8,142 research outputs found
Achieving business and IT alignment in digital service redesign: a study of UK e-government
Prior research has shown that there are a variety of ways in which business-IT alignment (BIA) can help an organisation. BIA can increase the UK’s e-government maturity level, improve the quality of e-government and service redesign process, and ensure the establishment of an integrated, coherent, user-centred, and agile digital culture. However, business-IT alignment is challenging when there are many organisations (central and local government organisations) involved in the process. This research aims to increase our understanding of the ‘process of aligning’ - vertically (between central and local government), and horizontally (across government agencies). Data analysis was conducted by the use of grounded theory. A number of factors that influence alignment in UK service redesign were identified and discussed as ‘enablers’ or ‘inhibitors’ of alignment.
This thesis captures alignment in both ‘theory and practice’. It includes multiple case studies to explore business-IT alignment in the context of the UK government. Additionally, this study not only provides ‘theory for explanation’, making it scientifically useful, but also offers ‘theory for design’, for practical uses. During the analysis of the case studies governance is found to be one of the alignment enablers, and a number of governance frameworks were designed to facilitate alignment in UK service redesign. This thesis presents a theoretical model which demonstrates the interrelationships found between the alignment key factors (i.e. standardisation, shared domain knowledge, business-IT engagement and silo-based systems associated with localism) with the core factor: communication. Network theories are used in this research to propose actions. It therefore proposes the adoption of a goal-directed network aimed at alignment in service redesign. This research links alignment, e-government, service redesign and networks together, a connection which is not fully explored in the literature
Influential factors of aligning Spotify squads in mission-critical and offshore projects – a longitudinal embedded case study
Changing the development process of an organization is one of the toughest and riskiest decisions. This is particularly true if the known experiences and practices of the new considered ways of working are relative and subject to contextual assumptions. Spotify engineering culture is deemed as a new agile software development method which increasingly attracts large-scale organizations. The method relies on several small cross-functional self-organized teams (i.e., squads). The squad autonomy is a key driver in Spotify method, where a squad decides what to do and how to do it. To enable effective squad autonomy, each squad shall be aligned with a mission, strategy, short-term goals and other squads. Since a little known about Spotify method, there is a need to answer the question of: How can organizations work out and maintain the alignment to enable loosely coupled and tightly aligned squads?
In this paper, we identify factors to support the alignment that is actually performed in practice but have never been discussed before in terms of Spotify method. We also present Spotify Tailoring by highlighting the modified and newly introduced processes to the method. Our work is based on a longitudinal embedded case study which was conducted in a real-world large-scale offshore software intensive organization that maintains mission-critical systems. According to the confidentiality agreement by the organization in question, we are not allowed to reveal a detailed description of the features of the explored project
The sociocultural dimension of the Software Process Improvement manifesto: pilot validation by experts
The SPI Manifesto is based on three basic values: people, business focus, and organizational change underpinning the philosophy of Software Process Improvement (SPI). In turn, these values bring up to date certain SPI principles serving as a foundation for action in software development. The authors of this paper carried out a pilot expert validation of the Sociocultural dimension of the STEEPLED (Sociocultural, Technical, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, Ethical and Demographic) analysis of the SPI Manifesto. Further, the authors report on the rationale and results of the pilot validation of both the survey instrument and the qualitative responses generated by the field experts, targeting to enlighten and reinforce the importance of the Sociocultural dimension of the SPI Manifesto in research and development. The related literature review findings and the pilot research study strengthen this target. The pilot study with experts in particular provided stronger indications that the Sociocultural dimension is considered of high importance by between 62% and 88% of the respondents, who were IT and Computing professionals and software practitioners from academia and industry
Qualitative software engineering research -- reflections and guidelines
Researchers are increasingly recognizing the importance of human aspects in
software development and since qualitative methods are used to, in-depth,
explore human behavior, we believe that studies using such techniques will
become more common.
Existing qualitative software engineering guidelines do not cover the full
breadth of qualitative methods and knowledge on using them found in the social
sciences. The aim of this study was thus to extend the software engineering
research community's current body of knowledge regarding available qualitative
methods and provide recommendations and guidelines for their use.
With the support of an epistemological argument and a literature review, we
suggest that future research would benefit from (1) utilizing a broader set of
research methods, (2) more strongly emphasizing reflexivity, and (3) employing
qualitative guidelines and quality criteria.
We present an overview of three qualitative methods commonly used in social
sciences but rarely seen in software engineering research, namely
interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse
analysis. Furthermore, we discuss the meaning of reflexivity in relation to the
software engineering context and suggest means of fostering it.
Our paper will help software engineering researchers better select and then
guide the application of a broader set of qualitative research methods.Comment: 30 page
Role clarity deficiencies can wreck agile teams
Background
One of the twelve agile principles is to build projects around motivated individuals and trust them to get the job done. Such agile teams must self-organize, but this involves conflict, making self-organization difficult. One area of difficulty is agreeing on everybody’s role.
Background
What dynamics arise in a self-organizing team from the negotiation of everybody’s role?
