862 research outputs found

    What are Hybrid Development Methods Made Of? An Evidence-Based Characterization

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    Among the multitude of software development processes available, hardly any is used by the book. Regardless of company size or industry sector, a majority of project teams and companies use customized processes that combine different development methods— so-called hybrid development methods. Even though such hybrid development methods are highly individualized, a common understanding of how to systematically construct synergetic practices is missing. In this paper, we make a first step towards devising such guidelines. Grounded in 1,467 data points from a large-scale online survey among practitioners, we study the current state of practice in process use to answer the question: What are hybrid development methods made of? Our findings reveal that only eight methods and few practices build the core of modern software development. This small set allows for statistically constructing hybrid development methods. Using an 85% agreement level in the participants’ selections, we provide two examples illustrating how hybrid development methods are characterized by the practices they are made of. Our evidence-based analysis approach lays the foundation for devising hybrid development methods

    Scalable agile frameworks in large enterprise project portfolio management

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    Con un alcance de estudio exploratorio, debido a que se ha investigado poco y se encuentra en un estado emergente, el propósito de la investigación fue explorar la implementación de los marcos ágiles escalables en la gestión del portafolio de proyectos (PPM) de grandes empresas. Además, este estudio de caso cualitativo planteó la siguiente pregunta principal de investigación: ¿De qué manera los marcos ágiles escalables se implementan en la PPM de grandes empresas, y por qué? Este estudio recopiló información de 59 portafolios de proyectos en 22 empresas con implementaciones de métodos ágiles y marcos ágiles escalables de las industrias tecnologías de la información (IT- por sus siglas en inglés), financiera y telecomunicaciones, de México, Colombia, Perú, Ecuador, Costa Rica y Chile, mediante 43 entrevistas en profundidad semiestructuradas. Los hallazgos revelan que existen portafolios de proyectos con alta variabilidad en servicio, producto e innovación, y con implementaciones híbridas de Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Spotify Model y Scrum. Además, enfrentan diferentes desafíos relacionados con la implementación de los marcos ágiles escalables en la PPM, la cultura organizacional, resistencia al cambio y liderazgo estratégico. Del mismo modo, los hallazgos demuestran que los marcos ágiles son una opción viable para optimizar el time-to-market, aumentar la productividad de los equipos y mejorar la comunicación a nivel general. Este estudio es uno de los primeros en explorar cómo implementan las grandes empresas los marcos ágiles escalables en la PPM para llenar el vacío en la literatura relacionado con cómo y cuándo las empresas deben abordar un proceso de transformación ágil que funcione de manera exitosa en su PPM. Por lo tanto, este estudio proporciona evidencia empírica de seis países latinoamericanos como base potencial para futuras investigaciones y publicaciones.With an exploratory study scope, due to little research and in an emerging state, the purpose of the research was to explore the implementation of scalable agile frameworks in project portfolio management (PPM) of large enterprises. This qualitative case study posed as its primary research question: How and why are scalable agile frameworks implemented in the PPM of large companies? Further, this study used the purposive sampling method and the snowball technique. Data were collected from 59 project portfolios in 22 companies with agile and scalable agile framework implementations in the information technology (IT), financial and telecommunications industries in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Chile, through 43 semi-structured in-depth interviews. The findings reveal that there are project portfolios with high variability in service, product and innovation, and with hybrid implementations of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Spotify Model and Scrum. In addition, they face different challenges related to the implementation of scalable agile frameworks in PPM, organizational culture, resistance to change, and strategic leadership. Similarly, the findings demonstrate that agile frameworks are a viable option to optimize time-to-market, increase team productivity and improve communication across the board. This study represents one of the first to explore how large companies implement scalable agile frameworks in PPM to fill the gap in the literature related to how and when companies should approach an agile transformation process working successfully in their PPM. Accordingly, this study provides empirical evidence from six Latin American countries as a potential basis for future research and publications

    Market Offer For IKOR GMBH: Development of a business analysis to assess the usefulness of the Scaled Agile Framework for insurance companies

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    Internship Report presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementIt has been known for years that agile methods have a major role to play in project management. Increasingly, frameworks for agile scaling are becoming more popular and widespread. The Scaled Agile Framework is one of them. It enjoys great popularity in many industries. Therefore, IKOR has considered that a market offer is needed that exactly fulfils this need for its customers. These are mainly insurance customers, who are still a few years behind the digital transformation compared to other industries. In order to create a solution for this, IKOR decided that a market offer was needed that assessed whether SAFe was a useful framework for the insurance company to adopt and provided an assessment of how far along the insurance company was in adopting SAFe. This internship report was prepared to fulfil and document this task. During the development of the market offer, SAFe, business analysis, and the implementation of workshops were dealt with from a theoretical as well as a practical point of view. The result was a business analysis in form of a questionnaire, a workshop concept for conducting the workshop with the client and a recommendation made to the client on the current status of his insurance. After the exemplary implementation, the procedure and the results were evaluated and classified by experts. They gave additional advice on how to use and expand the market offer

