FROM AGILE TO LEAN: THE PERSPECTIVES OF THE TWO AGILE ONLINE COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST

In the last several years there has been a noticeable focus shift of agile methods from eXtreme Programming (XP) and Scrum to Lean approaches, which is indicated as “from agile to lean”. However our understanding of the driving factors behind this focus shift is very limited. The study proposed in this paper attempts to investigate the shift through a content analysis of two major agile mailing lists. The expected result is a set of driving factors behind the shift from agile to lean, which can contribute to a better understanding of if and why Lean software development is “the next wave of software process”

Factors affecting Technical Debt Raw data from a systematic literature map

"This document presents the complete list of references that have been short listed during the systematic review process carried out during the months of April-September 2012. The objective of the systematic review was to identify current research trends in technical debt and to explore the relationship between technical debt measures and agile software development. This documents includes 352 references that are categorized according to their relevance to technical debt research." [Abstract

Ketterän kehityksen menetelmien erot ja soveltuvuus erilaajuisiin projekteihin

Ketterä kehitys on tärkeässä roolissa nykypäivän ohjelmistotuotannossa sekä muissa kehitystyötä hyödyntävissä projekteissa. Ketterän kehityksen periaatteesta on luotu kehitysmenetelmiä, jotka laativat niiden käyttäjille yleisohjeet toimintatavoista ja ohjaavat projektin etenemistä omalla tavallaan. Tutkielman tutkimuskohteina ovat kaksi ketterän kehityksen menetelmää: Scrum ja Kanban. Tämän kandidaatintutkielman aiheena on tutkia edellä mainittuja ketterän kehityksen menetelmiä, löytää ja vertailla niiden vahvuuksia ja heikkouksia, tutkia miten ne toimivat erikokoisissa projekteissa ja muodostaa johtopäätöksistä optimaalinen toimintaympäristö molemmille menetelmille. Tutkimus on suoritettu kirjallisuuskatsauksena. Tuloksien mukaan molemmat menetelmät ovat päteviä kehitysmenetelmiä ohjelmistotuotannon käyttöön. Menetelmien väliset erot perustuvat työnkulun järjestelyyn, järjestettävien kokousten lukumäärään ja kehitystiimien rakenteisiin. Tutkimuksen mukaan Kanban toimii paremmin pienissä, nopean aikataulun projekteissa, kun työryhmässä tapahtuu useita muutoksia tai ryhmä ei pysy vakiona pitkän aikaa. Scrum toimii paremmin 5-10 henkilön tiimeistä koostuvista keskikokoisista projekteista, joissa vaaditaan tiimin laajaa, jopa poikkitieteellistä, osaamista. Tulosten mukaan haasteena molemmille menetelmille on kehittäjien aikaisemman kokemuksen puute ja tietämättömyys ketterien menetelmien käytöstä. Tulosten perusteella menetelmien kouluttamisessa olisi parannettavaa paremman työvalmiuden saavuttamiseksi, mikä tekee tämän tutkimuksen aiheesta tärkeän

Analyzing the concept of technical debt in the context of agile software development: A systematic literature review

Technical debt (TD) is a metaphor that is used to communicate the consequences of poor software development practices to non-technical stakeholders. In recent years, it has gained significant attention in agile software development (ASD). The purpose of this study is to analyze and synthesize the state of the art of TD, and its causes, consequences, and management strategies in the context of ASD. Using a systematic literature review (SLR), 38 primary studies, out of 346 studies, were identified and analyzed. We found five research areas of interest related to the literature of TD in ASD. Among those areas, managing TD in ASD received the highest attention, followed by architecture in ASD and its relationship with TD. In addition, eight categories regarding the causes and five categories regarding the consequences of incurring TD in ASD were identified. Focus on quick delivery and architectural and design issues were the most popular causes of incurring TD in ASD. Reduced productivity, system degradation and increased maintenance cost were identified as significant consequences of incurring TD in ASD. Additionally, we found 12 strategies for managing TD in the context of ASD, out of which refactoring and enhancing the visibility of TD were the most significant. The results of this study provide a structured synthesis of TD and its management in the context of ASD as well as potential research areas for further investigation

How to get away with technical debt: An explorative multiple-case study on autonomous teams and technical debt management

Technical debt (TD) is constantly accumulating throughout software development processes. In many autonomous teams this technical debt will damage and injure the process, prohibiting them from adding new functionalities to their products. Tech companies must therefore understand how they can manage TD to avoid getting stuck fixing bad code. In the research on technical debt management (TDM), there seems to be a lack of empirical studies that examine how TD is managed in autonomous teams. Some frameworks are developed with the purpose of investigating TDM but lack the empirical validation and reliability. This study investigates how autonomous teams actively manage technical debt, by conducting a multiple-case study in a Norwegian fintech company. The teams are studied by utilizing the TDM framework, measuring autonomous teams’ degree of maturity within different TDM activities in order to understand their current state of practice and how to further improve these. The study found that all autonomous teams practiced TDM, but to various extents. Some teams had structured processes, while others had no clear strategies. Most of the teams were ranked with what the framework call “received level of maturity”, and conducted TDM activities occasionally based on their current needs. The study also found challenges related to the TDM frameworks maturity levels relation to TDM success, and identified that TDM activities ranked as highly mature did not necessarily translate into higher TDM success. The study identified a need for the TDM framework to be further empirically tested and iterated on for it to work as a an accurate tool for understanding and improving autonomous teams’ TDM processes. Keywords: agile software development, autonomous teams, technical debt, technical debt management, case stud