ABSTRACT

Thus far the mechanics of ACDM has been presented in something of an idealist way, focusing on initial (green field) product or system development situations. However, this is rarely the situation that engineers and organizations find themselves in. Various process frameworks and design methods are usually defined and explained in ideal situations and contexts, just as ACDM has been described thus far. However, this leaves the practitioner to figure out how to use the method or framework in an industrial organizational setting. This is often a very difficult and problematic proposition because frameworks, methods, processes, technologies, and so forth must be tailored to meet the exact business, organizational, and technical context that the system or product is being built in. Adopting new ways of designing and building software-intensive systems is problematic in two dimensions. First, the required tailoring is not trivial and necessitates a great deal of experience with the frameworks, methods, and processes, as well as the business, organizational, and technical domains. Second, introducing and transitioning frameworks, methods, technologies, and processes in an organization is a difficult proposition because people are often resistant to change. What is needed by practitioners and organizations are hints and guidelines for tailoring and transitioning frameworks, methods, and techniques into practice. To these ends, this section of the text provides guidelines for tailoring, instantiating, transitioning, and successfully adopting ACDM in various project contexts, organizations, and domains. Hopefully this will help practitioners overcome the difficulties associated with introducing and transitioning ACDM into their organization and projects. Much of the information provided here is based on experience in using ACDM on real projects in various business, organizational, and technological contexts.