Practicing Scrum in Institute Course

Scrum is one of the most popular agile methods following \textit{Manifesto for Agile Software Development}, and is a value-driven software development approach which focuses on maximizing the values of the customers. Many top software companies like Amazon.com, Apple, and Microsoft directly apply Scrum and other Agile methods for developing great software products. To raise the talents required by industry, teaching agile methods in university is necessary. However, with the limits of time, space, and experts in agile development, it can be difficult for students to learn the practices of agile methods in college. In this paper, we describe an experimental course in Feng Chia University that practices Scrum for term projects among five teams composed of 34 students. To the best of our knowledge the practices is the few attempts to practically apply all the factors described in Scrum framework such as sprint planning, daily scrum, review, retrospective meetings, product owner, and scrum master in institutional agile education. In this paper, the design and the process of the term projects based on Scrum are described, and the lessons learned from practicing Scrum in college are presented as discussion

Development of a continuous improvement process for agile software development teams

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Industrial Engineering and ManagementThe fast growth of the technology market has triggered the highest levels of competitiveness and globalization in the current business environment. The present VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world and the continuous pursuit for new products and services has increased customer's demands, requiring the companies to be more flexible than ever by delivering software with quality, in time and within budget while in search of excellence and success. To reach this purpose, many software organizations have been adopting Agile Methodologies combined with Continuous Improvement projects, in order to achieve an improvement in customer satisfaction, providing products with higher quality, lower costs and in shorter time to the market. The ENG-P department at Bosch Braga, had a track record of some practices of Scrum but it was recognized that most teams were inefficient in taking advantage of the improvement opportunities that arose during the Sprint Retrospective ceremonies and transform them into improvements for the team. The objective of this dissertation project was to design a process for the inception of Continuous Improvement (CI) in one team of the ENG-P department, that could define the actions that needed to be taken after the Retrospective ceremony, in order to make the most out of the suggestions given by the team. By combining the Scrum cycle and the Lean philosophy, this CI process helped the team analyze problems or improvement opportunities and proceed to their prioritization, planning, implementation and evaluation, making the team more effective in problem-solving, more motivated and, consequently, more productive. The first step was to define which CI strategy would be implemented. Between analytical and benchmark approaches, the PDCA was the one selected to serve as foundation for the CI process due to its application to improve processes, products or services in any organization. After the implementation and standardization of the CI process in the daily work of the team, the final results showed that this new method doubled the suggestions implementation rate when compared with the previous results obtained by only performing the Retrospective ceremony. In addition, the accumulation of small improvements throughout time were responsible for substantial changes in the team. The level of motivation, involvement, empowerment and teamwork increased, there was a better visual task and time management, the communication improved, and a mindset of continuous improvement was built within the team.O rápido crescimento do mercado tecnológico despoletou os mais altos níveis de competitividade e globalização no atual ambiente de negócios. O presente mundo VUCA (volátil, incerto, complexo e ambíguo) e a procura contínua por novos produtos e serviços levou a um aumento das exigências dos clientes, obrigando as empresas a tornarem-se mais flexíveis e a fornecer software com qualidade, atempadamente e dentro do orçamento, enquanto procuram alcançar a excelência e o sucesso próprio. Com foco neste objetivo, muitas empresas de desenvolvimento de software têm recentemente adotado metodologias ágeis em simbiose com projetos de melhoria contínua, com a finalidade de obterem uma maior satisfação do cliente, fornecendo produtos com maior qualidade e custos mais baixos. O departamento ENG-P da Bosch Braga já possuía no seu histórico algumas práticas de Scrum, mas reconheceu-se que a maioria das equipas eram ineficientes no aproveitamento das oportunidades de melhoria que surgiam durante a cerimónia Retrospetiva e transformá-las em melhorias para a equipa. O objetivo deste projeto de dissertação foi projetar um processo para a implementação de uma estratégia de Melhoria Contínua numa equipa do departamento ENG-P. Este definiu as ações a serem tomadas após a Retrospetiva, de forma a aproveitar ao máximo as sugestões dadas pela equipa. A combinação entre o ciclo Scrum e a filosofia Lean auxiliou a equipa na análise de problemas ou oportunidades de melhoria, na sua priorização, planeamento, implementação e avaliação. Estas ações permitiram que a equipa se tornasse mais motivada e eficaz na resolução de problemas e, consequentemente, mais produtiva. A primeira etapa consistiu na definição da estratégia de melhoria contínua a ser implementada. Entre abordagens de benchmark e analíticas, o ciclo PDCA foi a técnica selecionada como base ao processo devido à sua aplicabilidade na melhoraria de processos, produtos ou serviços. Após a implementação e padronização do processo no trabalho diário da equipa, os resultados demostraram que a sua adoção duplicou a taxa de implementação de sugestões da equipa, quando comparado a resultados obtidos apenas com realização da Retrospetiva, aumentando a capacidade de resolução de problemas da equipa. Além disso, pequenas melhorias alcançadas ao longo do tempo trouxeram grandes mudanças para a equipa. O nível de motivação, envolvimento e teamwork aumentou, existiu uma melhor gestão visual das tarefas e do tempo, a comunicação melhorou e foi construída uma mentalidade de melhoria contínua dentro da equipa

