Cooperating process components

Modern automated process support systems can be considered monolithic in three ways. First, they model processes top-down, usually from a single perspective, such as the organizational perspective. Second, they are process-centered, in that they often require extensive knowledge of the users, data types, and applications in their environment. Third, they tie process implementation to a specific representation, making reuse and interoperability between process models difficult to achieve. This paper describes the application of component-based techniques to process modeling across overlapping process spaces. This approach, the Open Process Components approach, encapsulates process fragments as interoperable and reusable process components. This paper motivates a vision of cooperating components for automated process support, presents an overview of the Open Process Components approach, and shows the application of this technique to Humphrey's Personal Software Process.