Process Analysis of a Waterfall Project Using Repository Data

AbstractThe study of repository data has yielded insight into the behaviour of developers and qualities of software artifacts. In this article, we use repository data to investigate the nature and quality of the development process itself. Specifically, we use repository data to identify sources of potential inefficiency and waste in process design and execution. Our analysis approach is motivated by principles of Lean product development and fills a gap in the literature for empirical process metrics. To illustrate the approach, we analyse data from a large industry project involving CMM level 3 and 4 teams in a waterfall process. Both basic and focused analyses are presented, with eight different views of progress, efficiency, and cost.