21,366 research outputs found
Bridging the gap between research and agile practice: an evolutionary model
There is wide acceptance in the software engineering field that industry and research can gain significantly from each other and there have been several initiatives to encourage collaboration between the two. However there are some often-quoted challenges in this kind of collaboration. For example, that the timescales of research and practice are incompatible, that research is not seen as relevant for practice, and that research demands a different kind of rigour than practice supports. These are complex challenges that are not always easy to overcome. Since the beginning of 2013 we have been using an approach designed to address some of these challenges and to bridge the gap between research and practice, specifically in the agile software development arena. So far we have collaborated successfully with three partners and have investigated three practitioner-driven challenges with agile. The model of collaboration that we adopted has evolved with the lessons learned in the first two collaborations and been modified for the third. In this paper we introduce the collaboration model, discuss how it addresses the collaboration challenges between research and practice and how it has evolved, and describe the lessons learned from our experience
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
Flexible Global Software Development (GSD): Antecedents of Success in Requirements Analysis
Globalization of software development has resulted in a rapid shift away from the traditional collocated, on-site development model, to the offshoring model. Emerging trends indicate an increasing interest in offshoring even in early phases like requirements analysis. Additionally, the flexibility offered by the agile development approach makes it attractive for adaptation in globally distributed software work. A question of significance then is what impacts the success of offshoring earlier phases, like requirements analysis, in a flexible and globally distributed environment? This article incorporates the stance of control theory to posit a research model that examines antecedent factors such as requirements change, facilitation by vendor and client site-coordinators, control, and computer-mediated communication. The impact of these factors on success of requirements analysis projects in a “flexible” global setting is tested using two quasi-experiments involving students from Management Development Institute, India and Marquette University, USA. Results indicate that formal modes of control significantly influence project success during requirements analysis. Further, facilitation by both client and vendor site coordinators positively impacts requirements analysis success
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
Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice: The Agile Research Network
We report an action research-oriented approach to investigating agile project management methods which aims to bridge the gap between academic research and agile practice. We have set up a research network of academics from two universities, through which we run focussed project-based research into agile methods. Organisations are invited to suggest an ‘agile challenge’ and we work closely with them to investigate how challenge affects them. Our approach is both academic and practical. We use appropriate research methods such as interviews, observation and discussion to clarify and explore the nature of the challenge. We then undertake a detailed literature review to identify practical approaches that may be appropriate for adoption, and report our findings. If the organisation introduces new practices or approaches as a result of our work, we conduct an academic evaluation. Alternatively, if we uncover an under-researched area, we propose undertaking some basic research. As befits the topic, we work iteratively and incrementally and produce regular outputs.
In this paper we introduce our approach, overview research methods used in the agile research literature, describe our research model, outline a case study, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of our approach. We discuss the importance of producing outputs that are accessible to practitioners as well as researchers. Findings suggest that by investigating the challenges that organisations propose, we uncover problems that are of real relevance to the agile community and obtain rich insights into the facilitators and barriers that organisations face when using agile methods. Additionally, we find that practitioners are interested in research results as long as publications are relevant to their needs and are written accessibly. We are satisfied with the basic structure of our approach, but we anticipate that the method will evolve as we continue to work with collaborators
Involving External Stakeholders in Project Courses
Problem: The involvement of external stakeholders in capstone projects and
project courses is desirable due to its potential positive effects on the
students. Capstone projects particularly profit from the inclusion of an
industrial partner to make the project relevant and help students acquire
professional skills. In addition, an increasing push towards education that is
aligned with industry and incorporates industrial partners can be observed.
However, the involvement of external stakeholders in teaching moments can
create friction and could, in the worst case, lead to frustration of all
involved parties. Contribution: We developed a model that allows analysing the
involvement of external stakeholders in university courses both in a
retrospective fashion, to gain insights from past course instances, and in a
constructive fashion, to plan the involvement of external stakeholders. Key
Concepts: The conceptual model and the accompanying guideline guide the
teachers in their analysis of stakeholder involvement. The model is comprised
of several activities (define, execute, and evaluate the collaboration). The
guideline provides questions that the teachers should answer for each of these
activities. In the constructive use, the model allows teachers to define an
action plan based on an analysis of potential stakeholders and the pedagogical
objectives. In the retrospective use, the model allows teachers to identify
issues that appeared during the project and their underlying causes. Drawing
from ideas of the reflective practitioner, the model contains an emphasis on
reflection and interpretation of the observations made by the teacher and other
groups involved in the courses. Key Lessons: Applying the model retrospectively
to a total of eight courses shows that it is possible to reveal hitherto
implicit risks and assumptions and to gain a better insight into the
interaction...Comment: Abstract shortened since arxiv.org limits length of abstracts. See
paper/pdf for full abstract. Paper is forthcoming, accepted August 2017.
Arxiv version 2 corrects misspelled author nam
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