Breathing Life into Situational Software Engineering Methods

Software engineering methods are used to prescribe and coordinate the tasks necessary to plan, build, deliver, and maintain software. There is a broad consensus that there is no one-size-fits-all method and that, e.g., agile and plan-driven approaches have to be mixed sometimes, based on the context of a project. Creating these so-called situational methods and assuring that they cover all necessary details consistently is a challenge. There is also the challenge for the project teams to follow methods as prescribed by the method engineer. Our approach supports the creation of consistent situational methods from a repository of pre-existing building blocks. Moreover, we present means to enact these methods with standard BPEL/BPEL4People workflow engines, automating the coordination of tasks and providing guidance for them.