Agile Game Development : A Systematic Literature Review

A systematic literature review was conducted to examine the usage of agile methods in game development. A total of 23 articles were found which were analysed with the help of concept matrices. The results indicate that agile methods are used to varying degrees in game development. Agile methods lead to improved quality of games through a prototyping, playtesting, and feedback loop. Communication and ability of the team to take responsibility are also enhanced. Challenges arise from multidisciplinary teams, management issues, lack of training in agile methods, and quality of code

Software developers reasoning behind adoption and use of software development methods – a systematic literature review

When adopting and using a Software Development Method (SDM), it is important to stay true to the philosophy of the method; otherwise, software developers might execute activities that do not lead to the intended outcomes. Currently, no overview of SDM research addresses software developers’ reasoning behind adopting and using SDMs. Accordingly, this paper aims to survey existing SDM research to scrutinize the current knowledge base on software developers’ type of reasoning behind SDM adoption and use. We executed a systematic literature review and analyzed existing research using two steps. First, we classified papers based on what type of reasoning was addressed regarding SDM adoption and use: rational, irrational, and non-rational. Second, we made a thematic synthesis across these three types of reasoning to provide a more detailed characterization of the existing research. We elicited 28 studies addressing software developers’ reasoning and identified five research themes. Building on these themes, we framed four future research directions with four broad research questions, which can be used as a basis for future research

Arsonists or firefighters? Affectiveness in agile software development

In this paper, we present an analysis of more than 500K comments from open-source repositories of software systems developed using agile methodologies. Our aim is to empirically determine how developers interact with each other under certain psychological conditions generated by politeness, sentiment and emotion expressed within developers' comments. Developers involved in an open-source projects do not usually know each other; they mainly communicate through mailing lists, chat, and tools such as issue tracking systems. The way in which they communicate a ects the development process and the productivity of the people involved in the project. We evaluated politeness, sentiment and emotions of comments posted by agile developers and studied the communication ow to understand how they interacted in the presence of impolite and negative comments (and vice versa). Our analysis shows that \ re ghters" prevail. When in presence of impolite or negative comments, the probability of the next comment being impolite or negative is 13% and 25%, respectively; ANGER however, has a probability of 40% of being followed by a further ANGER comment. The result could help managers take control the development phases of a system, since social aspects can seriously a ect a developer's productivity. In a distributed agile environment this may have a particular resonance

Scrum in video games development – Literature review

The video game industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. In consequence, projects of video game development get progressively bigger and more complex. Scrum is the most commonly used methodology in software development; therefore it is often used in video games development as games are essentially combination of software, art and sometimes science. The aim of this re-view is to provide overlook on Scrum as a methodology used in Software devel-opment, describe in short what characteristics the video games development has and how well Scrum fits into the current state of video games development. It also presents advantages and disadvantages noticed by previous researchers with using Scrum inside and outside of video games industry. The information contained in this article may be useful for people that already work with Scrum outside of video games industry, as well as people working in video games industry not working with Scrum. Both groups may get familiarized with challenges and benefits of using Scrum in context of video games industry and with review of articles based on real life examples contents of this article contains tips valuable to people struggling with Scrum implementation in their video games development projects and how to enhance this meth-odology with other methodologies to achieve most beneficial outcome

Report from GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394: Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World

This report documents the program and the outcomes of GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394 "Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World". The seminar addressed the problem of performance-aware DevOps. Both, DevOps and performance engineering have been growing trends over the past one to two years, in no small part due to the rise in importance of identifying performance anomalies in the operations (Ops) of cloud and big data systems and feeding these back to the development (Dev). However, so far, the research community has treated software engineering, performance engineering, and cloud computing mostly as individual research areas. We aimed to identify cross-community collaboration, and to set the path for long-lasting collaborations towards performance-aware DevOps. The main goal of the seminar was to bring together young researchers (PhD students in a later stage of their PhD, as well as PostDocs or Junior Professors) in the areas of (i) software engineering, (ii) performance engineering, and (iii) cloud computing and big data to present their current research projects, to exchange experience and expertise, to discuss research challenges, and to develop ideas for future collaborations