Method
We conceptualize observations from five agile teams (work observations, interviews) by Charmazian Grounded Theory Methodology.
Results
We define role as something transient and implicit, not fixed and named. The roles are characterized by the responsibilities and expectations of each team member. Every team member must understand and accept their own roles (Local role clarity) and everbody else’s roles (Team-wide role clarity). Role clarity allows a team to work smoothly and effectively and to develop its members’ skills fast. Lack of role clarity creates friction that not only hampers the day-to-day work, but also appears to lead to high employee turnover. Agile coaches are critical to create and maintain role clarity.
Conclusions
Agile teams should pay close attention to the levels of Local role clarity of each member and Team-wide role clarity overall, because role clarity deficits are highly detrimental
Scalable agile frameworks in large enterprise project portfolio management
Con un alcance de estudio exploratorio, debido a que se ha investigado poco y se encuentra en
un estado emergente, el propósito de la investigación fue explorar la implementación de los
marcos ágiles escalables en la gestión del portafolio de proyectos (PPM) de grandes empresas.
Además, este estudio de caso cualitativo planteó la siguiente pregunta principal de
investigación: ¿De qué manera los marcos ágiles escalables se implementan en la PPM de
grandes empresas, y por qué? Este estudio recopiló información de 59 portafolios de
proyectos en 22 empresas con implementaciones de métodos ágiles y marcos ágiles escalables
de las industrias tecnologÃas de la información (IT- por sus siglas en inglés), financiera y
telecomunicaciones, de México, Colombia, Perú, Ecuador, Costa Rica y Chile, mediante 43
entrevistas en profundidad semiestructuradas. Los hallazgos revelan que existen portafolios de
proyectos con alta variabilidad en servicio, producto e innovación, y con implementaciones
hÃbridas de Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Spotify Model y Scrum. Además, enfrentan
diferentes desafÃos relacionados con la implementación de los marcos ágiles escalables en la
PPM, la cultura organizacional, resistencia al cambio y liderazgo estratégico. Del mismo
modo, los hallazgos demuestran que los marcos ágiles son una opción viable para optimizar el
time-to-market, aumentar la productividad de los equipos y mejorar la comunicación a nivel
general. Este estudio es uno de los primeros en explorar cómo implementan las grandes
empresas los marcos ágiles escalables en la PPM para llenar el vacÃo en la literatura
relacionado con cómo y cuándo las empresas deben abordar un proceso de transformación
ágil que funcione de manera exitosa en su PPM. Por lo tanto, este estudio proporciona
evidencia empÃrica de seis paÃses latinoamericanos como base potencial para futuras
investigaciones y publicaciones.With an exploratory study scope, due to little research and in an emerging state, the
purpose of the research was to explore the implementation of scalable agile frameworks in
project portfolio management (PPM) of large enterprises. This qualitative case study posed as
its primary research question: How and why are scalable agile frameworks implemented in
the PPM of large companies? Further, this study used the purposive sampling method and the
snowball technique. Data were collected from 59 project portfolios in 22 companies with
agile and scalable agile framework implementations in the information technology (IT),
financial and telecommunications industries in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica
and Chile, through 43 semi-structured in-depth interviews. The findings reveal that there are
project portfolios with high variability in service, product and innovation, and with hybrid
implementations of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Spotify Model and Scrum. In addition,
they face different challenges related to the implementation of scalable agile frameworks in
PPM, organizational culture, resistance to change, and strategic leadership. Similarly, the
findings demonstrate that agile frameworks are a viable option to optimize time-to-market,
increase team productivity and improve communication across the board. This study
represents one of the first to explore how large companies implement scalable agile
frameworks in PPM to fill the gap in the literature related to how and when companies should
approach an agile transformation process working successfully in their PPM. Accordingly,
this study provides empirical evidence from six Latin American countries as a potential basis
for future research and publications
Misaligned Values in Software Engineering Organizations
The values of software organizations are crucial for achieving high
performance; in particular, agile development approaches emphasize their
importance. Researchers have thus far often assumed that a specific set of
values, compatible with the development methodologies, must be adopted
homogeneously throughout the company. It is not clear, however, to what extent
such assumptions are accurate.
Preliminary findings have highlighted the misalignment of values between
groups as a source of problems when engineers discuss their challenges.
Therefore, in this study, we examine how discrepancies in values between groups
affect software companies' performance.
To meet our objectives, we chose a mixed method research design. First, we
collected qualitative data by interviewing fourteen (\textit{N} = 14) employees
working in four different organizations and processed it using thematic
analysis. We then surveyed seven organizations (\textit{N} = 184). Our analysis
indicated that value misalignment between groups is related to organizational
performance. The aligned companies were more effective, more satisfied, had
higher trust, and fewer conflicts.
Our efforts provide encouraging findings in a critical software engineering
research area. They can help to explain why some companies are more efficient
than others and, thus, point the way to interventions to address organizational
challenges.Comment: accepted for publication in Journal of Software: Evolution and
Proces
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