1,623 research outputs found

    Scrum2Kanban: Integrating Kanban and Scrum in a University Software Engineering Capstone Course

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    Using university capstone courses to teach agile software development methodologies has become commonplace, as agile methods have gained support in professional software development. This usually means students are introduced to and work with the currently most popular agile methodology: Scrum. However, as the agile methods employed in the industry change and are adapted to different contexts, university courses must follow suit. A prime example of this is the Kanban method, which has recently gathered attention in the industry. In this paper, we describe a capstone course design, which adds the hands-on learning of the lean principles advocated by Kanban into a capstone project run with Scrum. This both ensures that students are aware of recent process frameworks and ideas as well as gain a more thorough overview of how agile methods can be employed in practice. We describe the details of the course and analyze the participating students' perceptions as well as our observations. We analyze the development artifacts, created by students during the course in respect to the two different development methodologies. We further present a summary of the lessons learned as well as recommendations for future similar courses. The survey conducted at the end of the course revealed an overwhelmingly positive attitude of students towards the integration of Kanban into the course

    Requirements Engineering that Balances Agility of Teams and System-level Information Needs at Scale

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    Context: Motivated by their success in software development, large-scale systems development companies are increasingly adopting agile methods and their practices. Such companies need to accommodate different development cycles of hardware and software and are usually subject to regulation and safety concerns. Also, for such companies, requirements engineering is an essential activity that involves upfront and detailed analysis which can be at odds with agile development methods. Objective: The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate the challenges and solution candidates of performing effective requirements engineering in an agile environment, based on empirical evidence. Illustrated with studies on safety and system-level information needs, we explore RE challenges and solutions in large-scale agile development, both in general and from the teams’ perspectives. Method: To meet our aim, we performed a secondary study and a series of empirical studies based on case studies. We collected qualitative data using interviews, focus groups and workshops to derive challenges and potential solutions from industry. Findings: Our findings show that there are numerous challenges of conducting requirements engineering in agile development especially where systems development is concerned. The challenges discovered sprout from an integration problem of working with agile methods while relying on established plan-driven processes for the overall system. We highlight the communication challenge of crossing the boundary of agile methods and system-level (or plan-driven) development, which also proves the coexistence of both methods. Conclusions: Our results highlight the painful areas of requirements engineering in agile development and propose solutions that can be explored further. This thesis contributes to future research, by establishing a holistic map of challenges and candidate solutions that can be further developed to make RE more efficient within agile environments

    Charting Coordination Needs in Large-Scale Agile Organisations with Boundary Objects and Methodological Islands

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    Large-scale system development companies are increasingly adopting agile methods. While this adoption may improve lead-times, such companies need to balance two trade-offs: (i) the need to have a uniform, consistent development method on system level with the need for specialised methods for teams in different disciplines (e.g., hardware, software, mechanics, sales, support); (ii) the need for comprehensive documentation on system level with the need to have lightweight documentation enabling iterative and agile work. With specialised methods for teams, isolated teams work within larger ecosystems of plan-driven culture, i.e., teams become agile “islands”. At the boundaries, these teams share knowledge which needs to be managed well for a correct system to be developed. While it is useful to support diverse and specialised methods, it is important to understand which islands are repeatedly encountered, the reasons or factors triggering their existence, and how best to handle coordination between them. Based on a multiple case study, this work presents a catalogue of islands and the boundary objects between them. We believe this work will be beneficial to practitioners aiming to understand their ecosystems and researchers addressing communication and coordination challenges in large-scale development

    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

    An automated framework to support agile adoption coaching

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    This dissertation aims to assist Agile champions in their organisations with their Agile adoption journey. Such a journey typically starts with identifying the Agile challenges and then determining how to address these challenges in their unique context (Hajjdiab & Taleb, 2011a:9). This study provides a manual together with an automated framework to showcase a list of prioritised Agile challenges and their corresponding possible solutions. Before reaching this automated framework, the research presented a comprehensive list of Agile adoption challenges, possible solutions and a mapping between them. The automated framework, also named Agile Adoption Coach (AAC), is in the form of an online tool: www.agilesense.coza/aac. The critical quantitative contribution to this study was the evaluation of the AAC by Scrum Masters and Agile coaches to determine the acceptability of the tool. The research has shown that there is, on average, an 86% acceptability rating for this tool in South Africa.School of ComputingM. Sc. (Computing