Multidimensional Construction Planning and Agile Organized Project Execution?The 5D-PROMPT Method

Although tremendous technological and strategic advances have been developed and implemented in the construction sector in recent years, there is substantial room for improvement in the areas of productivity growth, project performance, and schedule reliability. Thus, the present paper seeks to discover why the currently applied scheduling tools and the latest agile-based project organization approaches have not yet achieved their full potential. A missing interlinkage between the project?s design, cost, and time aspects within the project design phase and its sparse utilization throughout project execution were indicated as the driving contributors responsible for the slow progress in development. To fundamentally change this situation, an extensive and coherent project organization solution is proposed. The key process of this solution utilizes a 5D Building Information Model comprising tight concatenations between the individual model objects and the corresponding construction cost and time effort values. The key dates of a waterfall-based construction process simulation, set during the project planning phase, provide particular information to create a structure for agile organized project execution. The implementation of information feedback loops allows target/actual comparisons and contributes to continual improvements in future planning. A comparative case study was conducted with auspicious results on improvements in the overall project performance, and schedule and cost reliabilityThis research was supported by Heinrich Schmid GmbH&Co.KG regarding the cooperative conduction of two construction projects used for the case-study; RIB Software SE, who provided the BIM software platform iTWO Baseline and the site management software OnSite, and Contelos GmbH for the provision of the 3D Building Information Model

Automated software security activities in a continuous delivery pipeline

Due to the rise of cyberattacks in IT companies, software security has become a topic for debate. Currently, to secure their products, companies often use manual methods, which makes development stalled and inefficient. To speed up a software development lifecycle, security work needs to be integrated and automated into the development process. This thesis will provide an initial solution for automating the security phase into a continuous software delivery process. This solution involves integrating security tools into a Github repository by using Github Actions to create automated vulnerability scanning workflows for a software project. The solution will then be tested and evaluated with three open-source projects and one project from our sponsor, Volue

