From Method Fragments to Method Services

In Method Engineering (ME) science, the key issue is the consideration of information system development methods as fragments. Numerous ME approaches have produced several definitions of method parts. Different in nature, these fragments have nevertheless some common disadvantages: lack of implementation tools, insufficient standardization effort, and so on. On the whole, the observed drawbacks are related to the shortage of usage orientation. We have proceeded to an in-depth analysis of existing method fragments within a comparison framework in order to identify their drawbacks. We suggest overcoming them by an improvement of the ?method service? concept. In this paper, the method service is defined through the service paradigm applied to a specific method fragment ? chunk. A discussion on the possibility to develop a unique representation of method fragment completes our contribution

An online authoring and publishing platform for field guides and identification tools

Various implementation approaches are available for digital field guides and identification tools that are created for the web and mobile devices. The architecture of the “biowikifarm” publishing platform and some technical and social advantages of a document- and author-centric approach based on the MediaWiki open source software over custom-developed, database driven software are presented

Improving agile software development by the application of method engineering practices

Despite the vast attention and wide acceptance of the newly engineered agile methods for software development, those methods are seldom linked to the goals of software process improvement (SPI), an approach that aims to provide support for significant improvement of both the quality of those methods as well as the resultant software products. In this paper, we propose an extension to agile methods by adding extra characteristics in order for agile methods to better support SPI. We explain how agile methods can gain those extra attributes through the application of a method engineering approach along with our new tool (4-DAT) that assists method engineers and managers in selecting the most appropriate method fragments for their needed agile methods. Finally, we summarize a number of industrial case studies carried out over several years in order to test and improve the efficiency of our theory of adding SPI to an agile methodological approach

Planning a portfolio of controls for software development

A growing number of software development projects successfully exhibit a mix of agile and traditional software development methodologies. Many of these mixed methodologies are organization specific and tailored to a specific project. Our objective in this research-in-progress paper is to develop an artifact that can guide the development of such a mixed methodology. Using control theory, we design a process model that provides theoretical guidance to build a portfolio of controls that can support the development of a mixed methodology for software development. Controls, embedded in methods, provide a generalizable and adaptable framework for project managers to develop their mixed methodology specific to the demands of the project. A research methodology is proposed to test the model. Finally, future directions and contributions are discussed

Tailoring the Scrum Development Process to Address Agile Product Line Engineering

Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) is becoming widely used due to the improvement it means when developing software products of the same family. However, SPLE demands long-term investment on a product-line platform that might not be profitable due to rapid changing business settings. Since Agile Software Development (ASD) approaches are being successfully applied in volatile markets, several companies have suggested the idea of integrating SPLE and ASD when a family product has to be developed. Agile Product Line Engineering (APLE) advocates the integration of SPLE and ASD to address their lacks when they are individually applied to software development. A previous literature re-view of experiences and practices on APLE revealed important challenges about how to fully put APLE into practice. Our contribution address several of these challenges by tailoring the agile method Scrum by means of three concepts that we have defined: plastic partial components, working PL-architectures, and reactive reuse

Changing the way we learn: towards agile learning and co-operation

This paper addresses the need for learning and competence development in industrial organizations. The people that enter professional organizations today are part of a gamer generation that have some or much experience with on-line games. Therefore they are more open to e-learning and in general more open to access anything on-line. At the same time industrial organizations experience a pressure on their ability to train employees faster due to the increase in complexity. We argue that games are not yet mature enough to support this training challenge as stand alone efforts. But games can support the training and competence development in a synchronized setup with other means

NOSQL design for analytical workloads: Variability matters

Big Data has recently gained popularity and has strongly questioned relational databases as universal storage systems, especially in the presence of analytical workloads. As result, co-relational alternatives, commonly known as NOSQL (Not Only SQL) databases, are extensively used for Big Data. As the primary focus of NOSQL is on performance, NOSQL databases are directly designed at the physical level, and consequently the resulting schema is tailored to the dataset and access patterns of the problem in hand. However, we believe that NOSQL design can also benefit from traditional design approaches. In this paper we present a method to design databases for analytical workloads. Starting from the conceptual model and adopting the classical 3-phase design used for relational databases, we propose a novel design method considering the new features brought by NOSQL and encompassing relational and co-relational design altogether.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Appropriate Delivery of Advice and Guidance on Method Adaptation

One can find enough evidence in the IS development (ISD) literature supporting the significance of method adaptation for the realization of an effective ISD. Method adaptation involves a decision making process through which the agent(s) modifies the project situation, including the method and the project context, at hand. This paper aims at exploring how a better delivery of guidance and advice (decision support) on method adaptation, i.e. the degree of which the decision support to be provided is employed successfully, can be achieved. To do this we study several stages in which a set of advice and guidance with some decision support tools on method adaptation realized in a large-scale IT department. Each stage is distinguished with respect to the underlying discourses proposed in the decision support literature and elaborated in terms of the method used, the involved parties concerning method adaptation, and the means used in a ten-year timeline in the department. This study shows that agility of the method used, the degree of sharedness of the meaning of method adaptation held by involved parties, the decision support approach (top-down, bottom-up, or middle-out approaches reflecting the degree of dominations of involved parties) to method adaptation, and the combination of human- and technology-driven guidance are essential to an appropriate delivery of decision support for method adaptation