Improving Engineering

We present an experience report on the adoption of a modeling toolkit, Pescarenico, in an Italian firm: Engineering ingegneria Informatica, the largest software developer component of the Engineering group. The modeling toolkit comprises a process modeling methodology, a metric set, and a graphic computer tool. The process modeling methodology is the foundation of the modeling scheme. The metric set shows the weak points in the process, and thus the required detail level of the model. The graphic computer tool is a visual interface that transforms the model in a concrete set of diagrams ready for dissemination inside a firm. The novelty of Pescarenico is in the integration of the tools and the broader aspects involved (communication, technology transfer, and process control) without the semantical “Kitchen Sink” effect of a single unified process language. Moreover, the diffe rent abstraction levels are easily tailorable depending on the target audience. These advantages have resulted in a better understanding of Pescarenico and its faster acceptance in the firm.