Sharing Limited Resources In Software Process Simulations

This paper describes the use of the BPM Method simulations for estimating the appropriate number of resources in the software process to balance its cost and duration. Extensions to the BPM Method that are necessary to model the sharing and managing of limited resources are defined and their conversion to the Petri Nets formalism is suggested to specify the simulation semantics. Balancing formulas and ratios for process cost and duration are provided and used for a local software development company's software process simulations to find a balanced number of workers in specific roles in the process.