PIT-ProcessM: A Software Process Improvement Meta-Model

Software Process Improvement (SPI) is one of the main actual software development challenges. Process metamodels allow capturing informational and behavioural aspects of software development processes. Unfortunately, standard process meta-modelling approaches, such as the Software Process Engineering Meta-model (SPEM), OPEN Process Framework (OPF) and Standard Meta-model for Software Development Methodologies (SMSDM), focus just on process description, providing different models for several versions of the same process. According to these meta modelling approaches, it is not possible to compare and identify improvements in an improved process. This lack of information recognizes that further research in SPI meta-model is needed to reflect the evolution/change on software processes. Considering this limitation in SPI meta-modelling, this paper presents a comparative study of the most recognized process meta-models approaches and introduces a new SPI based meta-model designed by Project IT-Process Meta-model (PIT-Process M). Our intention is to present observed problems in existing approaches and propose a process meta-model that addresses features related to process changes and evolution.