Classification of meta-processes and their models

Identifies a taxonomy to characterize meta-process categories, and their characteristics. The taxonomy is applied to several existing software process-centered support environments (PSEs) and their support technologies. Up to now, meta-processes have been poorly understood, and thus hardly exploited properly. In some PSEs, meta-processes are supported, but their properties are not reflected clearly in any systematic framework. In this paper, some typical characteristics of meta-processes are recognized by clarifying: (i) the reasons why meta-processes are necessary for software development and maintenance; (ii) which effects they have on other components or fragments of a software process; (iii) how and when they should be accomplished; and (iv) who is responsible for performing them. These characteristics also contribute to recognizing the phases of meta-processes in software engineering. Identified characteristics and phases, serving as a framework for assessment, are then applied to evaluate five European PSEs, namely Adele2, EPOS, SPADE, Process Weaver and Process Wise Integrator. The intention of this evaluation is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the identified PSE systems, providing a motivation for their further research and enhancement. In addition, it is also an initial step to validate and demonstrate the usefulness of this proposed assessment framework w.r.t. studying software meta-processes