The COCOMO-Models in the Light of the Agile Software Development

Aufwandsschätzungen sind wichtig, um ökonomische und strategische Entscheidungen in der Softwareentwicklung treffen zu können. Verschiedene Veröffentlichungen propagieren das Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) als ein algorithmisches Kostenmodell, basierend auf Formeln mit objektiven Variablen für Schätzungen in der klassischen Softwareentwicklung (KS). Arbeiten aus der agilen Softwareentwicklung (AS) verweisen auf den Einsatz von erfahrungsbasierten Schätzmethoden und von subjektiven Variablen. Aufgrund der schwachen Operationalisierung im agilen Kontext sind Aussagen über konkrete Ursache- und Wirkungszusammenhänge schwer zu treffen. Hinzu kommt der einseitige Fokus der klassischen und agilen Untersuchungen auf den eigene Forschungsbereich, der nach sich zieht, dass eine Verwendung von Variablen aus COCOMO in der AS unklar ist. Wenn hierzu Details bekannt wären, könnten operationalisierte Variablen aus COCOMO auch in der AS eingesetzt werden. Dadurch wird es möglich, in einer wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung eine Konzeptionierung von konkreten kausalen Abhängigkeiten vorzunehmen – diese Erkenntnisse würden wiederum eine Optimierung des Entwicklungsprozesses erlauben. Zur Identifikation von Variablen wird dazu eine qualitative und deskriptive Arbeit mit einer Literaturrecherche und einer Auswertung der Quellen durchgeführt. Erste Ergebnisse zwischen beiden Welten zeigen dabei sowohl Unterschiede als auch Gemeinsamkeiten. Eine Vielzahl von Variablen aus COCOMO kann in der AS verwendet werden. Inwieweit dies möglich ist, ist von den objektiven und subjektiven Anteilen der Variablen abhängig. Vertreter mit erfahrungsbasiertem Hintergrund wie Analyst Capability (ACAP) und Programmer Capability (PCAP) lassen sich aufgrund von Übereinstimmungen mit personenbezogenen Merkmalen gut in die AS übertragen. Parallel dazu sind Variablen aus dem Prozess- und Werkzeugumfeld weniger gut transferierbar, da konkret die AS einen Fokus auf solche Projektmerkmale ablehnt. Eine Weiterverwendung von Variablen ist damit grundsätzlich unter der Berücksichtigung von gegebenen Rahmenbedingungen möglich.Effort estimations are important in order to make economic and strategic decisions in software development. Various publications propagate the Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) as an algorithmic cost model, based on formulas with objective variables for estimations in classical software development (KS). Papers from agile software development (AS) refers to the use of experience-based estimation methods and subjective variables. Due to the weak operationalization in an agile context, statements about concrete cause and effect relationships are difficult to make. In addition, there is the one-sided focus of classical and agile investigations on their own research field, which suggests that the use of variables from COCOMO in the AS is unclear. If details were available, operational variables from COCOMO could also be used in the AS. This makes it possible to carry out a conceptualization of concrete causal dependencies in a scientific investigation - these findings in turn would allow an optimization of the development process. To identify variables, a qualitative and descriptive work with a literature research and an evaluation of the sources is carried out. First results between the two worlds show both differences and similarities. A large number of variables from COCOMO can be used in the AS. This is possible depending on the objective and subjective proportions of the variables. Variables with an experience-based background, such as Analyst Capability (ACAP) and Programmer Capability (PCAP), can be well transferred to the AS by matching personal characteristics. At the same time, variables from the process and tool environment are less easily transferable, because AS specifically rejects a focus on such project features. A re-use of variables is thus possible under consideration of given conditions

Software Startups -- A Research Agenda

Software startup companies develop innovative, software-intensive products within limited time frames and with few resources, searching for sustainable and scalable business models. Software startups are quite distinct from traditional mature software companies, but also from micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises, introducing new challenges relevant for software engineering research. This paper's research agenda focuses on software engineering in startups, identifying, in particular, 70+ research questions in the areas of supporting startup engineering activities, startup evolution models and patterns, ecosystems and innovation hubs, human aspects in software startups, applying startup concepts in non-startup environments, and methodologies and theories for startup research. We connect and motivate this research agenda with past studies in software startup research, while pointing out possible future directions. While all authors of this research agenda have their main background in Software Engineering or Computer Science, their interest in software startups broadens the perspective to the challenges, but also to the opportunities that emerge from multi-disciplinary research. Our audience is therefore primarily software engineering researchers, even though we aim at stimulating collaborations and research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. We believe that with this research agenda we cover a wide spectrum of the software startup industry current needs

Describing software developers affectiveness through Markov chain models

In this paper, we present an analysis of more than 500K comments from open-source repositories of software systems. Our aim is to empirically determine how developers interact with each other under certain psychological conditions generated by politeness, sentiment and emotion expressed within developers' comments. Developers involved in an open-source projects do not usually know each other; they mainly communicate through mailing lists, chat rooms, and tools such as issue tracking systems. The way in which they communicate affects the development process and the productivity of the people involved in the project. We evaluated politeness, sentiment and emotions of comments posted by developers and studied the communication flow to understand how they interacted in the presence of impolite and negative comments (and vice versa).Our analysis shows that when in presence of impolite or negative comments, the probability of the next comment being impolite or negative is 14% and 25%, respectively; anger however, has a probability of 40% of being followed by a further anger comment. The result could help managers take control the development phases of a system, since social aspects can seriously affect a developer's productivity. In a distributed environment this may have a particular resonance.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming – Workshops

This open access book constitutes papers from the 5 research workshops, the poster presentations, as well as two panel discussions which were presented at XP 2021, the 22nd International Conference on Agile Software Development, which was held online during June 14-18, 2021. XP is the premier agile software development conference combining research and practice. It is a unique forum where agile researchers, practitioners, thought leaders, coaches, and trainers get together to present and discuss their most recent innovations, research results, experiences, concerns, challenges, and trends. XP conferences provide an informal environment to learn and trigger discussions and welcome both people new to agile and seasoned agile practitioners. The 18 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from overall 37 submissions. They stem from the following workshops: 3rd International Workshop on Agile Transformation 9th International Workshop on Large-Scale Agile Development 1st International Workshop on Agile Sustainability 4th International Workshop on Software-Intensive Business 2nd International Workshop on Agility with Microservices Programmin