Software Engineering Institute

This report describes the results of a two-year study of experiences with the adoption and use of software process automation. The work was motivated by a desire to provide insights and guidelines to those planning to implement this technology. The focus of the study was primarily, but not exclusively, on end-user organizations. The study was conducted in three stages: First, in-depth interviews were conducted to assess the state of the practice. Second, a survey questionnaire was distributed to a wider number of organizations to obtain more quantitative data. The populations in these two groups turned out to be quite different, a fact that we believe enriches the content of this report. Finally, a one-day workshop was held, the objective of which was to explore with practitioners why the gap between the theory and practice of software process automation is as large as it is. A previous report by Alan Christie, et al. [Christie 96] documented the results of the in-depth interviews in detail. This report now summarizes the results of the interviews, and describes in more detail the questionnaire survey and the workshop. It also provides both insight for process automation tool developers and guidelines for adoption to process-automation end users.