A Theory of Software Development Methodologies

In this study, it is proposed that software development methodologies (SDMs), when looked at from the perspective of job design, offers interesting and useful insights. The increasing popularity of agile methods over plan-driven methods in the 2000’s mirror the increasing popularity of non-Taylorist job designs over Taylorist job designs in the 1980’s, when jobs were redesigned by adopting self-managed teams and work groups, and creating employee programs like quality circles with salutary results. This study finds the widely accepted (JCM) Job Characteristic Model (Hackman and Qldham, 1976) for job design relevant in providing a theoretical foundation for the atheoretical domain of SDMs. JCM provides a structural framework for practice to understand what they are doing right and what needs to change by diagnosing the characteristics of the software development processes in need of improvement and making recommendations for tailoring SDMs for superior work outcomes

Why apply agile? - A literature review on work outcomes in agile information systems development

Agile information systems development (ISD) has become a popular way to manage IT projects. One of the key claims of agile ISD is to increase employees’ work outcomes, such as job satisfaction. However, the research landscape is heterogenous and lacks of a comprehensive overview. In this research, we set out to analyze and synthesize the current state of research on agile ISD and work outcomes by a systematic literature review. Overall, we found a trend of a positive relationship of agile ISD on work outcomes, although there is a variety of constructs that influence this relationship. We propose four directions for future research: perceptions of work, extended quantitative findings, multi-level effects and IT project success

Agile software development in a context of plan-based organizations

Agile software development has increasingly been used in the last fifteen years with the goal of improving traditionally time-consuming and rather non-user friendly process of developing software code. As implications of agile development and its impact on employees are still unclear, it is important to understand the benefits, opportunities and limitations of this development or collaboration mechanism. Thus, empirical evidence with implications for decision makers in the field of corporate policy and software development is an open research field. This master thesis analyzes the potentials of agile software development and how this approach can be used to support the development processes in companies, in terms of efficiency, shorter time-to-market as well as better customer fit of the developed products or services. By exploring some of the key features of different methods and processes, the potentials and limitations of the selected approaches are analyzed and linked to recent literature insights

Agile software development in a context of plan-based organizations

Agile software development has increasingly been used in the last fifteen years with the goal of improving traditionally time-consuming and rather non-user friendly process of developing software code. As implications of agile development and its impact on employees are still unclear, it is important to understand the benefits, opportunities and limitations of this development or collaboration mechanism. Thus, empirical evidence with implications for decision makers in the field of corporate policy and software development is an open research field. This master thesis analyzes the potentials of agile software development and how this approach can be used to support the development processes in companies, in terms of efficiency, shorter time-to-market as well as better customer fit of the developed products or services. By exploring some of the key features of different methods and processes, the potentials and limitations of the selected approaches are analyzed and linked to recent literature insights

WHAT MOTIVATES TEAM MEMBERS AND USERS OF AGILE PROJECTS?

Users and teams members of agile projects have consistently shown higher motivation and satisfaction compared with projects that use plan-driven methods. User satisfaction is a key measure of IS success if not synonymous with it (Delone and McLean, 1992; Seddon, 1997) and higher team member motivation is known to foster productivity, company loyalty and higher levels of engagement (Locke and Latham, 1990; Meyer and Allen, 1997; Pinder, 1998). Various explanations have been offered for this salutary phenomenon and have as their basis the specific characteristics of Agile methodologies such as people focus, higher levels of user involvement and collaborative development approach (Boehm and Turner, 2005; Dybå and Dingsøyr, 2009; Mann and Maurer, 2005). In this study we apply the approach-avoidance theory to suggest “closure effect” as another explanation for the phenomena

Choice of Agile Methodologies in Software Development: A Vendor Perspective

The purpose of this research was to develop understanding about how vendor firms make choice about agile methodologies in software projects and their fit. Two analytical frameworks were developed from extant literature and the findings were compared with real world decisions. Framework 1 showed that the choice of XP for one project was not supported by the guidelines given by the framework. The choices of SCRUM for other two projects, were partially supported. Analysis using the framework 2 showed that except one XP project, all others had sufficient project management support, limited scope for adaptability and had prominence for rules

