Common Process Methodology

## Common Process Methodology (CPM)

The CPM provides methods and representations for analysing a process domain using a viewpoint-based, requirements engineering approach. This aids in producing an initial specification of the domain which can be translated to the Common Process Language (CPL). The methodology is supported by the CPM Toolset, a HARDY-based tool for creating CPM specifications and running rule-based (CLIPS) checks.

## Running CPM

Once the CPM toolset has been installed, it can be launched from the control panel or executed from a command prompt in the installed directory: "./cpm". A set of representations for a domain are all connected to a central HARDY index file (.ind). Figure 1 shows the CPM toolset windows during an edit of one of the enclosed demos.
Figure 1 - The CPM toolset

The CPM toolset can be used to build the intermediate specifications which are outlined in the Common Process Methodology (CPM). See the "{target dir}/docs/papers/" directory for papers describing the CPM and use of the CPM toolset. The final series of combined thread diagrams can then be exported to CPL using the "Tools|Export to CPL" menu option in the top-level viewpoint bubble diagram.

## Requirements

- Downloading and Installing Hardy

The main requirement for using the CPM toolset is having a copy of Hardy, a hypertext-based diagramming tool for Suns (Open Look, Motif) and PCs. A demonstration version of Hardy is downloadable by anyone. A full working version of Hardy is available free of charge for research purposes. Commercial use of Hardy is negotiable. See: http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~hardy/hardy/hardy.html for info on obtaining a copy of Hardy.

- Setting up Hardy for CPM

Once hardy has been downloaded and installed, the diagram definitions for CPM (in "{target dir}/cpm-1.0/*.def") must be loaded. See the Hardy Diagram Type Manager under "Tools|Show Diagram Type Manager". The cpm command (in "{target dir}/cpm") may need to be modified for different platforms (e.g. hardy_motif => hardy for Windows 95/NT).

## Source code

The source for CPM is loaded by the built in CLIPS interpreter when the toolset is launched. See the clips source files in "{target dir}/cpm-1.0/*.clp".

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Last updated 7 October 1998
by Steve Polyak