Reaaliaikainen massojen seuranta infrarakennushankkeessa

Construction industry suffers from weak development of productivity. Poor productivity development may result from different attributing factors such as project uniqueness, weak utilization of technology and poor management. In the same time, many other industries have increased productivity with better utilization of technological solutions. Several studies have observed that not enough effort is done at construction sites to gather reliable data. In addition, data collection is currently done manually which is both labor consuming and prone to human errors. There is a need for automated data collection to enable better management. Real-time tracking technologies have shown promising results answering to this need for automatized data-collection and enabling real-time management. This thesis examines using real-time tracking system of mass hauls in infrastructure construction project. Thesis aims to optimize excavation and mass hauling process utilizing real-time tracking system. None of the available earthwork optimization models are very good at adapting to changing conditions and thus are prone to poor utilization rate of machines. Aim is also to identify areas with potential for improvement in excavation and mass hauling process and make control actions to reduce waste and improve performance. In addition, thesis estimates other possible benefits of the real-time tracking system. The research method of this research is Design science. The thesis consists of a literature review, empirical research, solution proposal, results, conclusions and proposals for further studies. The literature review displays the existing situation of the excavation and mass hauling process, existing earthwork optimization methods and real-time tracking solutions and experiments. The empirical research consists of a field experiment to test real-time tracking of mass hauls in infrastructure construction project. Results show that real-time tracking system of mass hauls helps both to identify unproductive practices and to execute control actions sooner. Results also suggest that using the developed earthwork optimization method it is possible to reduce construction project costs and duration. Potential benefit depends on project characteristic and volume of earthworks. Larger earthwork projects incur higher potential benefits.Rakennusalan tuottavuus on kehittynyt huonosti jo pitkän ajan. Heikko tuottavuuden kehittyminen voi olla seurausta alan erikoispiirteistä, kuten esimerkiksi projektien ainutlaatuisuudesta, heikosta teknologisten työkalujen käytöstä ja heikosta johtamisesta. Samaan aikaan monet muut alat ovat onnistuneet kehittämään tuottavuutta hyödyntämällä uusia teknologioiota. Monet tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet, että rakennustyömailla ei kerätä tarpeeksi luotettavaa tietoa. Tietoa kerätään manuaalisesti, mikä ei ole vain työlästä, mutta myös altis virheille. On olemassa tarve reaaliaikaiselle tiedonkeräykselle paremman johtamisen mahdollistamiseksi. Tutkimukset reaaliaikaisten paikannusteknologioiden käytöstä ovat näyttäneet lupaavia tuloksia tiedonkeruun automatisoimiseksi ja ajantasaisen johtamisen mahdollistamiseksi. Infrarakennuskohteiden maarakennustöissä on suuri kehityspotentiaali tuottavuuden parantamiseen reaaliaikaisten paikannusteknologioiden avulla. Tässä työssä tutkitaan reaaliaikaista massojen seurantaa yhdellä infrarakennustyömaalla. Työn tavoitteena on kehittää uusi malli maarakennustöiden optimoimiseen käyttäen hyväksi reaaliaikaista massojen seurantaa. Aikaisemmat maarakennustöiden optimointimallit eivät ole pystyneet mukautumaan jatkuvasti muuttuviin olosuhteisiin tehokkaasti ja ovat alttiita hukalle. Lisäksi tavoitteena on tunnistaa kehityskohtia maankaivu ja -ajo prosessista ja arvioida mitä muita hyötyjä reaaliaikaisen paikannusteknologian käytöllä voisi olla. Työ toteutetaan suunnittelutieteellisenä tutkimuksena. Tutkimus sisältää kirjallisuustutkimuksen, empiirisen tutkimuksen, ratkaisuehdotukset, tulokset ja yhteenvedon. Kirjallisuustutkimuksessa käsitellään olemassa olevien maarakennuksen, maanajon ja reaaliaikaisten paikannusteknologioiden nykytilaa ja tutkimuksia. Empiirinen osuus sisältää reaaliaikaisen massojen paikannuksen testityömaalla. Tulokset osoittavat, että reaaliaikaiset paikannusteknologiat helpottavat tunnistamaan kehityskohtia prosessista ja mahdollistavat korjaavien toimenpiteiden tekemisen aikaisemmin. Maarakennustöiden kustannuksia ja kestoa on mahdollista vähentää merkittävästi käyttäen luotua optimointimallia. Potentiaalisen hyödyn määrä riippuu projektin ominaisuuksista ja maatöiden suuruudesta

Implications of using Industry 4.0 base technologies for lean and agile supply chains and performance

Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the financial support of Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Research Project PID2019-106577 GB-I00 by MCIN / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033 ), UJA- FEDER Andalusian Operational Program (Research Project 1261128 ), Andalusian Plan for Research, Development and Innovation - PAIDI 2020 (Research Project P20-00794 ), and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT - MCTES) for its financial support via the project UIDB/00667/2020 (UNIDEMI). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsThe adoption of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies in recent years has generated conditions for substantial changes in supply chain management. However, research is still ongoing on how I4.0 technologies can be integrated into current supply chain models to improve supply chain capabilities and performance. This work aims to contribute to understanding the relationships between Industry 4.0 technologies and lean and agile supply chain strategies, and identifying the implications for the focal firm's operational performance. In this study, we focus on a specific group of emerging I4.0 technologies known as I4.0 base technologies (i.e., cloud computing, Internet of Things, and Big Data analytics), whose complementary features can enhance the data collection, storage, and sharing, as well as the analysis processes. Drawing on the Dynamic Capabilities Theory, a structural equation model is used to analyze data collected from 256 Spanish focal manufacturing firms. Results indicate that I4.0 base technologies do not have the same effects on lean and agile supply chain strategies. While I4.0 base technologies can make supply chains leaner, they have been found to have no significant direct effect on agile supply chain implementation. Further, findings indicate a direct relationship between the lean and agile approaches and that the latter generates mediation effects between lean and operational performance.publishersversionpublishe

The Vortex of Continuous Development of Embedded Systems: An Inquiry into Agility Orchestration

Agile methodologies have become a popular and widely accepted method for managing software development. Since the inception of the Agile Manifesto over ten years ago, agile development techniques have superseded waterfall methods in many, if not most, software development organizations. Despite its apparent success, many companies have struggled with the adoption and implementation of agile, and exactly what level of adoption provides optimum agility. Agility is commonly held in the literature to be constructed of elements external to a company or project but may in fact be composed of both external and internal elements. The exact relationship of the adoption of agile development techniques and their relationship to the actual agility of a business remain unclear. A primary contributor to this uncertainty is the somewhat amorphous definition of agile itself. In academic literature, the concept is still relatively young and loosely defined. In practice, organizations have largely opted for a hybrid approach to agile, mixing its concepts and methods with existing Stage Gate or waterfall methodologies. This has made the management of agile even more complex. Crucially, there is no definition or criterion available to determine the appropriate mix of agile and waterfall processes in an embedded software development context nor is there a method to determine the impact of one against the other. These issues beg the question: how do organizations manage agility? This interpretive case study provides an empirical account of how stakeholders manage both market and process agility in an embedded systems context via a hybrid agility implementation and product genesis. As a result, we provide the notion of agile vorticity, as the point at which market and process agility collide to produce business momentum at a specific point of innovation within the agile business vortex

Using Scrum in a side project with distributed teams

Scrum is the most popular agile software development methodology in use today (VersionOne, 2013), (West & Grant, 2010), (Begel & Nagappan, 2007). Many of the Scrum teams work in virtual distributed formations (VersionOne, 2013). The distributed work model introduces multiple burdens, like communication issues, matter of trust, time zones and cultural differences to the teams, which can severely affect performance (Deemer, s.a.). As a result, dislocated Scrum teams have a considerably lower success rate than collocated ones according to various surveys (Ambler S. W., 2008), (Ambler S. W., Agility at Scale Survey 2012, 2012), (Cohn, 2010). This paper researches the topic of “Using Scrum in a side project with distributed teams” and consist of three main parts: theoretical background, methods and results. In the theoretical background we cover the different software development methodologies, agile methodology in particular. We take a deeper look into Scrum; it's history, roles in Scrum, Scrum artifacts and ceremonies. We also briefly discuss virtual teams theory. In the methods we cover the online contract bridge card game development, Lean Startup and Business Model Generation as part of business development, background info on contract bridge, validating the idea, the design and development tools used to build the minimum viable product and the methods of data collection for Scrum. In the results we describe our implementation of Scrum, the building of the minimum viable product, and research made into other early stage startup teams to support our own findings.http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2656166~S1*es