    Software Evolution for Industrial Automation Systems. Literature Overview

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    Co-creation for transdisciplinarity - Adoption of participatory design and agile project management in collaborative research processes

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    Aquest projecte doctoral explora mètodes de cocreació aplicats a la recerca transdisciplinària. En el context de la societat de la informació, la col·laboració en recerca ha crescut en popularitat entre els equips científics, sota molts enfocaments i formes. Entre aquests, la transdisciplinarietat representa un tipus específic d'activitat científica col·laborativa. La investigació transdisciplinària va més enllà de la col·laboració d'experts de diferents disciplines, ja que també pot involucrar no experts i comunitats no científiques per abordar de manera integral diferents qüestions i problemàtiques, com és el cas de la ciència ciutadana o la recerca acció. La transdisciplinarietat implica processos de recerca complexos i nous desafiaments, com la forma d'abordar la diversitat dels participants, especialment per planificar i gestionar projectes. Aquesta tesi, articulada al voltant d'un compendi de publicacions, explora fins a quin punt i en quina mesura les metodologies de cocreació poden contribuir a abordar aquests desafiaments, en diferents contextos i fases de la recerca transdisciplinària.Este proyecto de doctorado explora métodos de cocreación aplicados a la investigación transdisciplinaria. En el contexto de la sociedad de la información, la colaboración en investigación ha crecido en popularidad entre equipos científicos, bajo muchos enfoques y formas. Entre ellos, la transdisciplinariedad representa un tipo específico de actividad científica colaborativa. La investigación transdisciplinaria va más allá de la colaboración de expertos de diferentes disciplinas, ya que también puede involucrar a no expertos y comunidades no científicas para abordar de manera integral diferentes cuestiones y problemáticas, como en el caso de la ciencia ciudadana o la investigación acción. La transdisciplinariedad implica procesos de investigación complejos y nuevos desafíos, como la forma de abordar la diversidad de los participantes, especialmente para planificar y gestionar proyectos. Esta tesis explora hasta qué punto y en qué medida las metodologías de cocreación pueden contribuir a abordar estos desafíos, en diferentes contextos y fases de la investigación transdisciplinaria.Collaborative research in the network society has taken on a number of approaches and forms and has grown in popularity among scientific teams. One specific example of this is transdisciplinary research, which not only depends on the collaboration of experts from different disciplines, but also turns to non-experts and non-scientific communities of stakeholders in order to holistically address a range of different problems and issues, as is the case with citizen science and action research. Transdisciplinarity encompasses complex research processes and faces new challenges, such as how to deal with participant diversity, especially in terms of project planning and management. This doctoral thesis, founded upon a compendium of previous research, explores if and to what extent co-creation methodologies can aid in overcoming these challenges in different contexts and phases of transdisciplinary research

    Measuring and improving Agile Processes in a small-size software development company

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    Context: Agile software development has become commonplace in software development companies due to the numerous benefits it provides. However, conducting Agile projects is demanding in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), because projects start and end quickly, but still have to fulfil customers' quality requirements. Objective: This paper aims at reporting a practical experience on the use of metrics related to the software development process as a means supporting SMEs in the development of software following an Agile methodology. Method: We followed Action-Research principles in a Polish small-size software development company. We developed and executed a study protocol suited to the needs of the company, using a pilot case. Results: A catalogue of Agile development process metrics practically validated in the context of a small-size software development company, adopted by the company in their Agile projects. Conclusions: Practitioners may adopt these metrics in their Agile projects, especially if working in an SME, and customise them to their own needs and tools. Academics may use the findings as a baseline for new research work, including new empirical studies.The authors would like to thank all the members of the QRapids H2020 project consortium.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
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