Behavioural issues in software engineering process modelling: a multi-paradigm approach

There is a growing consensus that if substantial software engineering productivity improvements are to be realised, much greater attention must be paid to the so-called “softer” (or people-centred) factors. A software engineering process modelling framework is presented. The focus of this work is on behavioural aspects. A feature of the framework is that user views, in a variety of modelling formalisms, may be extracted from a common, highly-abstracted conceptual model. This is consistent with an emerging view that the development of more formal models of organization and management theory (OMT) requires a “horses for courses” approach. That is, different theories are often best represented using different paradigms, with the conceptual model serving as a common reference point through which consistent user views may be derived and verified. Examples of user views, represented and implemented in Prolog and a systems dynamics modelling tool, are presented