Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The proposed research program is specialized in the area of software maintenance process modeling. Software process models have been extensively investigated in the context of the forward engineering software life cycle, but only a few authors have investigated process models in the context of software maintenance and evolution. The short-term objectives of this research grant is twofold: (1) to design the advanced practices of the process model; and (2) to develop support methods and tools, to support software maintenance process improvement. To do so methods to assess current strengths and weaknesses of software maintenance processes, activities and practices have to be investigated and, from there, process models to describe low to high maturity processes have to be investigated. This research will highlight the software maintenance concepts that need to be addressed by the process model. Experimental research will be carried out to complement the initial verification and validation of the advanced practices using case studies. Case studies on the use of the S3m as a tool for continuous improvements in software maintenance could contribute to the development of a better understanding of the problems of the software maintenance function. Feedback of case studies will be analyzed to improve the process model, including the addition of process attributes and indicators to support the maturity rating process. Industrial partners will be involved in experimental analysis in real software maintenance improvement programs where improvement decisions are made. In addition, output from this research will be used to update and improve the international standards ISO14764 and ISO/IEC TR 19759 content. Novelty of this work is demonstrated by the results of this research recently published in two books 'Improving software maintenance' by the publisher Loze-Dion in 2006 and 'Software Maintenance Management: Evaluation and Continuous Improvement' by Wiley in 2008. Masters and Ph.D. students will address various research issues on the basis of the funding granted. Bachelor and Masters students have already initiated research work.