Modeling the Process of a Software Company with Pescarenico

Modeling the process of a software company is difficult. The level of industrialization is usually low; even when the process is defined several hidden activities exist. However, a reliable model is a prerequisite of any process improvement. This paper presents Pescarenico, a tool kit to model the development process of a software firm. A methodology, Gertrude, a tool, Egidio, and a metrics system, the Balanced Scorecards, compose Pescarenico. Gertrude uses Object Orientation and Activity Based Costing to model the process. Egidio has been developed under Windows NT with Microsoft Visual Basic. The Balanced Scorecards has been devised by Kaplan in the field of process management. The paper contains a case study: it is the description of the introduction of Pescarenico in a large Italian software firm. An assessment of Pescarenico concludes the paper.