Bi-directional product development process simulation

• US 7,793,271 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2005
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: State Of Oregon Acting By And Through The State Board Of Higher Education On Behalf Of Portland State University
• Original Assignee: State Of Oregon Acting By And Through The State Board Of Higher Education On Behalf Of Portland State University
• Inventors: Raffo, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen; Qing
• Application Number:
  US11/155,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20060101383A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,909 Days
• Field of Search: 717/100, 717104-105, 717124-135, 703/22
• US Class Current: 717/135
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A bi-directional software development process simulation model is described. The model simulates the stages of a software development process, using equations relating to defect injection and detection and parameters describing detection and injection rates. With forward development process simulation, predictions can be made for process outcomes. By simulating in the reverse direction, defect detection requirements can be found for each stage of the model to achieve a desired performance result. Outcome-based control levels are utilized with the model to better detect whether a process is out of control. By going between the forward and reverse simulation directions, control of the process can be fine-tuned as defect detection data is obtained during process execution. In addition to quality as measured by defects, other metrics can be simulated, including cost, time, and features; similarly other product development scenarios, such as hardware or systems engineering can also be modeled and simulated.

Claims

1. A method of simulating a software development process using a computer configured to perform a software development simulation through analysis of a quality metric, the method comprising:

selecting a reverse software development process simulation model corresponding to the software development process for the software development simulation on the computer, the reverse software development process simulation model comprising a plurality of software development stages;

determining defect parameters for the plurality of software development stages of the reverse software development process simulation model;

determining reverse defect equations for the plurality of software development stages of the reverse software development process simulation model;

determining outcome-based control statistics for the software development process;

applying the reverse defect equations to the outcome-based control statistics and the defect parameters to determine control requirements for the plurality of software development stages of the reverse software development process simulation model;

selecting a forward software development process simulation model corresponding to the software development process for the software development simulation on the computer, the forward software development process simulation model comprising a plurality of software development stages, each of the plurality of software development stages of the forward software development process simulation model corresponding to one of the plurality of software development stages of the reverse software development process simulation model;

determining forward defect equations for the plurality of software development stages of the forward software development process simulation model;

applying the forward defect equations to the defect parameters to determine baseline process performance data; and

comparing the baseline process performance data to the outcome-based control statistics to determine if the software development process is out of control.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the software development process is out of control; and

analyzing control requirements for the plurality of software development stages of the reverse software development process simulation model to identify one or more software development stages which will improve the baseline process performance data determined from the forward software development process simulation model when the defect parameters for the one or more identified software development stages are improved.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

modifying one or more defect parameters;

applying the forward defect equations to the modified one or more defect parameters to determine modified process performance data; and

comparing the modified process performance data to the baseline process performance data to determine how the software development process has been improved.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining reverse defect equations comprises modifying the forward defect equations to create reverse defect equations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a reverse software development process simulation model comprises modifying the selected forward software development process simulation model to create a reverse software development process simulation model.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the defect parameters include defect injection rates and the reverse and forward software development process simulation models are configured to accept defect injection rate parameters.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the defect parameters include inspection effectiveness and test effectiveness and the forward and reverse software development process simulation models are configured to accept inspection effectiveness and test effectiveness parameters.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of software development stages of the forward software development process simulation model produces performance data representing the number of defects which have escaped detection or correction at that software development stage.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the baseline process performance data is produced by the last software development stage of the forward software development process simulation model.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of software development stages of the reverse software development process simulation model accepts a maximum number of defects to be allowed after the simulation of that software development stage and produces a maximum number of defects that could be accepted before simulation of the software development stage as a defect requirement for that software development stage.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the reverse software development process simulation model comprises a waterfall process model, a rational unified process model, or conforms to an IEEE 12207 process design standard.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected reverse software development process simulation model and forward software development process simulation model comprise generalized software process simulation models.

