The current and future trend in software development is to distribute a development team across the globe based on the available resources with the best capabilities. That means the software development organization will use a number of people starting from developers, project managers, testers, business analysts and users distributed over a number of time-zones across continents. Such a software development life-cycle (SDLC) is a complex process with a life of its own. Over the years, several models and methods have been developed and perfected to control and manage this process. Typically the process consists of a number of phases and the model of the life-cycle defines how the project goes through these phases and in what order. For example Waterfall model talks about a linear progression of the project through different phases. The Evolutionary, Spiral or RAD models allow the project to return back to earlier phases as it advances through its life-cycle. SCRUM, Extreme Programming (XP) and other Agile methodologies prescribe a small-team, low documentation, quick turnaround process. The common denominator in all the models is that it always is about the life-cycle of the development process whose end product is software with the required quality and specifications and within the constraints of available resources. Kovair Global Lifecycle is methodology agnostic and can implement any process whether it be an industry standard or a proprietary one with its highly flexible Visual Process Designer. Keeping in mind the number of different stakeholders involved in a software project and contributing and collaborating in different phases of a life-cycle, it is natural to model the entire business process as a workflow system. However, due to the complexity and required flexibility of this process, generic workflow systems usually are not very useful. Additionally, the tight integration of the workflow with different information generated at different phases (e.g. Requirements, Issues, Testing items, Release notes) necessitates a new framework - a very unique workflow specifically for software life cycle processes.
 To provide the above capability and stakeholder-centric Life-Cycle, Kovair Global Lifecycle has a very configurable Process Automation System that is built in. It provides a framework to define and follow software processes whether it is a Software Product Development, an eService Project or even Software Maintenance or IT Projects. Kovair’s Process Automation system has all the special features needed for the workflows required for software life-cycle processes.
The Process Automation Technology is divided in to two different architectures:
- State-based Process
- Task-based Process
State-based Process
A State-based Process depends on two variables for each artifact – a ‘State’ and an ‘Owner’. By changing the State from one value to another the artifact moves along in the Process. As it changes the State often, it is assigned to a different person, the “Owner”, who will be responsible for that Item at that State. State based processes though simple, are difficult to model many real life situations, as they do not support parallel activities. Since an item can be in one state at any time, multiple parallel activities on the same item cannot be modelled in State- based processes.
Task-based Process
Kovair Global Lifecycle has developed a Task-based Process Engine to address the limitations of State-based Processes and especially to make a Process successful in a distributed environment. Unlike a State-based Process, there can be multiple assignees for an Artifact (Requirement or Issue) at any point of time and each assignee gets a Task with an Activity. For example, in a Requirement Process, a Use Case may be worked on simultaneously by the QA Engineer on a ‘Test case design’, by the Architect on a ‘System design’ as well as by the Technical Writer on ‘Documentation’. All these activities will be going on in parallel. Each of these assignees gets a Task in their Home page instructing them to do the particular activity. Once the Task is complete, the user just closes the Task. At this juncture, the Kovair Global Lifecycle Process will automatically generate the next Task(s) for the appropriate persons (based on the defined Process). It is not necessary for any of the participants to know what the next steps in the Process are nor whom to assign it to next. This is extremely useful in a larger team especially when they are distributed in multiple locations.
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Core Features and Advantages of Kovair Process Capabilities
- Multiple Independent Processes at different levels: Projects, Modules, Releases, Requirements, Issues and any Entity synchronized with each other
- Visual drag and drop process designer on Browser
The system allows representation of a Process in the form of a diagram. User can design any process (Step, Activity, Join, Delay Wait, Links) by using the drag and drop capabilities of the Kovair Process Designer
In real life scenario there are activities, which originate from a common point and then they follow a parallel path. Thereafter, they merge/join based on certain conditions. Kovair allows defining of parallel activities in a process. For example: the diagram below shows that upon submission of a ‘Change Request’ the record system generates two parallel tasks- ‘Create Test Script’ and Implement Development Package’. Both these tasks run simultaneously without affecting each other and joining in ‘Wait’ for all inputs.
- Task Assignment to multiple users/roles based on policies: Queued, One task for All, Individual tasks.
- Conditional Branching
Very few real-life Processes are simple, linear and sequential. Often, Processes follows alternative paths based on different criteria. Kovair Global Lifecycle allows you to add Conditional Branching both between Steps (and between Activities in a Step). The condition can be simple or complex by using AND, OR, NOT or multiple conditional statements.
- Merging/Joining with quorum-based forwarding policy
In a Process, often multiple parallel branches merge together in order to go forward. The node at which the connectors merge is called a Join Node. It is also referred to as a ‘Merge Node’, ‘Synch Node’ or ‘Rendezvous Node’. In the Join Node it is possible to define a Forwarding Policy which directs the Process when to move forward. Kovair Global Lifecycle allows two types of Forwarding Policies – Count based or Percentage based.
The System allows you to add additional fields, called ‘Process Variables’, that are to be used within the scope of the Process. These variables are Process specific and get recycled when the Process gets completed.
- Process Modification without affecting running processes
If a process is modified the existing records will follow the old process path. The modification will not affect the existing path and the records. The new records created will follow the new process.
- Restart Process at any time for multiple items
If the user wants the existing record to follow the modified path, he can stop the process and re-start it. A new path will be generated for all the records.
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