Process Simulation: A Tool for Software Project Managers?

Abstract

Process simulation has been introduced as a tool in support of software project management more than 25 years ago. Since then, it has been considered an approach with high potential for making software project managers’ work more effective and successful. Unfortunately, despite high expectations and many reports on prototypical process simulation applications in industrial contexts, little evidence exists that process simulation has become an accepted and regularly used tool of software project managers. This chapter investigates the reasons for lacking impact of process simulation in the software industry. This is done with the help of an in-depth description of a software process simulation application example. The application example focuses on the effects of various workforce allocation strategies on project performance, expressed in terms of project duration, effort consumption, and product quality. With the help of the application example and based on existing literature, the gap between the current state of the art of software process simulation and the actual state of practice is described and its root-causes are discussed. The chapter concludes with a list of issues that need to be addressed in order to close the gap between the state of the art and the state of practice. Most of the issues relate to the difficulty of demonstrating a positive cost-benefit ratio when applying process simulation as a tool in support of software project management tasks.