A Study in Software Process Data Capture and Analysis

Process data capture is the activity of obtaining information about an existing software process. Process analysis is the manipulation of that information for purposes of problem identification. Capture and analysis are key elements in any strategy for software process improvement. We have developed a model of the software process that is based on a notion of events characterizing identifiable, instantaneous milestones in a process. We have also developed capture and analysis techniques suited to that model. This paper reports on a study that was undertaken to gain experience with both the model and the capture and analysis techniques. In that study, we captured event data on several actual enactments of the build process of a large, complex software project within AT&T. We entered the captured event data into a database and ran several queries against the data. The queries implement a variety of analyses on the event data by examining relationships among events, such as dependencies a..