The design of knowledge-based systems for managing ill-structured software projects

Current planning and control procedures for large-scale software projects are not sufficiently equipped to deal with changing or imprecise requirements, resource breakdowns, unexpected delays, etc. The authors propose a solution for managing change in projects, based on a semantic model of the software design and development processes. At the heart of this technique is the formation of islands of project knowledge in a way that facilitates dealing with most design and plan revisions locally. A protocol for interactive change management is presented that advocates need-based formation of coalitions between islands as a means for graceful degradation in the place of strict hierarchical control. The results of initial empirical investigations of the usability of the approach and plans for its continuing evaluation are also reported.