SPEM 2.0 as process baseline Meta-Model for the development and optimization of complex embedded systems

The Software & Systems Process Engineering Meta-Model Specification Version 2.0 (SPEM 2.0) is well known in industry and research domains as a process-oriented meta-model and it is often used as baseline meta-model for processes related to software engineering, being largely applied in the context of multidisciplinary projects. Outcomes from two large projects - the European CRYSTAL and the German SPES_XT - come to prove its worth and to indicate feasible ways of implementing different processes by means of software frameworks based on this specification and taking advantage of an existing conform tool, the Eclipse Process Framework Composer. In the first case, SPEM 2.0 was used as the baseline meta-model for the CRYSTAL Platform Builder, a software platform for integration of diverse software tools that composes the CRYSTAL Reference Technology Platform, this way improving interoperability while decreasing embedded systems design effort and cost. It was as well used for tailoring product development processes, which are the main input for the Platform Builder itself. In the second occasion, SPEM 2.0 was also employed as the baseline meta-model for the Design Space Exploration process, which finds optimized solutions for the deployment of logical components in terms of tasks or processes (software components) to technical components (hardware resources) with respect to a set of optimization goals and constraints. Furthermore, it is used in the generation of a supporting tool called the Architecture Wizard, which guides the system engineer during the Design Space Exploration process. We present achieved outcomes from both described cases, indicating similarities, differences and complementing ideas between each approach regarding SPEM 2.0 as baseline meta-model. We propose as well what we see as a natural continuation of the already developed work and how to achieve it: the integration of results from both use cases facilitated by the use of the same baseline meta-model and of the same process framework tool.