An approach to reconcile the agile and CMMI contexts in product line development

Software product line approaches produce reusable platforms and architectures for products set developed by specific companies. These approaches are strategic in nature requiring coordination, discipline, commonality and communication. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) contains important guidelines for process improvement, and specifies "what" we must have into account to achieve the disciplined processes (among others things). On the other hand, the agile context is playing an increasingly important role in current software engineering practices, specifying "how" the software practices must be addressed to obtain agile processes. In this paper, we carry out a preliminary analysis for reconciling agility and maturity models in software product line domain, taking advantage of both.Postprint (published version

An Investigation into the Challenges Towards Implementation of Total Quality Management Under the Saudi Healthcare National Transformation Program-2020

This paper critically reviewed the existing literature with regarding to healthcare national transformation programs both in the developed and developing countries in order to understand the strength and weaknesses of the Saudi healthcare national program 2020.The organizational, managerial, human and technological challenges has been examined with reference to know their role and impacts in the implementation of technology driven TQM in Saudi healthcare services under the NTP 2020. Based on the review of the literature, a theoretical model was developed with schematic illustration to describe the relationship and impact of the independent variables with and on the dependent variables of the study.Both critical analysis of the existing research as well as Actor Network Theory (ANT) were used in order to link the results and findings with current Saudi healthcare system in the light of existing research to identify the major challenges/gaps in the NTP of Saudi Arabia and suggest quantifiable measures/recommendations. Furthermore, to network the theory with practice, the researcher also used field visits for interaction with employees.The study concludes that transformation of the healthcare system must focus on the provision of quality in healthcare services whereas, healthcare quality can only be improved by supportive visionary leadership, proper planning, education and training, availability of resources, effective management of resources, employees and processes, and collaboration and cooperation among providers and above all the hybrid management to manage the process in a smooth, efficient and effective manner. Keywords: Vision 2020, Saudi Healthcare System, Implementation of TQM, Organization, Managerial, Human and Technological Challenges

Complexity planning comparative approaches

Planning complexity is an underestimated process that uses poor tools and was little discussed as a method in the project management literature. The more complex the human organization the more problems are all over the process. Tools, methods, and theoretical understanding of a complexity plan needed to be evaluated as a whole and they must encompass all human organization and environmental change aspects. The paper explains the theory and the reference tools and, as a result, suggests developing strategies and cooperative decision-making tools before starting planning complexity. The more complex the plan the more stakeholders are needed to decide and cooperate with the planners. It is fallacious to try to shortcut the process needs using digitalization or other cost-saving tools with an expectation of being more efficient. As the complex plan is not easy to define and forecast, the entropy of the system is reached only raising energy or costs to manage all the problems that spread up when the plan starts. It is not a problem of inefficiency and a cause-effect process.Planning complexity is an underestimated process that uses poor tools and was little discussed as a method in the project management literature. The more complex the human organization the more problems are all over the process. Tools, methods, and theoretical understanding of a complexity plan needed to be evaluated as a whole and they must encompass all human organization and environmental change aspects. The paper explains the theory and the reference tools and, as a result, suggests developing strategies and cooperative decision-making tools before starting planning complexity. The more complex the plan the more stakeholders are needed to decide and cooperate with the planners. It is fallacious to try to shortcut the process needs using digitalization or other cost-saving tools with an expectation of being more efficient. As the complex plan is not easy to define and forecast, the entropy of the system is reached only raising energy or costs to manage all the problems that spread up when the plan starts. It is not a problem of inefficiency and a cause-effect process

Shall we play a game?

In response to real and perceived short-comings in the quality and productivity of software engineering practices and projects, professionally-endorsed graduate and post-graduate curriculum guides have been developed to meet evolving technical developments and industry demands. Each of these curriculum guidelines identifies better software engineering management skills and soft, peopleware skills as critical for all graduating students, but they provide little guidance on how to achieve this. One possible way is to use a serious game — a game designed to educate players about some of the dynamic complexities of the field in a safe and inexpensive environment. This thesis presents the results of a qualitative research project that used a simple game of a software project to see if and how games could contribute to better software project management education; and if they could, then what features and attributes made them most efficacious. That is, shall we— should we— play games in software engineering management? The primary research tool for this project was a game called Simsoft. Physically, Simsoft comes in two pieces. There is an A0-sized printed game board around which the players gather to discuss the current state of their project and to consider their next move. The board shows the flow of the game while plastic counters are used to represent the staff of the project. Poker chips represent the team’s budget, with which they can purchase more staff, and from which certain game events may draw or reimburse amounts depending on decisions made during the course of the game. There is also a simple Java-based dashboard, through which the players can see the current and historical state of the project in a series of reports and messages; and they can adjust the project’s settings. The engine behind Simsoft is a system dynamics model which embodies the fundamental causal relationships of simple software development projects. In Simsoft game sessions, teams of students, and practicing project managers and software engineers managed a hypothetical software development project with the aim of completing the project on time and within budget (with poker chips left over). Based on the starting scenario of the game, information provided during the game, and their own real-world experience, the players made decisions about how to proceed— whether to hire more staff or reduce the number, what hours should be worked, and so on. After each decision set had been entered, the game was run for another next time period, (a week, a month, or a quarter). The game was now in a new state which the players had to interpret from the game board and decide how to proceed. The findings showed that games can contribute to better software engineering management education and help bridge the pedagogical gaps in current curriculum guidelines. However, they can’t do this by themselves and for best effect they should be used in conjunction with other pedagogical tools. The findings also showed that simple games and games in which the players are able to relate the game world to an external context are the most efficacious

