Problems of scale and process models

While software projects come in a wide variety of sizes and kinds, there are sufficient similarities among them so that we may abstract the general from the particular characteristics. These general characteristics then serve as basic issues in the creation of software processes. Some of these issues are moderately wellunderstood — such as various techniques of refining designs into implementation — while others are not. Scale is one of those important issues that have not been considered sufficiently and it is the issue of scale that I address in this paper.