Badge: Towards a Domain Ontology for SPI Resources

Abstract

Software Process Improvement (SPI) consists of a set of changes in software development companies, which introduces new and improved methods, techniques, and tools. SPI projects generally are performed based on a reference model, such as CMMI, ISO 9001, ISO 15504, among others. In most cases, there is a need to use more than one reference model or add aspects of other models. Based on this, it is necessary to harmonize the chosen models to reach the expected goals, but it is not a simple task. The goal of this paper is to introduce a domain ontology called Base of Knowledge about Software Engineering Practices (Badge). To evaluate our proposal we performed a focus group session with practitioners and academic subjects. The focus group outcome is that Badge is able to generalize the models that say “what should be done”. We also advocate that using a generalization structure enables the possibility to automate some tasks in SPI initiatives.