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| |
| <head> |
| <title>Process Authoring Overview</title> |
| </head> |
| <body> |
| <h3>Process Authoring Overview</h3> |
| <p>A development process defines sequences of tasks performed by roles and work |
| products produced over time.</p> |
| <p><img src="p.gif"></p> |
| <p>The figure above shows that processes are typically expressed as workflows |
| or breakdown structures. Defining a strict sequence as in a waterfall model |
| is as much a process as defining semi-ordered sequences in iterations of parallel |
| work. They just represent different development approaches. Hence, for defining |
| a process, one can take method content and combine it into structures that specify |
| how the work shall be organized over time, to meet the needs of a particular |
| type of development project (such as software for a online system versus software |
| and hardware for an embedded system). EPF Composer supports processes based on different |
| development approaches across many different lifecycle models, including waterfall, |
| incremental, and iterative lifecycles. EPF Composer also supports different presentations |
| for process, such as work-breakdown structure or workflow presentations. You |
| can also define processes in EPF Composer that use a minimal set of method content to |
| define processes for agile, self-organizing teams.</p> |
| <p> The EPF Composer screen capture above shows an example of a process presented as a |
| breakdown structure of nested activities as well as a workflow or activity diagram |
| for one particular activity, the inception phase. It also indicates with the |
| two blue arrows that the particular method content task "Detail a Use Case" |
| has been applied in the process twice; firstly in the inception phase under |
| the activity "Define the System," and secondly, in the elaboration |
| phase in the activity "Refine the system definition". You see below |
| each of these task applications, referred to as a task descriptors in EPF Composer, lists |
| of the performing roles as well as the input and output work products. If you |
| look closely, you see that these lists are different for each of these two task |
| descriptors, expressing differences in performing the "Detail a Use Case" |
| method throughout the lifecycle. You see different roles involved and changes |
| in the list of inputs to be considered and outputs to be produced or updated. |
| These changes were defined by the author that created this process to express |
| the exact focus of the task performance for each occurrence. In addition to |
| updating the roles, input and output work products for a task descriptor, you |
| can also provide additional textual descriptions as well as define the exact |
| steps of the task that should and should not be performed for this particular |
| occurrence of the task.</p> |
| <p>EPF Composer provides you with a process editor that supports different breakdown structure |
| views as well as graphical process presentations. As a process author, you typically |
| start by creating an activity breakdown, dividing and breaking your process |
| down into phases, iterations, and high-level activities. Instead of creating |
| your activities in the breakdown structure editor, you can alternatively work |
| in a graphical activity diagram editor that allows you to graphically create |
| a workflow for your activities. To assign method content to your process, you |
| then have the choice of working in different process views (work breakdown structure, |
| work product usage, or team allocation view). Each view supports a different |
| approach for creating a process. You can define the work to be done, define |
| the results to be produced, or define responsibilities for your roles. If requested, |
| the editor updates the other process views semi-automatically using wizards |
| that prompt you for decisions on selecting method content elements.</p> |
| <p>For more details on process authoring see the online help:</p> |
| <div align="left"> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="http://org.eclipse.ui.intro/showHelpTopic?id=/org.eclipse.epf.help.doc/html/processauthoringoverview.html">Process |
| Authoring Overview</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| </div> |
| <p> </p> |
| </body> |
| </html> |
