization structure ( )
Process Roles and Work Products Diagram
Assisted Work Products
analysis class
assists with assists with
23
analysis event flow
responsible for responsible for
system analyst
responsible for
UML transition entity state change
analysis model
responsible for responsible for
report analysis realization report
UML state entity state
responsible for responsible for
responsible for
Responsible Work Products
analysis pattern
UML package analysis package
UML statechart diagram entity event model
analysis realization
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Work Product Dependency Diagram
analysis pattern library
based on consists of consists of
24
analysis model UML package analysis package
consists of consists of
analysis pattern
consists of consists of
analysis realization
influenced by has
has
analysis participants diagram analysis class
analysis event flow
Shows work products in discipline and their relationships Can be supplemented with additional diagrams to establish traceability between work products in different disciplines
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Work Product State Diagram
Analysis Class
25
Create a statechart diagram to show the different states of a work product
identified
Not all work products may have more than one state
described
outlined
Textually describe what it means for the work product to be at each state Usually do not put additional notation on this diagram Use activity diagrams to show how work product changes its state throughout the process
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Model Organization Discipline
26
Process model organized into discipline packages Each discipline has three sub-packages
Guidances Roles Work products
Single class diagram showing component dependencies Single activity graph for workflow model
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Model Organization Workflow
27
Workflow activity graph has a single activity diagram for overall discipline Create UML activity for each work definition and place on discipline workflow diagram Describe details of work definition using a nested activity diagram that shows each SPEM activity for the work definition
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Model Organization Roles
28
Create a separate class for each role in the Roles package Create a class diagram for role activities inside the class Create a class diagram for role work products inside the class Create operations on role class for SPEM activities Can optionally define operation parameters (input/output work products)
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Model Organization Work Products
29
Create package for work product guidance diagrams Create one or many class diagrams to show which guidances are related to which work products Create package for work product dependency diagrams Create one or many class diagrams to show relationships between work products Create class for each work product Optionally define state models
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Model Organization Guidances
30
Create sub-packages for each guidance type
Checklists Examples Guidelines Templates
Create class diagram to show each guidance type Create classes for each guidance
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Process Adoption Discipline Workflow
<<work definition>> align process environment
31
<<work definition>> design process
<<work definition>> refine process design
<<work definition>> develop process content
<<work definition>> manage process model
Start with aligning the process engineering environment with business objectives Identify the key process elements (activities, work products, and workflows) Refine the process model with input/output work product states, identify roles and assign activities and work products, identify guidances Develop textual content of process model Manage and organize process components
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Design Process Work Definition Workflow
organization : process assessment
identify discipline : process library identify activities discipline : process assessment identify work definition : activity [identified] assign activities to work definitions : discipline workflow diagram [outlined] : discipline [identified]
32
: work definition [identified]
: work definition [described]
: activity : work product [identified] : work definition diagram [outlined]
identify output work products
[described]
: discipline
[identified]
: activity [identified]
model workflow
: work definition
[outlined]
Identify the activities for the discipline to be designed Group activities and identify work definitions Model discipline workflow Identify output work products Model outlined work definition workflow
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Conclusions
33
SPEM 1.0 provided opportunity to demonstrate proofof-concept
SPEM 2.0 will address shortcomings
UML suitable for process modeling SPEM provides significant depth to define precise process models suitable for most development organizations SPEM process modeling tools are important
Need to define tool usage guidelines
Must have a proven practical process for adoption
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
Q&A
34
Thanks for your attention and participation!
UML & Design World 2005: Software Process Modeling with UML and SPEM Copyright 1998-2005, Armstrong Process Group, Inc., All rights reserved
