A workflow vista of the software process

Software development is a complex process for which automated tools for the management and the execution of the process are highly desirable. Existing tools often provide a sequence of phases to be followed and some mechanism for refining a phase into more detailed phases. However, derivations from the pre defined phases and the top down refinement approach cannot be easily accommodated without losing a significant amount of control. Such a static view of the software development process does not reflect the practice of system developers and hence is inappropriate for both the management and the execution of the process. The paper advocates a workflow based view to the software development process which provides elaborate control and supports dynamic organisation of the development phases. Equally important, the paper highlights the fact that the software process poses many requirements that are shared by other application domains. Hence, overcoming the challenge of providing workflow support to the software process will shed light on the problems in other application domains that are possibly less well understood