Towards an Identification Framework for Software Drifts: A Case Study

Software drift is a common phenomenon in software development processes, which may lead to process deviation and then affect software quality. Effectively controlling negative software drifts is the key to achieving acceptable, predictable, and dependable software evolution in the model-driven development. In this paper we put forward a general taxonomy to identify different drifts in development processes according to their effects on software development. Based on the taxonomy, categories of process drift and quality drift are detailedly introduced. Moreover, we propose an integration framework for different drifts to realize the integration between development process and product quality. Eventually, a case study from practical project development is shown to prove the validity of our identification framework.