Artefacts and agile method tailoring in large-scale offshore software development programmes

Context: Large-scale offshore software development programmes are complex, with challenging deadlines and a high risk of failure. Agile methods are being adopted, despite the challenges of coordinating multiple development teams. Agile processes are tailored to support team coordination. Artefacts are tangible products of the software development process, intended to ensure consistency in the approach of teams on the same development programme. Objective: This study aims to increase understanding of how development processes are tailored to meet the needs of large-scale offshore software development programmes, by focusing on artefact inventories used in the development process. Method: A grounded theory approach using 46 practitioner interviews, supplemented with documentary sources and observations, in nine international companies was adopted. The grounded theory concepts of open coding, memoing, constant comparison and saturation were used in data analysis. Results: The study has identified 25 artefacts, organised into five categories: feature, sprint, release, product and corporate governance. It was discovered that conventional agile artefacts are enriched with artefacts associated with plan-based methods in order to provide governance. The empirical evidence collected in the study has been used to identify a primary owner of each artefact and map each artefact to specific activities within each of the agile roles. Conclusion: The development programmes in this study create agile and plan-based artefacts to improve compliance with enterprise quality standards and technology strategies, whilst also mitigating risk of failure. Management of these additional artefacts is currently improvised because agile development processes lack corresponding ceremonies

Agile on a large scale

Agile is sometimes seen as an approach that’s best suited to small project and small teams. Julian M. Bass FBCS shows how, through methods and practice, Agile can work equally well on global scale projects too

Improving writing processes using lean and Kanban

Key points •Concepts from lean manufacturing and Kanban production can usefully be applied to writing for academic publication. •Value and pull focus the author's attention on the needs of reviewers, editors, and readers. •Value stream and flow emphasize an end-to-end process of prioritization, writing, editing, revision, resubmission, and publication •Perfection places emphasis on publication quality. •A Kanban board is advocated to plan and monitor the writing and publication lifecycle. •The author's experience shows a steady improvement in output rankings and researcher reputation metrics over a four-year period

Is there such a thing as agile IT program management?

This paper presents early evidence of agile methods in IT enabled transformational programs of high strategic significance and substantial complexity in large organisations. Based on interviews of top management, and program and project managers, we discuss the key drivers that lead to agile IT enabled programs and some of the barriers encountered while managing IT enabled programs in an agile manner. In addition to the need for fast response to environmental changes, strong IT-business collaboration, and efficient resource use by minimising governance burden, we found that organisations are adopting agile practices in program management as transitory step towards achieving enterprise agility. In doing so agile and non-agile projects co-exist within a program thus creating new coordination challenges. Programs with high degree of agile methods adoption face similar challenges in coordinating with the rest of the organisation which operates in non-agile manner. The paper aims to contribute to fostering scholarly discussion on implementation of agile practices in major projects and programs, an emerging area of research with scarce academic literature

Scrum for product innovation : a longitudinal embedded case study

This article describes the innovation processes used in a partnership between Add Latent Ltd., an asset integrity and maintenance management consulting services provider in the energy sector and University of Salford. The challenge faced by the company is to make their in-house expertise more readily available to a worldwide audience. A longitudinal embedded case study has been used to investigate how installable desktop software applications have been redesigned to create a new set of cloud hosted software services. The innovation team adapted an agile scrum process to include exploratory prototyping and manage the geographical distribution of the team members. A minimum viable product was developed that integrated functional elements of previous software tools into an end-to-end data collection, analysis and visualisation product called AimHi which uses a cloud-hosted web services approach. Field trials were conducted using the software at the Uniper, Isle of Grain power station in Kent, UK. Enhancements were made to the AimHi product which was adopted for use at the Uniper site. The product emerged from a Knwledge Transfer Partnership whci was evaluated on cmplettion by InnovateUK and awarded the highest possible “outstanding” grade. The article illustrates how the scrum software development method was tailored for a product innovation context. Extended periods of evaluation and reflection, prototyping and requirement refinement were combined with periods of incremental feature development using sprints. The AimHi product emerged from a technology transfer and innovation project that has successfully reconciled conflicting demands from customers, universities, partner companies and project staff members

BPM-SCRUM Integrated Model with Digital Marketing to Increase Patient Recruitment Rate in Mental Health Services

In a pre-pandemic scenario, 350 million people in the world suffer from depression, 60% of whom do not receive treatment. In Peru, every 22 minutes someone tries to take his or her own life. In the world, 800 000 people do so, mainly due to depression. Of the people who suffer from this disease, 75% do not do anything about it. This is due to the barrier of misinformation about mental health, its importance and the services available. In spite of this, in the case of the people who do get treatment, many of them end up abandoning it because it does not meet the special expectations of each patient. Therefore, a redesign of the patient attraction process has been proposed using BPM and Scrum Methodology. This proposal will also apply Digital Marketing to launch a web platform that automates the entire patient recruitment process. The current patient acquisition rate is 50% of the industry standard and the rate of digital tools usage is 60%. After the implementation of the proposed model, these rates increased to 76% and 100%, respectively. Keywords—BPM, SCRUM, digital marketing, mental health service, recruitment rat

Aplicación del desarrollo guiado por pruebas como una práctica de la ingeniería de software.

