Implementing process enactment within a process-centred software development environment

In recent years, software companies have come to realise the benefits that can be gained through the formal definition of their software development processes. Extending beyond the mere definition of such processes to be checked manually for compliance, process-centred software development environments (PCSDEs) have emerged as potentially useful tools for modelling and enacting these processes. One problem with existing PCSDEs is that the implementation of process enactment is ad hoc. This not only leads to potential for error but it also makes automatic implementation difficult, meaning then that it is difficult to rapidly develop, evaluate and refine these environments to the specific needs of industry. This paper describes an approach to implementing process enactment within a process-centred software development environment which is based on a finite state machine model of process enactment. This approach is contrasted with existing techniques for achieving process enactment.