Software Engineering Institute

Software development environments are beginning to move from research communities to commercial applications. As this occurs, the need to address process issues related to such environments is becoming increasingly apparent. Thus there is a growing awareness of the need for process-centered development environments (PCDEs). This report addresses process definition and enactment issues which pertain to the specification and design of a PCDE. The first part of the report explores some of the required characteristics of an enactable graphical language and the relationship between process definition and enactment. This process language naturally led to the ability to perform process verification, i.e., a verification that the actual process path taken throughout a project conforms to the defined process. The issue of process verification is thus also explored. The success of PCDEs rests heavily on end-user acceptance. Because of this, the report concludes with a review of user-oriented process and social issues relevant to the successful adoption of PCDEs.