The Design of Knowledge-Based Systems for Managing Ill-Structured Software Projects
50 Pages Posted: 31 Oct 2008
Date Written: July 1989
Abstract
Current planning and control procedures for large-scale software projects are not sufficientlyequipped to deal with changing or imprecise requirements, resource breakdowns,unexpected delays, etc. We propose a solution for managing change inprojects, based on a semantic model of the software design and development processes.At the heart of this technique is the formation of islands of project knowledgein a way that facilitates dealing with most design and plan revisions locally. A protocolfor interactive change management is presented that advocates need-based formationof coalitions between islands as a means for graceful degradation in the place of stricthierarchical control. The results of initial empirical investigations of the usability ofthe approach and plans for its continuing evaluation are also reported.
Keywords: project management, coordination systems, distributed knowledge-based systems, group decision support, proactive planning, software process model, software knowledge base, software environment
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