13. A method for controlling a software development process through analysis of cost, quality, or schedule metrics using a computer configured to perform a software development simulation, the method comprising:

determining outcome-based control limits for the software development process for a cost, quality, or schedule metric;

selecting a bi-directional software development process simulation model which corresponds to the software development process for the software development simulation on the computer, the bi-directional software development process simulation model comprising a plurality of software development stages along with forward and reverse simulation equations;

determining baseline parameters for the bi-directional software development process simulation model;

determining a baseline performance prediction by simulating the software development process using the bi-directional software development process simulation model;

comparing the baseline performance prediction to the outcome-based control limits to determine if the software development process is in control using the baseline parameters;

determining parameter requirements for each software development stage of the bi-directional software development process simulation model based on the outcome-based control limits;

analyzing the parameter requirements to determine one or more software development stages whose parameters, when improved, will improve a performance prediction from the bi-directional software development process simulation model; and

modifying one or more parameters.

14. A system for planning and controlling a software development process, the system comprising:

a memory;

a processing unit;

a simulation software residing in the memory and executing on the processing unit, the simulation software being configured to display simulation models, to allow editing of process simulation models, to execute process simulations, and to report simulation performance results;

a bi-directional software development process simulation model comprising a plurality of software development stages and forward and reverse defect equations,

the simulation software configured to;

determine baseline parameters for the bi-directional software development process simulation model;

determine a baseline performance prediction by simulating the software development process using the bi-directional software development process simulation model;

compare the baseline performance prediction to outcome-based control limits to determine if the software development process is in control using the baseline parameters;

determine parameter requirements for each software development stage of the bi-directional software development process simulation model based on the outcome-based control limits; and

analyze the parameter requirements to determine one or more software development stages whose parameters, when improved, will improve a performance prediction from the bi-directional software development process simulation model; and

a data and parameter repository residing in the memory containing defect parameters and configured to receive simulation performance results.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a simulation software and data which, when read by a computer, cause the computer to simulate a software development process by executing:

a bi-directional software development process simulation model configured to accept defect parameters and produce simulation performance data measured by quality and to accept outcome-based control limits for quality and produce defect requirements, wherein the bi-directional software development process simulation model comprises;

a plurality of software development stages; and

forward and reverse defect equations representing interactions between each of the plurality of software development stages; and

wherein the simulation software is configured to;

determine baseline parameters for the bi-directional software development process simulation model;

determine a baseline performance prediction by simulating the software development process using the bi-directional software development process simulation model;

compare the baseline performance prediction to outcome-based control limits to determine if the software development process is in control using the baseline parameters;

determine parameter requirements for each software development stage of the bi-directional software development process simulation model based on the outcome-based control limits; and

analyze the parameter requirements to determine one or more software development stages whose parameters, when improved, will improve a performance prediction from the bi-directional software development process simulation model.

16. A method of controlling a software development process through analysis of cost, quality, or schedule metrics using a computer, the method comprising:

analyzing the software development process to create outcome-based control limits for one or more selected metrics, the outcome-based control limits representing acceptable levels for the one or more selected metrics at the outcome of the software development process;

creating a bi-directional software development process simulation model, the bi-directional software development process simulation model comprising;

a plurality of software development stages configured to represent the stages of the software development process;

baseline simulation parameters for the one or more selected metrics; and

forward and reverse simulation equations configured to accept metric parameters and produce predictive simulation data for the one or more selected metrics;

performing a baseline simulation on the computer of the software development process using the baseline simulation parameters and the bi-directional software development process simulation model to obtain baseline predictive performance data;

performing a portion of the software development process to obtain updated development data;

performing an updated simulation on the computer of the software development process using the updated development data and the bi-directional software development process simulation model to obtain updated predictive performance data;

performing a reverse simulation on the computer of the software development process using the updated development data to determine software development stages where performance benefits can be achieved; and

revising the software development process to achieve performance benefits.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the bi-directional software development process simulation model further comprises a data repository which is configured to accept simulation parameters and simulation data.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein predictive simulation data comprises predictive performance data and requirements data.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein performing a reverse simulation comprises utilizing the reverse simulation equations and updated data to develop requirements data for each software development stage that has not been performed.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining that the updated development data is outside of the outcome-based control limits.