Autonomies in a Software Process Landscape

Abstract

Until now autonomy properties have been mainly discussed in the research area of database management systems, agents and robotic systems. We address these properties to software process models, and distinguish between data autonomy, operation autonomy and communication autonomy. In this paper we develop a classification framework of different granularity levels and different degrees for each of the autonomy types. We analyze the autonomy of an example software process landscape modelled with a Petri based net notation. The example process landscape represents software process models for the development of multimedia applications. Detailed analyses of the example check the classification framework, and consider the impact of autonomy properties on software processes and on software process management.