Semi-automatic composition of situational methods

Situational methods are approaches to the development of software systems that are designed and constructed to fit particular circumstances that often refer to project characteristics. One common way to create situational methods is to reuse method components, which are the building blocks of development methods. For this purpose, method components must be stored in a method base, and then retrieved and composed specifically for the situation in hand. Most approaches in the field of situational method engineering require the expertise of method engineers to support the retrieval and composition of method components. Furthermore, this is usually done in an ad-hoc manner and for pre-defined situations. In this paper, the authors propose an approach, supported by a tool that creates situational methods semi-automatically. This approach refers to structural and behavioral considerations and a wide variety of characteristics when comparing method components and composing them into situational methods. The resultant situational methods are stored in the method base for future usage and composition. Based on an experimental study of the approach, the authors show that it provides correct and suitable draft situational methods, which human evaluators have assessed as relevant for the given situations.