Fuzzy Inference System for Software Product Family Process Evaluation

Authors

Faheem Ahmed, Thompson River UniversityFollow
Luiz Fernando Capretz, University of Western OntarioFollow
Jagath Samarabandu, University of Western OntarioFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2008

Volume

178

Issue

13

Journal

Information Sciences

First Page

2780

URL with Digital Object Identifier

10.1016/j.ins.2008.03.002

Last Page

2793

Abstract

When developing multiple products within a common application domain, systematic use of a software product family process can yield increased productivity in cost, quality, effort and schedule. Such a process provides the means for the reuse of software assets which can considerably reduce the development time and the cost of software products. A comprehensive strategy for the evaluating the maturity of a software product family process is needed due to growing popularity of this concept in the software industry. In this paper, we propose a five-level maturity scale for software product family process. We also present a fuzzy inference system for evaluating maturity of software product family process using the proposed maturity scale. This research is aimed at establishing a comprehensive and unified strategy for process evaluation of a software product family. Such a process evaluation strategy will enable an organization to discover and monitor the strengths and weaknesses of the various activities performed during development of multiple products within a common application domain.