A Repository to Support Software Process Reuse Based on Process Lines

Defining a software process is a complex activity, especially when defined from scratch. Thus, different reuse techniques have been proposed to reduce the effort, as well as increase the quality of the defined process, such as Software Process Line (SPrL). SPrL provides a systematic way to support software process reuse. However, adopting SPrL approaches without supporting tools may turn to be a very difficult task. Although SPrL supporting tools are becoming more practical, integrated tools are still needed to support all reuse stages. In addition, to make reuse in a systematic manner, it is necessary to provide a repository, i.e., a shared database of information and artifacts. However, software process repositories are not frequently discussed in SPrL literature and those discussed are coupled with their related approaches, which makes reuse in different scenarios unfeasible. This paper presents a reusable software process repository focused on SPrL concepts support, called Odyssey Repository, which can support the development of SPrL integrated tools. In this scenario, a proof of concept was performed to verify the proposed repository feasibility. Moreover, a TAM-based preliminary evaluation was conducted, where software process experts indirectly evaluated the repository during the project-specific software process definition using SPrL artifacts. Although the results are positive, further evaluations are still needed.