USC School of Business Administration
- Scacchi, W. (1994) Understanding Software Productivity. To Appear in Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering: Trends for the Next Decade, D. Hurley (ed.), Vol. 4, World Scientific Press, (1995).
- Abstract: What affects software productivity and how do we improve it? This report examines the current state of the art in software productivity measurement. In turn, it describes a framework for understanding software productivity, some fundamentals of measurement, surveys empirical studies of software productivity, and identifies challenges involved in measuring software productivity. A radical alternative to current approaches is suggested: to construct, evaluate, deploy, and evolve a knowledge-based "software productivity modeling and simulation system" using tools and techniques from the domain of software process engineering.
- Scacchi, W. & P. Mi (1993) Modeling, Integrating, and Enacting Complex Organizational Processes. Proceedings of the 5th. International Symposium on Intelligent
Systems in Finance, Accounting and Management, Stanford, CA (December 1993).
- Abstract: We describe our approach
and mechanisms to support the engineering of organizational processes
throughout their life cycle. We describe our current understanding of what
activities are included in the process life cycle. We then go on to describe our
approach, computational mechanisms, and experiences in supporting many
of these life cycle activities, as well as compare it to other related efforts.
Along the way, we present examples drawn from a current study aimed at
modeling, analyzing, and integrating an order fulfillment process in a
product development organization.
- Mi, P. & W. Scacchi () A Meta-Model for Formulating Knowledge-Based Models of Software Development. Report from the ATRIUM Project, Information and Operations Management Dept., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
- Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a knowledge-based meta-model
which serves as a unified resource model for integrating characteristics of
major types of objects appearing in software development models (SDMs).
The URM consists of a taxonomy of resource classes and a web of relations
that link different types of resources found in different kinds of models of
software development. The URM includes specialized models for software
systems, documents, agents, tools, and development processes. The URM has
served as the basis for integrating and interoperating a number of
process-centered CASE environments. The major benefit of the URM is
twofold: First, it forms a higher level of abstraction supporting SDM
formulation that subsumes many typical models of software development
objects. Hence, it enables a higher level of reusability for existing support
mechanisms of these models. Second, it provides a basis to support complex
reasoning mechanisms that address issues across different types of software
objects. To explore these features, we describe the URM both formally and
with a detailed example, followed by a characterization of the process of SDM
composition, and then by a characterization of the life cycle of activities
involved in an overall model formulation process.
- Karrer, A. & W. Scacchi (1994) Meta-Environments for Software Production. Report from the ATRIUM Project, Information and Operations Management Dept., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
- Abstract: Researchers who create
software production environments face considerable problems. Software
production environments are large systems that are costly to develop.
Furthermore, software production environments which support particular
software engineering methods may not be applicable to a large number of
software production projects. These conditions have formed a trend towards
research into ways which will lessen the cost of developing software
production environments. In particular, the trend has been towards the
construction of meta-environments from which specific software production
environments can be created. In this paper, we attempt to categorize more
than 60 meta-environment efforts. For each of the categories, we review
research efforts which illustrate different approaches within that category.
We conclude by presenting an emerging common thread of requirements
which links this field together.
- Scacchi, W. (1989) On the Power of Domain-Specific Hypertext Environments. Report from the ATRIUM Project, Information and Operations Management Dept., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.
- Abstract: What is the potential power of hypertext
technology? This article examines this question and outlines the answer by
focussing attention to a domaim-specific view of hypertext environments. I
first define what domain-specific hypertext environments (DSHE) represent.
Next, I examine DSHE for the domains of encyclopedic and classical studies,
creative writing and interactive fiction, journal and book publishing,
insurance policy management, and computer-aided software engineering.
Then I describe in more detail the structure of information to evolve within
a DSHE for software engineering in terms of document products, processing
tasks and mechanisms, and workplace attributes. In turn, this examination
provides the basis for identifying seven dimensions along which the power
of DSHE can be defined, experienced, and accumulated. I also address the
organizational costs that may be borne to realize this power. I conclude with
observations as to the source of DSHE power as well as identifying topics for
further investigation.