Process Patterns for Aspect-Oriented Software Development

Focusing on aspects during early stages of the software development lifecycle has received special attention by many researchers, leading to the advent of numerous Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) methods. This has consequently given a relatively high level of maturity to aspect-oriented processes. Process patterns, on the other hand, have been adopted as suitable mechanisms for defining or tailoring processes to fit specific organizational/project requirements. Process patterns, which essentially are reusable process components extracted from successful processes and practices, can be used to engineer new software development methodologies or to enhance existing ones. We propose a generic Aspect-Oriented Software Process (AOSP), constructed through studying and abstracting prominent aspect-oriented processes. Based on the proposed AOSP, process patterns are provided which incorporate well-established aspect-oriented practices for different development stages. By employing specific process evaluation criteria, the characteristics of these patterns have been analyzed.