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Re: [epf-dev] SEMAT OMG RFP, EPF response?
 | 
Bruce,
 
Having worked with EssUp/IJI, the driving force behind this 
proposal, I would be very interested in being involved in the 
discussion.
 
Kind regards,
John
Dear EPF community, 
There was a recent submission to OMG to 
propose a new process standard. It is 
not based on SPEM or any of the work we have done in EPF, but rather is based on 
the SEMAT kernel work. (For those who 
don't know this, EPF was originally based on SPEM http://www.omg.org/spec/SPEM/2.0/ 
) Some  reasons given for why 
the proposal ignores SPEM is: 1. 
"lack of enactment support" If this is a 
significant concern, then a set of requirements for what would be appropriate 
enactment support should be described in the RFP. A goal to what people actually do vs. what they are 
supposed to do isn't a sufficient set of requirements. There are some hints in the RFP, but they aren't 
clear: "Methods can be queried to get 
guidance based on where you are and where you want to go" - this seems to be about describing how the processes 
evolve during enactment - this could be a natural extension to SPEM 
2."The notion of composable practices is 
not explicitly defined as a core concept in the SPEM metamodel" This seems to be a gap which could be addressed by a SPEM 
update.  Note that both SEMAT and EPF have gone beyond SPEM and 
added support for practices to their method 
offerings.  They both use similar concepts and provide similar 
capabilities, but not identical. This 
kind of divergence is exactly the kind of problem that standards organizations 
like OMG strive to avoid, so the time is 
ripe to add practices support to SPEM. 3. "UML profile ... might be more complex and not as user-friendly as a 
more domain-specific language" There is 
also a MOF representation of SPEM, but in any case, any approach for simplifying 
is welcome, but doing something completely unconnected doesn't make a lot of sense. 4. SPEM does not specify a kernel of "essential 
elements" Both SEMAT and EPF define such 
a kernel, but use different terminology and have made different choices 
regarding those essential elements. Again, this is where standards are valuable - they align the best of 
divergent ideas so that the entire community can benefit. The EPF kernel has been defined and publicly available 
for some time.   It is well supported by both the EPF Composer and Rational 
Method Composer tools. It is based on an 
extension to SPEM. A natural path 
forward would be to take the EPF kernel and formalize it in an extension to 
SPEM, reconciling differences with the SEMAT kernel to the benefit of the entire 
community.  I propose an extension, because I think SPEM should remain 
capable of modeling processes that don't use a kernel, or that use alternative kernels. If this is a topic that interests you, and you would like 
to be involved in this discussion, please drop me a note. Bruce MacIsaac
Manager RMC Method 
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