Software factory: using process modeling for integration purposes

The ESF (Eureka Software Factory) program relies on the idea of a software factory for improving software development productivity and quality. HAPPI, one of the ESF project, aims at developing a first prototype of a software factory. Attention is given to the main choices made by HAPPI to integrate people and their tools inside a whole system. A process model view of integration is then described which uses a specific language to formulate both organization of work and interoperability of tools. The demonstration built in the HAPPI project is discussed. This factory involves five people working together to accomplish some task in a running project. These people use their own heterogeneous tools on several machines and operating systems (Sun/Unix, PC/MSDos) and their work precisely follows a defined methodology and is controlled by a process model