A Programmed Graph Rewriting System for Software Process Management.

Managing the software development and maintenance process has been identified as a great challenge for several years. Software processes are highly dynamic and can only rarely be planned completely in advance. We present an approach to software process management which is based on hierarchical nets of processes connected by data and control flow relations. Editing and execution of process nets are highly intertwined. Dynamic process nets are formally defined in PROGRES, a specification language which is based on programmed graph rewriting systems. Graph rewriting systems are a natural choice for several reasons. In particular, process nets are complicated graph structures, and editing as well as execution operations may be specified in a uniform way by graph rewrite rules. The graph rewriting system will form the foundation of a sophisticated process management system.