Automating the software development process

Demand for reliable software systems is stressing software production capability, and automation is seen as a practical approach to increasing productivity and quality. Discussed in this paper are an approach and an architecture for automating the software development process. The concepts are developed from the viewpoint of the needs of the software development process, rather than that of established tools or technology. We discuss why automation of software development must be accomplished by evolutionary means. We define the architecture of a software engineering support facility to support long-term process experimentation, evolution, and automation. Such a facility would provide flexibility, tool portability, tool and process integration, and process automation for a wide range of methodologies and tools. We present the architectural concepts for such a facility and examine ways in which it can be used to foster software automation.