Representation of situational methods: Incorporating ISO/IEC 24744 into a domain-based framework

Method Engineering (ME) and Situational Method Engineering (SME) aim at providing effective solutions for building and supporting evolution of software and information systems development methods. For this purpose, method components are specified and composed into general-purpose development methods or situational methods, i.e., development methods that best fit the characteristics of a given project and its environment. Recently ISO/IEC 24744 has emerged for defining a metamodel and a notation for development methods. However, this standard lacks a systematic support for situational classification and maintenance. In this work, the authors suggest incorporating ISO/IEC 24744 metamodel into a domain-based framework, called Application-based DOmain Modeling for Method Engineering (ADOM-ME), which supports specifying both general-purpose and situational methods in a single, simple, accessible, and scalable frame of reference. An exploratory study on the usability of ADOM-ME indicates that the approach can be utilized by information systems students that represent non-experienced method engineers and software developers.