Analyzing Configuration Management Repository Data for Software Process Improvement

The software development process is an incremental and iterative activity. Source code is constantly changed to reflect changing requirements, to respond to testing results, and to address problem reports. Proper software measurement that derives meaningful numeric values for some attributes of a software product or process can help in identifying problem areas and development bottlenecks. Objective assessment is needed of the current status of software development so that informed project managers can make decisions. This paper presents a methodology called VITA for applying software analysis techniques to configuration management repository data with the aim of identifying the impact on file changes due to change requests and problem reports. The repository data can be analyzed and visualized in a semi-automated manner according to user-selectable criteria. The approach is illustrated with a model problem concerning software process improvement of an embedded software system in the context of performing high-quality software maintenance.