El diseño de aplicaciones móviles es considerado como una de las prioridades tecnológicas en el mundo moderno. Estas se encaminan a satisfacer la demanda de los usuarios para garantizar eficiencia y productividad empresarial mediante la automatización de sus procesos. El objetivo de esta investigación fue desarrollar una aplicación web móvil para el registro de lectura de los medidores del consumo de agua y cobros por servicios prestados. Para su desarrollo se utilizó la metodología ágil, en particular Scrum, que permitió ejecutar las tareas de manera eficaz con participación activa del cliente; se aplicó el Desarrollo Dirigido por Pruebas para la realización de pruebas unitarias en las tareas de programación y pruebas de aceptación para validar funcionalidades. Como principal resultado se obtuvo el diseño y ejecución de una aplicación web/ móvil que cumple con el objetivo previsto y que superó las primeras pruebas de calidad y funcionamiento, estando pendiente en un segundo momento su implementación a escala funcional. La Metodología Scrum y el Desarrollo Dirigido por Pruebas TDD, constituyen herramientas de invaluable valor en el diseño y elaboración de aplicaciones web para ser implementadas en el sector empresarial.The design of mobile applications is considered one of the technological priorities in the modern world. These are aimed at satisfying the demand of users to ensure efficiency and business productivity through the automation of their processes. The objective of this research was to develop a mobile web application for the reading of water consumption meters and charges for services rendered. For its development, the agile methodology was used, , the Scrum method, which allowed executing the tasks efficiently with active participation of the client; Test-Driven Development was applied to perform unit tests in programming tasks and acceptance tests to validate functionalities. The main result was the design and execution of a web application that meets the target and exceeded the first quality and performance tests, pending implementation at a functional scale. The Scrum method and Test Driven Development are tools of invaluable value in the design and development of web applications to be implemented in the business sector

Aplicación del desarrollo guiado por pruebas como una práctica de la ingeniería de software.

El diseño de aplicaciones móviles es considerado como una de las prioridades tecnológicas en el mundo moderno. Estas se encaminan a satisfacer la demanda de los usuarios para garantizar eficiencia y productividad empresarial mediante la automatización de sus procesos. El objetivo de esta investigación fue desarrollar una aplicación web móvil para el registro de lectura de los medidores del consumo de agua y cobros por servicios prestados. Para su desarrollo se utilizó la metodología ágil, en particular Scrum, que permitió ejecutar las tareas de manera eficaz con participación activa del cliente; se aplicó el Desarrollo Dirigido por Pruebas para la realización de pruebas unitarias en las tareas de programación y pruebas de aceptación para validar funcionalidades. Como principal resultado se obtuvo el diseño y ejecución de una aplicación web/ móvil que cumple con el objetivo previsto y que superó las primeras pruebas de calidad y funcionamiento, estando pendiente en un segundo momento su implementación a escala funcional. La Metodología Scrum y el Desarrollo Dirigido por Pruebas TDD, constituyen herramientas de invaluable valor en el diseño y elaboración de aplicaciones web para ser implementadas en el sector empresarial.The design of mobile applications is considered one of the technological priorities in the modern world. These are aimed at satisfying the demand of users to ensure efficiency and business productivity through the automation of their processes. The objective of this research was to develop a mobile web application for the reading of water consumption meters and charges for services rendered. For its development, the agile methodology was used, , the Scrum method, which allowed executing the tasks efficiently with active participation of the client; Test-Driven Development was applied to perform unit tests in programming tasks and acceptance tests to validate functionalities. The main result was the design and execution of a web application that meets the target and exceeded the first quality and performance tests, pending implementation at a functional scale. The Scrum method and Test Driven Development are tools of invaluable value in the design and development of web applications to be implemented in the business sector

Coordination in Distributed Agile Software Development: A Systematic Review

In order to decrease the consumer return transaction cost, e-commerce platform Alibaba invited an insurance company to develop a new type of insurance to compensate consumers for returns, which is called return-freight insurance. The new insurance has resulted in online return\u27s explosive growth. However, some online retailers still choose to offer complimentary return-freight insurance to signal their products\u27 quality. Using signaling theory, we build a conceptual economic model to explore what kind of online retailer should adopt this strategy under incomplete information. Based on the fact that each product\u27s return probability, profit, and insurance compensation are different, our main results show the separating equilibria, where only high-quality online retailers will offer complimentary return-freight insurance. Interestingly, return-freight insurance profit and compensation play different roles in the signal effect. The insurance premium plays a deep role while the compensation plays at the surface, because consumers could only observe the compensation when purchasing