The Design of Knowledge-Based Systems for Managing Ill-Structured Software Projects

Current planning and control procedures for large-scale software projects are not sufficientlyequipped to deal with changing or imprecise requirements, resource breakdowns,unexpected delays, etc. We propose a solution for managing change inprojects, 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 knowledgein a way that facilitates dealing with most design and plan revisions locally. A protocolfor interactive change management is presented that advocates need-based formationof coalitions between islands as a means for graceful degradation in the place of stricthierarchical control. The results of initial empirical investigations of the usability ofthe approach and plans for its continuing evaluation are also reported