Improving the Integration of the Software Supply Chain via the Semantic Web

Supply chains are a significant concept for improving the cooperation of vendors and customers for material products. While the assembly of increasingly complex components in modern software development resembles a supply chain, classical supply chain management concepts are rarely applied. An interruption in the flow of information exists between the development/maintenance phases and operational phases, resulting in ignorance, inefficiencies, and suboptimal quality and support levels. One reason for this is the effort necessary to integrate the software lifecycle processes, coupled with the dispersion of information needed for execution of (semi-)automated software lifecycle workflows across semantically heterogeneous sources. Furthermore, the manual derivation of abstract IT (e.g., ITIL) and software processes into concrete processes and workflows results in low quality and inefficiencies. This paper describes an approach for improving the integration of software supply chains via the (semi- )automated realization of abstract software lifecycle processes and workflows in conjunction with semantic web technologies.