The Digital Transformation of Marketer Identities in Figured Worlds

The digital transformation of marketing has been ongoing for more than three decades but the breadth and depth of change in the last five years has been unprecedented. We know from extensive research on identities in organisations that change in work practices can prompt identity work, yet there has been relatively little prior research about marketer identities. Moreover, there has been even less research about marketer identities relating to digital transformation. This thesis addresses these gaps; however, it does so by looking at the intersection of marketer identities and digital transformation via a Pragmatist reading of Holland et al.’s (1998) concept of Figured Worlds, a social practice theory of identity with roots in Vygotsky, Bakhtin, Mead, and Bourdieu. This approach enabled the study of processes of transformation in relation to the various artefacts which make up figured worlds, such as vocabularies, practices, and materialities which come together to construct understandings about ‘how things work’ or what is considered ‘normal’ by the people who inhabit them. The main body of the thesis centres on an ethnographically-oriented case study of the marketing department of a large Canadian NGO (Canango) in the process of shifting from a traditional ‘NGO helper’ culture to a so-called ‘Agile marketing’ culture based on project management practices originating in software development that have been growing in popularity among practitioners. The thesis identifies a number of ‘classes’ of marketer identities: managerially supplied ; technologically afforded ; socially afforded ; emergent ; and, performed along with what each type enables one to do. Using ideas from Figured Worlds theory and multimodal discourse analysis, a heuristic framework is then developed made of the elements ‘ matter ’ (phenomena), ‘ meaning ’, mediators , ‘ me ’ (identity) and ‘ motion ’ (action) to study how these identities are used to accomplish contextual goals. This framework is then applied to study the way that three people variously appropriated or resisted a particular supplied identity: the ‘Agile organiser’. Finally the ideas developed through the first three phases of the thesis are applied in a final phase in which Canango begins using a new digital collaborative work platform. The study looks at the identity implications of this move, evidencing the ways in which the work platform serves as a ‘bridge’ between worlds and how such bridges may be used to change worlds and make new ones

Development and implementation of a comprehensive construction management approach through collaborative interaction of 5D BIM design, multi-flexible construction execution organization, and continuous improvement principles

RESUMEN: Aunque en los últimos años se han implementado enormes avances tecnológicos y estratégicos en el sector de la construcción, existe un margen sustancial de mejora. La presente tesis descubre por qué las herramientas de programación aplicadas actualmente y los enfoques de organización de proyectos basados en la agilidad no han alcanzado todavía todo su potencial. La falta de interrelación entre los aspectos de diseño, coste y tiempo del proyecto dentro de la fase de diseño del mismo y su escasa utilización a lo largo de la ejecución del proyecto se señalan como los factores que contribuyen a la lentitud del desarrollo. Para cambiar fundamentalmente esta situación, se propone una solución de organización de proyectos amplia y coherente. El proceso clave de esta solución utiliza un modelo de información de construcción 5D que comprende estrechas concatenaciones entre los objetos individuales del modelo y los correspondientes valores de coste de construcción y esfuerzo de tiempo. Las fechas clave de una simulación del proceso de construcción en cascada, establecidas durante la fase de planificación del proyecto, proporcionan información particular para crear una estructura para la ejecución ágil y organizada del proyecto. La implementación de bucles de retroalimentación de la información permite realizar comparaciones entre los objetivos y la realidad y contribuye a mejorar continuamente la planificación futura. Se llevó a cabo un estudio de caso comparativo con resultados auspiciosos sobre las mejoras en el rendimiento general del proyecto y la fiabilidad del calendario y los costes.ABSTRACT: Although tremendous technological and strategic advances have been implemented in the construction sector in recent years, there is substantial room for improvements. The present thesis discovers why the currently applied scheduling tools and agile-based project organization approaches have not yet achieved their full potential. A missing interlinkage between the project’s design, cost, and time aspects within the project design phase and its sparse utilization throughout project execution were indicated as the driving contributors responsible for the slow progress in development. To fundamentally change this situation, an extensive and coherent project organization solution is proposed. The key process of this solution utilizes a 5D Building Information Model comprising tight concatenations between the individual model objects and the corresponding construction cost and time effort values. The key dates of a waterfall-based construction process simulation, set during the project planning phase, provide particular information to create a structure for agile organized project execution. The implementation of information feedback loops allows target/actual comparisons and contributes to continual improvements in future planning. A comparative case study was conducted with auspicious results on improvements in the overall project performance, and schedule and cost reliability