Agent-based approach for software development process simulation

Understanding software development process has always been a great challenge in the software engineering field. Actual engineering has many aspects and processes that need to be well understood and modeled. We focus on simulating the development process according to two complementary points of view: method and application engineering views. We use a formalism to represent the process model, which is the map. Maps are dynamic: they provide several non-deterministic strategies to achieve given intentions from given products. Navigation in a map is dynamic. We design and develop an agent-based simulator where its main components are environment and actors: the environment which is composed of the map structure being simulated and the product being developed; software engineers are modeled as autonomous agents able to select sections and achieve intentions. By agent cloning, we were able to develop exhaustive and concurrent multi-process and multiproduct building. Our simulation supports engineers in building their maps and validating process models by giving an exhaustive and simultaneous navigation through one map. Maps incoherencies have been detected and flexibility assessed.