Process program change control in a process environment

Abstract

Process programs may change during enactment. The change of an enacting process program should be controlled. This paper describes process program change control in the CSPL (Concurrent Software Process Language) environment, which consists of techniques to (1) define change plans, (2) analyze and handle change impacts, and (3) resume process programs, Moreover, we provide an editor to guide process program change, with which the consistency between a change plan and the actual change can be enforced. We have used the environment in an experimental setting, and that experience shows that change control provided by the environment depends significantly upon process programs. If the dependencies among process components are well-specified in a process program, the change control mechanism will detect all the affected components when the process program is changed. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.