Improving Scrum User Stories and Product Backlog Using Work System Snapshots

Lack of domain knowledge is often considered a reason for improper elicitation and specification of requirements of a software system. The work system method helps analysts understand the business situation to be supported by the software system. This research investigates the effects of preparing a work system snapshot, a key artifact of the work system method, on the quality of initial requirements specifications represented within the Scrum methodology. Those specifications take the form of a product backlog, a set of user stories to be addressed). The findings from a controlled experiment conducted with 165 students in a software engineering course indicate that the preparation of work system snapshot results in a significant reduction in invalid user stories and increase in valid user stories in the product backlog

Facilitating Team-Based Data Science: Lessons Learned from the DSC-WAV Project

While coursework provides undergraduate data science students with some relevant analytic skills, many are not given the rich experiences with data and computing they need to be successful in the workplace. Additionally, students often have limited exposure to team-based data science and the principles and tools of collaboration that are encountered outside of school. In this paper, we describe the DSC-WAV program, an NSF-funded data science workforce development project in which teams of undergraduate sophomores and juniors work with a local non-profit organization on a data-focused problem. To help students develop a sense of agency and improve confidence in their technical and non-technical data science skills, the project promoted a team-based approach to data science, adopting several processes and tools intended to facilitate this collaboration. Evidence from the project evaluation, including participant survey and interview data, is presented to document the degree to which the project was successful in engaging students in team-based data science, and how the project changed the students\u27 perceptions of their technical and non-technical skills. We also examine opportunities for improvement and offer insight to other data science educators who may want to implement a similar team-based approach to data science projects at their own institutions

Bringing templates to life: overcoming obstacles to the organizational implementation of Agile methods

Agile software development methods have become accepted as a template for organizations to create new products. Though generally viewed as an aid to productivity, there are a number of barriers to experiencing their full benefit. One such barrier pertains to the implementation of agile methods across the range of organizational levels from the use of tools to culture, norms, and policies creating the context within which projects are performed. This essay examines in detail the experiences of one expert at integrating agile technique, approach, and philosophy into the broader organizational setting. Numerous particular lessons and prescriptions result from this discussion. Turning around the grounded theory approach where numerous individuals are interrogated mildly in regard to a particular phenomenon, the discussion surfaced in this paper results from repeated interviews with one domain expert. Lessons and comments are organized into four sections: individual team member, organization, transitioning, and tools and techniques

Process Mining Concepts for Discovering User Behavioral Patterns in Instrumented Software

Process Mining is a technique for discovering “in-use” processes from traces emitted to event logs. Researchers have recently explored applying this technique to documenting processes discovered in software applications. However, the requirements for emitting events to support Process Mining against software applications have not been well documented. Furthermore, the linking of end-user intentional behavior to software quality as demonstrated in the discovered processes has not been well articulated. After evaluating the literature, this thesis suggested focusing on user goals and actual, in-use processes as an input to an Agile software development life cycle in order to improve software quality. It also provided suggestions for instrumenting software applications to support Process Mining techniques

A Model for the Definition, Prioritization and Optimization of Indicators

Context: The definition and prioritization of indicators is now a common reality and an integral part of the evolution of the strategic, technical and business processes of any organization, whether public or private. Purpose: This paper proposes a new model regarding the definition and prioritization of indicators. Herein, we also investigate the definition and prioritization models currently adopted by academia and industry, and analyze the context of the proposed strategies against the traditional view of indicator definition currently adopted. In addition, we conducted a survey with organizations that had well-defined indicator management processes, seeking to identify customer expectations with a new indicator management model proposed by this work. Method: To gather evidence, we defined a methodology that relates the literature review and an exploratory case study with the application of an experiment. Driven by a set of research questions, this methodology comprised four main phases: planning, literature review, experiment execution and documentation of results. The method used is supported by some techniques, such as design thinking, design sprint and the Cynefin framework. Results: The analysis of the results was carried out in two different ways: Through the verification of the achievement of specific objectives and through a questionnaire applied to assess the degrees of perception of all employees who participated in the work. Regarding the specific objectives, it is clear that most of the objectives were achieved. Regarding the applied questionnaire, it is clear that, although the collaborators did not have adequate knowledge regarding the conceptual and practical aspects of some approaches used in the proposed model, there was a general perception that the model, in fact, supported top management for decision making. For professionals, the proposed model has a restricted scope; that is, it does not serve all types of organizations. Conclusion: The model proposed in this work proved to be effective, considering that the indicators were defined, prioritized and optimized, with a focus on the user experience. As future work, we intend to expand the scope of the model’s performance, evaluating business indicators alongside IT indicators

A qualitative study on best practices and process of eliciting unambiguous quality attributes in scrum-based projects

Software quality is very crucial for users’ satisfaction and software success in the market. Recent studies found some ambiguous software quality attributes that may lead to low-quality software, and lack of elicitation practices in projects that apply Agile Software Development (ASD) methodology especially Scrum. However, current ASD methodologies, systematic literature reviews and surveys did not provide explanation of the necessary elicitation practices. Therefore, this qualitative study was essential to achieve two objectives: exploring the best practices and identifying process of eliciting unambiguous quality attributes in Scrum-based projects. The study used qualitative approach in which data was collected via interviewing eight experienced software practitioners from India and documents analysis that explains documentation of quality attributes in Scrum. For data analysis, the thematic analysis method was used for analysing interviews scripts and documents. The findings resulted in three initial themes that represent three steps in the elicitation process and six sub-themes that represent the elicitation practices. The first step is proactive exposure to quality attributes which consists of two practices: understanding software scope and envisaging potential quality attributes. The second step is mutual learning discussion which consists of two practices: ameliorating technical knowledge of customers and users and compiling details of quality attributes. The third step is verifying common understanding which consists of two practices: utilization of visual artefacts and documentation of quality attributes. The contribution of the study provides an extension to ASD body of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of disambiguation of terminologies in software domain, simplifying technical terms, representing reusable software artefacts, showing similar software, drawing mock-up and developing proof of concept in eliciting unambiguous quality attributes. Furthermore, the findings accentuate practical contributions to the software developers such as reducing effort, time and cost of designing and construction of software