Understanding “why” in software process modelling, analysis, and design

In trying to understand and redesign software processes, it is often necessary to have an understanding of the “whys” that underlie the “whats” - the motivations, intents, and rationales behind the activities and input-output flows. This paper presents a model which captures the intentional structure of a software process and its embedding organization, in terms of dependency relationships among actors. Actors depend on each other for goals to be achieved, tasks to be performed, and resources to be furnished. The model is embedded in the conceptual modelling language Telos. We outline some analytical tools to be developed for the model, and illustrate how the model can help in the systematic design of software processes. The examples used are adaptations of the ISPW-6/7 benchmark example