Capability Maturity Model Integration (Cmmi) for Small Organizations

Software Process Improvement (SPI) is a large area of expertise that deals with software development standard processes and is a progression of proven methods of process improvement from many different methodologies. Personal Software Process (PSP) and Team Software Process (TSP) complement the implementation of Capability Maturity Model Implementation (CMMI) and can be applied gradually from the individual, to the team, and then to the organization. These solutions from Carnegie Melon\u27s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) are leading edge for the field of process improvement. Solutions like this consume many resources, are very complex, require years to implement, and can be costly. The SEI solutions offer an industry standard for SPI. Three case studies were analyzed to provide insight into the benefits of CMMI for small organizations. Decisions that steer these solutions generally involve scheduling, quality, and cost. Depending on the individual needs of an organization, the CMMI technology can fulfill what is required. The example case studies were examined and concluded that given favorable conditions, implementing CMMI is feasible for small organizations

HOW SUSTAINABLE ARE AGILE METHODOLOGIES? ACCEPTANCE FACTORS AND DEVELOPER PERCEPTIONS IN SCRUM PROJECTS

The introduction of agile methodologies such as Scrum considerably changes the working habits of developers. To ensure their successful dissemination, it is therefore particularly important that developers assimilate and remain committed to agile principles. In this paper, we examine the long-term acceptance of Scrum and present the results of a study conducted at a world-wide leading insurance company that began transitioning to Scrum in 2007. Taking the Diffusion of Innovations theory as a lens for analysis, we identify several acceptance factors of Scrum and hypothesize how they are perceived in comparison to traditional methodologies. We evaluate our hypotheses using a multi-method research approach that combines analyses of quantitative and qualitative field data. The results suggest that several factors of Scrum are perceived as relative advantages or as more compatible to the way developers prefer to work. Factors that characterize the complexity of Scrum are identified as potential barriers to acceptance, however

On the Developer Adoption of Scrum: A New Acceptance Model for Agile Methodologies

In recent years, the agile Scrum methodology has become a popular software development approach. It significantly differs from traditional approaches as it promotes communication, self-organization, flexibility, and innovation instead of extensive planning and codified processes. While such a paradigm shift promises to better support the timely delivery of high-quality software in turbulent business environments, its success considerably depends on the willingness of developers to adopt the agile methodology. In this paper, we present a framework with drivers and inhibitors to the developer acceptance of Scrum. It combines analytical with empirical findings and can be used as a theoretical basis to empirically evaluate the actual support of Scrum in concrete scenarios. The introduced framework is based on the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which has been proven to be also applicable to describe the intention of developers to use a methodology. Building upon results from qualitative in-depth interviews with six experienced Scrum experts of a German DAX-30 company, we refine the general determinants of adoption contained in the TAM with several observed factors that influence the willingness of developers to use Scrum in practice

The investigation on the best pracices of extreme programming (XP) quality implementation at UUMIT

Software engineering (SE) plays an important role for improving society‘s wellbeing through the use of high quality software. There is noted that most of the software projects are failed, due to missing or poor software development practices in software organizations. Due to this reason, having a good and sound software development methodology is crucial for software organization to satisfy stakeholder‘s requirements. One of the prevalent software development methodologies in SE is Extreme programming (XP) methodology. This methodology is an emerging SE approach, which is able to increase software quality and hence reducing software development time and cost. However, the level of application of this methodology among software developers in UUM IT centre is still unclear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the application of XP practices in this centre. UUM IT was chosen as a case study because the role of this organization has changed to meet high demand among campus communities. Thus, research that focuses on the 12 XP practices of UUM IT is highly needed. This study was conducted using a semi–structured interview with five (5) experts from the UUM IT, to identify the successful implementation of the XP practices. The findings have shown that, most of the practices are used by UUM IT developers but need to improve. In contrast, some of the practices such as pair programming and test first programming are not used by the UUM IT developers. This is due to the nature and type of software projects involved, also because of the personality, experiences and the education level differences among developers. This study provides qualitative evident that can assist software project managers to guide them in improving software development practices for producing high quality software