    Rapid Software Development Life Cycle in Small Projects

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    Small software projects are becoming more usual nowadays. Whether a small project is conducted privately or professionally, the management of the project and its phases is much easier with proper tools and frameworks. The research target of this thesis is to find out a proper life cycle model for small software projects. This thesis is conducted for Softwarehouse, a professional division of IT services in the University of Turku. The official guide for Scrum framework is adhered in software development but when it comes to formally managing various phases of a software project (planning, design, implementation, testing, reviewing etc.) there is room for improvement. Managing software projects with a proper set of tools and procedures would be beneficial as Softwarehouse works on many projects concurrently. The intended life cycle model has to be formal and heavy enough so that the benefits of agile project management can be received. However too rigid a model can be too arduous and exhausting to use, which could result in the decrease of Softwarehouse’s production volume. Therefore the model has to be light enough to maintain rapid software development and creative atmosphere within the Softwarehouse. This thesis begins by giving outline of existing software development life cycle models and followed by relevant literary exploration. After this the research case is explained in greater detail. These give the foundation and rationale to propose a suitable model. The model is experimented empirically and reviewed by partaking personnel. The results are reviewed and discussed. Finally topics for future research are suggested

    Implement, measure, and improve agile : a framework for agile adoption

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    As the world becomes increasingly connected and societies become more globalised, organisations seek to keep up with this pace through constant transformation. In order to maintain their level of competitiveness, companies need to be at the forefront of innovation, digital transformation, and continuous improvement. The evolution of the Agile methodology allows companies to adapt to new realities and be able to keep up with the complexity and demands of the markets and their stakeholders. Agile now sets a pace that transcends applicability to software development and organisations are increasingly transferring Agile values and principles to their teams so that they deliver more value, with less risk and more quickly. The literature is extensive regarding the benefits of Agile but restricts the methodology to projects and mainly to the software development context. In the context of this thesis, and together with companies of different sizes and industries, we try to understand what drove them to adopt Agile, what are the benefits and challenges of its implementation, what is the present and future of the methodology, and what is the impact on the management of the organisation as a whole. We sought to answer the research question "How can a company adopt Agile?" and, as a result, we developed a framework comprising seven phases that all companies should go through, for a more complete Agile adoption and immersion.Com o mundo cada vez mais conectado e as sociedades cada vez mais globalizadas, as organizações procuram acompanhar este ritmo através da sua transformação constante. Por forma a manter o seu nível de competitividade, as empresas necessitam de estar na linha da frente da inovação, da transformação digital, e da melhoria contínua. A evolução da metodologia Agile vem permitir que empresas se adaptem a novas realidades e sejam capazes de acompanhar a complexidade e exigência dos mercados e dos seus stakeholders. O Agile traça agora um ritmo que transcende a aplicabilidade ao desenvolvimento de software e as organizações começam cada vez mais a transferir os valores e os princípios Agile às suas equipas, para que estas entreguem mais valor, com menos risco e de forma mais célere. A literatura revela-se extensa relativamente aos benefícios do Agile, mas restringe a metodologia aos projetos e principalmente ao contexto de desenvolvimento de software. No contexto desta tese, e em conjunto com empresas de diferentes dimensões e indústrias, tentamos perceber o que as impulsionou a adotar Agile, quais os benefícios e desafios da sua implementação, qual o presente e futuro da metodologia, e qual o impacto na gestão da organização como um todo. Procuramos responder à questão de investigação “Como é que uma empresa pode adotar Agile?” e, como resultado, desenvolvemos um framework que compreende sete fases que todas as empresas devem percorrer para uma adoção e imersão ao contexto Agile

    Building lean thinking in a telecom software development organization: strengths and challenges.

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    The potential shown by Lean in different domains has aroused interest in the software industry. However, it remains unclear how Lean can be effectively applied in a domain such as software development that is fundamentally different from manufacturing. This study explores how Lean principles are implemented in software development companies and the challenges that arise when applying Lean Software Development. For that, a case study was conducted at Ericsson R&D Finland, which successfully adopted Scrum in 2009 and subsequently started a comprehensible transition to Lean in 2010. Focus groups were conducted with company representatives to help devise a questionnaire supporting the creation of a Lean mindset in the company (Team Amplifier). Afterwards, the questionnaire was used in 16 teams based in Finland, Hungary and China to evaluate the status of the transformation. By using Lean thinking, Ericsson R&D Finland has made important improvements to the quality of its products, customer satisfaction and transparency within the organization. Moreover, build times have been reduced over ten times and the number of commits per day has increased roughly five times.The study makes two main contributions to research. First, the main factors that have enabled Ericsson R&D?s achievements are analysed. Elements such as ?network of product owners?, ?continuous integration?, ?work in progress limits? and ?communities of practice? have been identified as being of fundamental importance. Second, three categories of challenges in using Lean Software Development were identified: ?achieving flow?, ?transparency? and ?creating a learning culture

