Integrating System Modeling with Project Management - A Case Study

In software engineering projects, there are two different types of modeling tools. On the one hand, there are tools to model the system under construction, i.e. tools for requirements or UML tools for design. On the other hand, there are tools to model the project itself such as project management tools, bug trackers, or tools to model the organizational structure. In typical software engineering projects, the artifacts managed using these two types of tools are not integrated with each other. This makes traceability, e.g. from a task to the according part of the specification, rather difficult. Furthermore, entities belonging to the system model, for instance requirements, have to be modeled redundantly in management tools if they are used for planning purposes. We also claim that specifications are more likely to be kept up-to-date if they are integrated with frequently visited views such as task lists. This paper presents a case study, in which the system under construction as well as the project management was modeled with a single unified tool. The paper focuses on how this approach can solve the above-mentioned issues. We present additional benefits, unsolved issues, and chances for future research using such an approach.