Requirements and Validation of the E3 Process Modeling System

In the framework of the general goals of this book, which are to discuss the state of the art of software process topics and provide practitioners with a practical view of the developed methods, I use my own experience as a process modeling researcher over the last fifteen years to make my own contribution to the goals. I will address the following questions. How have process modeling researchers elicited requirements for software process modeling systems? First, to what extent have users been involved in the definition of these requirements? Second, how has IT evolution contributed to this requirements definition? Lastly, how has general software engineering knowledge influenced this definition? E3 (Environment for Experimenting and Evolving Software Process Models) is a process modeling system conceived to provide help for process/project managers, who construct and maintain models, and for practitioners, who use software process models. The initial requirements of the E3 system have been derived from a literature survey, lessons learned by working with other PM systems, and use of general-purpose technology for process modeling purposes. E3 has been designed and implemented twice. The first version of the E3 system was validated by a case study and the results of this validation resulted in the requirements for the second version of the system. The second version of the E3 system has been validated by empirical investigations in industrial and academic settings. The answers to the research questions given in this chapter have not to be regarded as an attempt to provide a general state of the art of software process topics or a complete view of the field for practitioners. Rather, they have to be considered as a set of lessons learnt about the development and validation of one of the process modeling systems that have been developed in recent years.