Comparative Study on Agile software development methodologies

Today-s business environment is very much dynamic, and organisations are constantly changing their software requirements to adjust with new environment. They also demand for fast delivery of software products as well as for accepting changing requirements. In this aspect, traditional plan-driven developments fail to meet up these requirements. Though traditional software development methodologies, such as life cycle-based structured and object oriented approaches, continue to dominate the systems development few decades and much research has done in traditional methodologies, Agile software development brings its own set of novel challenges that must be addressed to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software. It is a set of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development process, where requirements and development evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams that allows rapid delivery of high quality software to meet customer needs and also accommodate changes in the requirements. In this paper, we significantly identify and describe the major factors, that Agile development approach improves software development process to meet the rapid changing business environments. We also provide a brief comparison of agile development methodologies with traditional systems development methodologies, and discuss current state of adopting agile methodologies. We speculate that from the need to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software, Agile software development is emerged as an alternative to traditional plan-based software development methods. The purpose of this paper, is to provide an in-depth understanding, the major benefits of agile development approach to software development industry, as well as provide a comparison study report of ASDM over TSDM.Comment: 25 pages, 25 images, 86 references used, with authors biographie

“Primus inter Pares”?—The Perception of Emergent Leadership Behavior in Agile Software Development Teams

Despite being a key feature of Agile Software Development (ASD), self-organization within ASD teams has received limited research attention. Hence, this study furthers our understanding of how informal emergent leadership may develop within ASD teams by combining knowledge on ASD teams with extant research on emergent leadership. In an exploratory mixed-method study of two Scrum teams, we observed two specific types of emergent leaders, namely, a “detail-oriented structurer”, and a “big picture coordinator.” For emergent leadership to develop, the Scrum master had to create a “leadership gap.” Given this leadership gap, emergent leadership may develop in a circular manner: specific behaviors of team members and their perceptions may provide the basis for emergent leadership, which combined with implicit leadership theories of team members give rise to a leadership structure. Our results add to research on emergent leadership and increase our understanding of self-organization in ASD teams

Agile and Lean Six Sigma integration: a Leadership framework

Submitting final version of the paper attached. Agile and Lean Six Sigma integration: a Leadership framework Author: Alessandro Laureani, Independent Lean Six Sigma Scholar, Ireland E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +353 87 914 4532 Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Agile methodologies and Lean Six Sigma can coexist and propose a Leadership framework to successfully merge Agile methodologies with Lean Six Sigma practice. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on the author’s doctoral thesis on Leadership for Lean Six Sigma, and integrate Agile practices based on the author’s experience in the software development industry. Findings Agile methodologies, that came to prominence in the software development industries from the early 2000s, can successfully coexist with Lean Six Sigma and positively reinforce the respective strengths, provided the right type of Leadership is in place to facilitate this integration. Practical implications Leaders in digital high tech organizations have come to consider Agile methodologies as the de-facto standard in software development projects, and may have reservations on how Lean Six Sigma can successfully integrate with Agile: this paper proposes a framework for leading the integration of Agile and Lean Six Sigma practices. Originality/value The paper presents a framework for successfully integrating Agile and Lean Six Sigma: this would be of particular interest to practitioners in digital high tech and or software development organizations. Keywords: Agile, Leadership, Lean Six Sigma Paper type: Conceptual pape

The Adoption of Agile Management Practices in a Traditional Project Environment : An IS/IT Case Study

Hany Wells, Darren Dalcher, Hedley Smyth, ‘The Adoption of Agile Management Practices in a Traditional Project Environment’, paper presented at the 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-48), Kauai, Hawaii, USA, 5-8 January, 2015.Despite the growing interest in the usage and application of Agile Project Management Methodologies (PMMs), there is only scant research examining how and why organisations select agile approaches for managing and delivering Information Technology /Information Systems (IT/IS) projects. This paper reports on the findings of such research conducted within the context of a large technology focused case organisation. The findings identify significant variance between business lines, specifically between product development and software development functions and their ability to follow agile guidelines. Generally across the organisation there was limited evidence of tailoring to context, an important organisational success factor, yet there was a more significant level of tailoring and responsiveness to client needs and wishes. Overall, there was a lack of clarity about the location of the decoupling points following the scoping of the project. Recommendations therefore require further attention and understanding of the implications of new practices employed by organisations, not least by senior management and for additional research underpinning such discovery.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Agile Leadership - A Comparison of Agile Leadership Styles

Leadership has been the focus of research in the social sciences since the early 1930s. However, no generally valid theory exists to date. In recent years, theories relating to agile leadership have also increasingly emerged. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the current state of research on agile leadership. For this purpose, a systematic literature analysis is conducted. The different terms used in the context of agile leadership are restricted by means of selection criteria. Furthermore, characteristics of agile leadership will be analyzed and consolidated. This results in a catalogue of criteria with which the selected leadership styles. The evaluation shows that there are overlaps in the styles, which also can be identified in the research

ALEC 845 - Research in Leadership Education: A Peer Review of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio

This is a benchmark portfolio of the graduate research course offered in the ALEC department, ALEC 845 – Research in Leadership Education. Students in any department or graduate program are welcome in the course but it primarily serves students in ALEC who are pursuing either a master’s in leadership education or a doctoral degree in human sciences with a specialization in leadership studies. The course itself is intended to provide an introduction to social science research methods and help students understand and begin to practice ethical social sciences research that contributes to the body of scholarly knowledge in their disciplines. Students bring a wide variety of experience to the course can range in level from first year master’s students who have recently completed their undergraduate degrees to doctoral students in their second or third semester of coursework. Additionally, the ALEC graduate program is comprised of a large number of students who do not pursue their degrees on a full-time basis but instead complete the degree on a part-time basis, while continuing to work full time in their professional roles (this happens at both the masters and doctoral levels). This range of students and experiences provides an interesting challenge in teaching the course. Regardless of level, students in the course often have not had significant exposure to the social science research process, theoretical foundations and epistemological questions fundamental to high quality scholarly research. This course provides those basic building blocks. Often this course is the first exposure graduate students in departmental programs have to the comprehensive process of conceiving of, conducting and drawing conclusions related to academic research studies. Course materials and assignments are designed to deliver essential information students need to successfully conduct research, with a focus on the process students must follow to complete a thesis or dissertation

ALEC 845 - Research in Leadership Education: A Peer Review of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio

This is a benchmark portfolio of the graduate research course offered in the ALEC department, ALEC 845 – Research in Leadership Education. Students in any department or graduate program are welcome in the course but it primarily serves students in ALEC who are pursuing either a master’s in leadership education or a doctoral degree in human sciences with a specialization in leadership studies. The course itself is intended to provide an introduction to social science research methods and help students understand and begin to practice ethical social sciences research that contributes to the body of scholarly knowledge in their disciplines. Students bring a wide variety of experience to the course can range in level from first year master’s students who have recently completed their undergraduate degrees to doctoral students in their second or third semester of coursework. Additionally, the ALEC graduate program is comprised of a large number of students who do not pursue their degrees on a full-time basis but instead complete the degree on a part-time basis, while continuing to work full time in their professional roles (this happens at both the masters and doctoral levels). This range of students and experiences provides an interesting challenge in teaching the course. Regardless of level, students in the course often have not had significant exposure to the social science research process, theoretical foundations and epistemological questions fundamental to high quality scholarly research. This course provides those basic building blocks. Often this course is the first exposure graduate students in departmental programs have to the comprehensive process of conceiving of, conducting and drawing conclusions related to academic research studies. Course materials and assignments are designed to deliver essential information students need to successfully conduct research, with a focus on the process students must follow to complete a thesis or dissertation