    Scaling agile using scaled agile framework

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    Software Process Improvement Using Agile Methods in Financial Institutions. LHV Bank Case

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    Töökorraldus suurtes finantsinstitutsioonides ja finantstehnoloogia ettevõtetes on rajatud erinevatele alustele. Selgemalt kui kusagil mujal on see näha nende ettevõtete tootearenduses, kus tuleb välja oluline erinevus uue toote turule toomise kiiruses ja tarkvara arendusprotsessis tervikuna. Paljud finantsinstitutsioonid püüavad lahendada probleemi, mis on seotud tootearenduse ja tarkvara arendusprotsesside kiirendamisega, et vastata ärikeskkonnast tulenevatele muutustele.Ajalooliselt on suured finantsinstitutsioonid tuginenud oma tarkvara arendusprotsessides kose-meetoditele, mis tõid varem häid tulemusi, kuid mis ei vasta enam muutunud ärikeskkonnast tulevatele vajadustele. Suurem üleminek kose-meetodil toimivalt tarkvara arendusprotsessilt välk-meetodil toimivale tarkvara arendusprotsessile on nendes organisatsioonides toimunud alles viimase viie aasta jooksul. Uue põlvkonna finantstehnoloogia iduettevõtted on aga rajanud kogu oma tegevuse välk-meetodil põhinevale tarkvara arendusprotsessile.Magistritöö eesmärgiks on leida vastus küsimusele, kuidas skaleerida väledaid tarkvara arendusprotsessi meetodeid finantsinstitutsioonides. Selleks viiakse läbi LHV Panga tarkvara arendusprotsessil põhinev juhtumiuuring. Magistritöös kirjeldatakse LHV Panga olemasolevat tarkvara arendusprotsessi, analüüsitakse läbi teoreetiline kirjandus ja viiakse läbi praktilised intervjuud. Võttes arvesse analüüsi tulemusel kogutud tähelepanekuid, pakutakse LHV Panga näitel välja ettepanekud, kuidas kiirendada tarkvara arendusprotsessi finantsinstitutsioonis.Magistritöös tuuakse välja kaheksa ettepanekut protsessi kiirendamiseks LHV Pangas. Kogu organisatsiooni tasemel tuleb väledad meetodid ja juhtimiskultuur tervikuna kasutusele võtta laiemalt nii juhtimises kui ka äri-, toote- ja IT-arenduses. Selleks tuleb korraldada vajalikud koolitused. Meeskondade tasemel tuleb arenduse kiiruse tõstmiseks moodustada konkreetsed tootemeeskonnad, seada ühised eesmärgid kõikidele meeskonnaliikmetele ja anda meeskondadele suurem otsustusvabadus. Protsesside tasemel tuleb üle vaadata hetkel kehtiv tarkvara arendusportsess ning täiendada seda viimaste praktikate ja organisatsiooni enda poolt viimase viie aasta jooksul kogutud kogemustega. Tehnilisel tasemel tuleb automatiseerida tarkvara kasutuselevõtmisprotsess ja kasutada rohkem väiksematest osadest koosnevat infosüsteemi ülesehitust.Large financial institutions and fintech companies have fundamentally different ways of working. More clearly than anywhere else, this is seen in their product development cycles. There is significant difference in time to market for new products and in speed of software development. The problem where many financial institutions find themselves now is the need to respond faster to the changes in the business environment and have faster product and software development processes.Large financial institutions have historically relied on waterfall-inspired methods for software development. These methods have delivered great value for a long time, but are not corresponding to the current changing needs in the business environment. A larger shift from waterfall towards agile software development in these organizations has taken place just in the last five years due to the changes in the competition, where the new generation fintech companies have relied purely on agile development.In light of this context, this thesis addresses the research question of how agile software development process can be scaled up within the context of financial institutions. This is achieved by means of a case study carried out on LHV Bank software development process. The current processes at LHV Bank are mapped, suggestions for changes are derived through review of existing research on agile methods and from in-depth interviews. Based on the analysis, the findings that are the most important for benefiting from agile development are identified and suggested for improving the software development process at LHV Bank.There are eight key recommendations for improving the process at LHV Bank. On the organizational level, the agile methods and management culture should be introduced in larger scale, including the management, business, product and software development, with relevant trainings to be organized. On the teams level, to increase the efficiency of the development, concrete product teams should be assembled, common objectives set for team members and more autonomy given to the teams. On the process level, the agile development method used with its components should be reviewed by learning from the latest best practices and experience the organization has collected during the last five years when implementing agile practices. On the technical level, the release process should be automated and modular system architecture and microservices should be used more
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