Facilitate human understanding and communication

• Represent process in form understandable by humans. We found that creating explicit, formal definitions of processes improved our understanding of the processes dramatically. Representation of our process definitions in Abstraction Hierarchy and Diagrams also allowed us to show graphical diagrams of the processes to others. Perusal of the graphical notations allowed individuals to gain a better understanding of the process details than reading the English process descriptions. We were surprised to find that even the textual MVP-L notation is very readable. One MVP-L design goal was to use the same English words in MVP-L as process participants use in describing their process.

• Enable communication about and agreement on software processes. The graphical diagrams and MVP-L code created in our study enabled us to communicate easily with outsiders about the processes. The third phase of our study involved group meetings to define the key process elements. Using diagrams we were quickly able to come to an agreement about the subprocesses and products contained in the process.

• Formalize the process so people can work together more efficiently. Our study did not include use of the process definition by a team carrying out the process. Therefore we cannot fully judge whether the definition allowed people to work together more efficiently. However, the and MVP-L notations did allow a formalization of the interactions between the various process tasks.

• Provide sufficient information to allow an individual or team to perform the intended process. Our study did not include use of the process definition by a team carrying out the process. Therefore we cannot fully judge whether the definitions provided sufficient information to allow the process to be carried out. Since the APPL/A language is intended for process execution, it allows implementation of low-level processes using Ada code. If the process is carried out by humans, diagrams or MVP-L code may be sufficient to allow process execution.

• Form a basis for training the intended process. Process definition using the Abstraction Hierarchy, , and MVP-L notations allowed rapid training of the process. We showed our definitions to reuse experts unfamiliar with the notations. They were quickly able to understand the main features of the process representations and recommended changes to them based on their understanding of reuse.