Software process simulation modelling: A survey of practice

In recent years, simulation modelling of software development processes has attracted considerable interest in software engineering. Despite the growing interest, there is little literature available that reports on the state-of-practice in software process simulation modelling (SPSM). We report results of a survey of simulation in SPSM and relate it to simulation practice in general. The results of this survey indicate that software process simulation (SPS) modellers are generally methodical, work on large complex problems, develop large models, and have a systematic simulation modelling process in place. However, on the other hand, the simulation modelling process and simulation model evaluation have been identified as the most urgent problems to be addressed in SPSM. The results from this investigation are interesting and bring many problems into focus. The paper helps understand the characteristics of the SPSM and SPS modellers, and highlights areas of interest for further in-depth research in the SPSM.