Towards a philosophical understanding of agile software methodologies : the case of Kuhn versus Popper

This dissertation is original in using the contrasting ideas of two leading 20th century philosophers of science, Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, to provide a philosophical understanding, firstly, of the shift from traditional software methodologies to the so-called Agile methodologies, and, secondly, of the values, principles and practices underlying the most prominent of the Agile methodologies, Extreme Programming (XP). This dissertation will take a revisionist approach, following Fuller—the founder of social epistemology—in reading Popper against Kuhn's epistemological hegemony. The investigations in this dissertation relate to two main branches of philosophy— epistemology and ethics. The epistemological part of this dissertation compares both Kuhn and Popper's alternative ideas of the development of scientific knowledge to the Agile methodologists' ideas of the development of software, in order to assess the extent to which Agile software development resembles a scientific discipline. The investigations relating to ethics in this dissertation transfer concepts from social engineering—in particular, Popper's distinction between piecemeal and utopian social engineering—to software engineering, in order to assess both the democratic and authoritarian aspects of Agile software development and management. The use of Kuhn's ideas of scientific revolutions and paradigm shift by several leading figures of the Agile software methodologies—most notably, Kent Beck, the leader of the most prominent Agile software methodology, Extreme Programming (XP)—to predict a fundamental shift from traditional to Agile software methodologies, is critically assessed in this dissertation. A systematic investigation into whether Kuhn's theory as a whole, can provide an adequate account of the day-to-day practice of Agile software development is also provided. As an alternative to the use of Kuhn's ideas, the critical rationalist philosophy of Karl Popper is investigated. On the one hand, this dissertation assesses whether the epistemological aspects of Popper's philosophy—especially his notions of falsificationism, evolutionary epistemology, and three worlds metaphysics—provide a suitable framework for understanding the philosophical basis of everyday Agile software development. On the other hand, the aspects of Popper's philosophy relating to ethics, which provide an ideal for scientific practice in an open society, are investigated in order to determine whether they coincide with the avowedly democratic values of Agile software methodologies. The investigations in this dissertation led to the following conclusions. Firstly, Kuhn's ideas are useful in predicting the effects of the full-scale adoption of Agile methodologies, and they describe the way in which several leaders of the Agile methodologies promote their methodologies; they do not, however, account for the detailed methodological practice of Agile software development. Secondly, several aspects of Popper's philosophy, were found to be aligned with several aspects of Agile software development. In relation to epistemology, Popper's principle of falsificationism provides a criterion for understanding the rational and scientific basis of several Agile principles and practices, his evolutionary epistemology resembles the iterative-incremental design approach of Agile methodologies, and his three worlds metaphysical model provides an understanding of both the nature of software, and the approach advocated by the Agile methodologists' of creating and sharing knowledge. In relation to ethics, Popper's notion of an open society provides an understanding of the rational and ethical basis of the values underlying Agile software development and management, as well as the piecemeal adoption of Agile software methodologies.Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009.Computer Scienceunrestricte

Software Quality Assurance and Android Application Development: A Comparison among Traditional and Agile Methodology

This paper focuses on software quality assurance in android application development with focus on approaches to confirm software quality in android applications. In this work, we compare the waterfall model with agile-scrum methodologies to realize software quality assurance with special focus on mobile applications. This research allows us to answer, “Which process model and practices are available for android software development along with focus on quality assurance?” The other research focus in this paper is “How auditors, developers and testers play their defined roles to maintain quality in mobile application development?” Agility for software development has transformed into a preferred and favored method for mobile application development. The major aim of this research is to contribute for a better knowledge for mobile application development methodologies practiced by the organizations for the development of applications based on systematic literature review

Agile software development – Do we really calculate the costs? A multivocal literature review

Agile software development methods, in their various different forms, have become the basis for most software projects in today’s world. The methodology is present in almost all organisations today. However, despite the popularity, failure rates in software projects remain high. This paper identifies why agile methodologies have become so successful. In addition, the paper discusses certain factors that may often be overlooked in organisations that have adopted agile methods, such as rework, maintainability, adoption, turnover rates and the potential costs associated with each. The research carried out was a multivocal literature review (MLR). Multiple white and grey literature which was deemed to be relevant was selected. 32 contributions from white literature were selected for use in the review as well as 8 from grey literature sources. We find that while agile has many advantages, organisations may overlook the potential downsides of using an agile methodology. If not managed or implemented correctly, organisations risk taking on more hidden and expensive costs, for example in relation to rework. It is important that organisations are sufficiently trained in agile methods in order to succeed

Tradespace and Affordability – Phase 1

One of the key elements of the SERC’s research strategy is transforming the practice of systems engineering – “SE Transformation.” The Grand Challenge goal for SE Transformation is to transform the DoD community’s current systems engineering and management methods, processes, and tools (MPTs) and practices away from sequential, single stovepipe system, hardware-first, outside-in, document-driven, point-solution, acquisition-oriented approaches; and toward concurrent, portfolio and enterprise-oriented, hardware-software-human engineered, balanced outside-in and inside-out, model-driven, set-based, full life cycle approaches.This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract H98230-08- D-0171 (Task Order 0031, RT 046).This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract H98230-08- D-0171 (Task Order 0031, RT 046)