Comparative Study on Agile software development methodologies

Today-s business environment is very much dynamic, and organisations are constantly changing their software requirements to adjust with new environment. They also demand for fast delivery of software products as well as for accepting changing requirements. In this aspect, traditional plan-driven developments fail to meet up these requirements. Though traditional software development methodologies, such as life cycle-based structured and object oriented approaches, continue to dominate the systems development few decades and much research has done in traditional methodologies, Agile software development brings its own set of novel challenges that must be addressed to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software. It is a set of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development process, where requirements and development evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams that allows rapid delivery of high quality software to meet customer needs and also accommodate changes in the requirements. In this paper, we significantly identify and describe the major factors, that Agile development approach improves software development process to meet the rapid changing business environments. We also provide a brief comparison of agile development methodologies with traditional systems development methodologies, and discuss current state of adopting agile methodologies. We speculate that from the need to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software, Agile software development is emerged as an alternative to traditional plan-based software development methods. The purpose of this paper, is to provide an in-depth understanding, the major benefits of agile development approach to software development industry, as well as provide a comparison study report of ASDM over TSDM.Comment: 25 pages, 25 images, 86 references used, with authors biographie

An Investigation into Mobile Based Approach for Healthcare Activities, Occupational Therapy System

This research is to design and optimize the high quality of mobile apps, especially for iOS. The objective of this research is to develop a mobile system for Occupational therapy specialists to access and retrieval information. The investigation identifies the key points of using mobile-D agile methodology in mobile application development. It considers current applications within a different platform. It achieves new apps (OTS) for the health care activities

NASA SBIR abstracts of 1990 phase 1 projects

The research objectives of the 280 projects placed under contract in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 1990 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 1 program are described. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses in response to NASA's 1990 SBIR Phase 1 Program Solicitation. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 280, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. The document also includes Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference in the 1990 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA field center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number

Small business innovation research. Abstracts of completed 1987 phase 1 projects

Non-proprietary summaries of Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects supported by NASA in the 1987 program year are given. Work in the areas of aeronautical propulsion, aerodynamics, acoustics, aircraft systems, materials and structures, teleoperators and robotics, computer sciences, information systems, spacecraft systems, spacecraft power supplies, spacecraft propulsion, bioastronautics, satellite communication, and space processing are covered

Application of Scrum methodology in long-term student projects on the example of ESTCube-1 Mission Control System

Bakalaureusetöö eesmärk oli analüüsida Scrum-metoodika kasutamist pikaajalistes tudengiprojektides, kasutades näitena ESTCube-1 Missioonijuhtimissüsteemi (edaspidi MJS). Analüüs tõi välja senise Scrum-implementatsiooni nõrgemad küljed ja nende võimalikud lahendused. Et töö kirjutati ajal, mil MJS arendusprotsess oli alles pooleli, analüüsiti ka, kas antud metoodikaga tasub jätkata või tuleb valida mõni teine. Analüüsi usaldusväärsuse tõstmiseks on sisse toodud kolm teist arendusmetoodikat ja neid MJS Scrum-implementatsiooniga võrreldud. Scrum on agiilne tarkvara arendamise metoodika, mis põhineb iteratiivsetel ja inkrementaalsetel praktikatel. Iteratiivne lähenemine näeb ette, et esmalt ehitatakse valmis väike osa tootest, mida edaspidi inkrementaalselt ehk järk-järgult järgmistes etappides laiendatakse. Scrum’i üheks olulisemaks tunnuseks ongi etappidepõhine tsükliline arendamisprotsess. Samuti iseloomustavad Scrum’i iseorganiseeruvad meeskonnad ja tugev rõhk tehnilisel täiuslikkusel. Bakalaureusetöö kirjutamise hetkeks on Scrum arendusmetoodikat kasutanud kolm MJS-meeskonda. Analüüsist selgus, et hetkel MJS arenduses kasutusel olev Scrum-implementatsioon vastab hästi antud projekti kontekstile. Ainsa nõrkusena võib välja tuua haavatavuse juhul, kui meeskond motivatsiooni kaotab. Võimalikku probleemi saab aga vältida rangete arendustsüklite kehtestamisega või kogenematu Scrum Master’i (Scrum’i meeskonnajuhi) väljavahetamisega. Eelnev oli ainus Scrum’i kasutamisega seotud potsentsiaalne oht, seega võib öelda, et hetkel kasutusel olev Scrum-implementatsioon tuleb projektile kindlasti kasuks. Sellegipoolest võiks töö optimeerimise eesmärkidel kaaluda ka kasulikemate praktikate laenamist teistest metoodikatest. MJS meeskondade liikmete tase on tihti väga erinev ja seega tasuks meeskonnasiseseks ühtlustamiseks rakendada ekstreemprogrammeerimise (Extreme Programming) paarisprogrammeerimist. Paarisprogrammeerimine on kahe inimese üheaegne programmeerimine ühe arvuti taga. See aitaks vähesema eelneva kogemusega meeskonnaliikmetel teistele järele jõuda ja samal ajal ka projekti arendamisesse panustada. Et vähendada juhtusid, mil käimasolevaid Sprinte (Scrum’i arendustsükkel) on vaja muuta, võiksid meeskonnad implementeerida Lean Software Development metoodika praktikat “Otsusta nii hilja kui võimalik”. Hetkel alustatakse tööd kõrgema prioriteediga ülesannetest, olenemata sellest, kas need on lõplikult määratletud või mitte. Antud praktika aitaks vähendada olukordi, kus varasemalt määratletud eesmärki muudetakse ja sellega seotud töö on vaja kas osaliselt või täielikult uuesti teha.The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the use of Scrum-methodology in long-term student projects following the case of ESTCube-1 Mission Control System, and to examine whether it is a reliable methodology in the projects of given type. The analysis revealed that the implementation of Scrum in ESTCube-1 is a suitable methodology for long-term student projects. The only weakness in the current methodology implementation is vulnerability to possible lack of team motivation. However, the potential problem can be avoided with establishing a work routine that is strict enough for less experienced teams or choosing another, more experienced, Scrum Master. Another objective of the thesis was to give additional recommendations for further adjustments for Scrum if the reliability of Scrum was verified. To increase work efficiency using best practices from other methodologies alongside with Scrum should be considered. To make the teams’ work more effective as well as beneficial in educational purposes, the teams should consider implementing “Pair programming” from Extreme Programming. As this technique requires that all code is produced by two people programming simultaneously on one computer, this practice would help to raise the competence of less experienced team members and produce reliable results in shorter time. To reduce the number of cases where ongoing Sprints have to be changed, the teams should implement the “Decide as late as possible” practice from Lean Software Development. While the Sprint Backlog is currently composed of the most important items already specified in the Product Backlog, the implementation of the practice in question would reduce the time spent on tasks that later would have to be reconsidered