A Model-Driven Approach to Assuring Process Reliability

The process can fail to deliver its expected outputs and consequently contribute to the introduction of faults into the software system. The process may fail due to ambiguous and unsuitable notations, unreliable tool-support, flawed methods and techniques or incompetent personnel. However, not all process activities pose the same degree of risks and therefore require the same degree of rigour. In this paper, we define an extendable metamodel for describing lifecycle processes. The metamodel embodies attributes which facilitate the automated analysis of the process, revealing possible process failures and associated risks. The metamodel also provides the capability to automatically verify the compliance of the process with certification standards. The metamodel is evaluated against processes from the aerospace and automotive domains.