Empirical Investigation on Agile Methods Usage: Issues Identified from Early Adopters in Malaysia

Agile Methods are a set of software practices that can help to produce products faster and at the same time deliver what customers want. Despite the benefits that Agile methods can deliver, however, we found few studies from the Southeast Asia region, particularly Malaysia. As a result, less empirical evidence can be obtained in the country making its implementation harder. To use a new method, experience from other practitioners is critical, which describes what is important, what is possible and what is not possible concerning Agile. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the issues faced by early adopters in Malaysia where Agile methods are still relatively new. The initial study involves 13 participants including project managers, CEOs, founders and software developers from seven organisations. Our study has shown that social and human aspects are important when using Agile methods. While technical aspects have always been considered to exist in software development, we found these factors to be less important when using Agile methods. The results obtained can serve as guidelines to practitioners in the country and the neighbouring regions

Human factors and cultural influences in implementing agile philosophy and agility in global software development

As software becomes increasingly important to all aspects of industry, developers should be encouraged to adopt best practice and hence improve the quality of the processes used, and achieve targets relating to time, budget and quality. In the software industry, several software methodologies have been used to address software development problems; however some of these processes may be too bureaucratic. The Agile Alliance formed in 2001, sought to address this problem; accordingly, they developed a manifesto and twelve principles, to which all agile software methods adhere. The purpose of the manifesto and its principles is to uncover better ways of developing software. Agile software development methods seem to address the software development industry’s need for more agile processes that are responsive to changes during software development. Agile values and principles require a major cultural change for software managers, e.g. collective team responsibility and self-organisation, especially in large organisations with a strong culture of planning and centralised power. In large global organisations, this issue is likely to be exacerbated by cultural diversity. The objective of this thesis is to analyse the possibility, of using agile methods or practices in different cultures, and study what changes are required, to adapt agile approaches to different global application development issues. The study found that certain agile practices can be useful in different cultures and some practices required major cultural adaptation. A study of suitable practices for different cultures such as Australia, India and the United Kingdom and the associated suggested changes required are the main areas of study. Human factors have been identified by researchers and practitioners to impact on software development projects. Similarly, cultural differences may also be influential in a global market. The principles of agile software development focus on iterative adaptation and improvement of the activities of individual software development teams to increase effectiveness. This research programme focused specifically on national culture based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Hall’s cultural dimensions and the relationships between different aspects of national culture and the implementation of agile methods. To investigate this aspect of software development, a set of cultural dimensions and consolidated cultural agile attributes were developed, that are considered necessary for implementing agile methods. Based on relevancy, cultural dimensions such as Individualism/Collectivism, Power distance index, Uncertainty avoidance index, Time and Context were selected and studied. Some of cultural agile attributes studied include Transparency, Dedicated team, Decision making, Tolerance for change, Time keeping and Authoritative. This set was identified from a literature review on culture for agile methods, a detailed analysis of relevant commonly used agile methods and from feedback from agile experts. This thesis involves qualitative interviews conducted in Australia, India, and the UK using an interpretive paradigm and aims to identify cultural dimensions to implement agile methods in the software engineering community. The results of this research programme provide an analytical comparative framework for implementing agile methods in different cultures, and insight into how cultural differences may affect a software project and how these challenges can be addressed through agile principles

Modelo de identificação de habilidades empreendedoras em desenvolvedores de software à luz da abordagem ágil

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de ProduçãoO interesse de empresas produtoras de software por temas como empreendedorismo e métodos ágeis normalmente está associado à expectativa de obtenção de ganho para o negócio. Tal ganho visa o aumento da qualidade e da produtividade, que são decorrentes de aspectos como o comprometimento e a satisfação dos desenvolvedores de software. No presente trabalho considera-se que a cultura organizacional representa um fator preponderante tanto em iniciativas de adoção de métodos ágeis quanto na promoção de habilidades empreendedoras. O objetivo geral dessa tese é verificar se a cultura ágil promove habilidades empreendedoras em desenvolvedores de software, o que é feito através da elaboração de um modelo de identificação de habilidades empreendedoras em desenvolvedores de software à luz da abordagem ágil. Tendo como base a pesquisa bibliográfica, foi elaborado um modelo de representação da cultura ágil de desenvolvimento de software e em seguida foram inseridas habilidades empreendedoras no modelo. A coerência e aplicabilidade do modelo foram verificadas por meio de pesquisa qualitativa. A pesquisa utiliza-se de entrevistas realizadas junto a especialistas, o que possibilitou verificar empiricamente as teorias relacionadas no modelo. Também foi realizada pesquisa de campo junto a especialistas, sendo que os resultados foram tabulados e testados. Entre os principais resultados obtidos estão a verificação de que a adoção de determinadas práticas ágeis contribui para a promoção de habilidades empreendedoras e a constatação de que tanto as práticas ágeis como as habilidades empreendedoras em desenvolvedores de software podem ser visualizadas como artefatos visíveis de uma cultura ágil sustentada por um conjunto de princípios, valores e suposições básicas compartilhadas.The interest of software companies in issues such as entrepreneurship and agile methods is normally associated to the expectation of obtaining improvements for the business. These gains seek to increase quality and productivity, resulting from factors such as the commitment and satisfaction of the software developers. This study considers that the organizational culture represents a preponderant factor both in initiatives for the adoption of agile methods and in the promotion of entrepreneurial skills. The general objective of this thesis is to verify if the agile culture promotes entrepreneurial skills in software developers. The study is conducted through the preparation of a model for the identification of entrepreneurial skills in software developers from the perspective of the agile approach. Based on a bibliographic study, a model was prepared for the representation of an agile software development culture. Entrepreneurial skills were then inserted in the model. The coherence and applicability of the model were verified by means of a qualitative study. The research included interviews with specialists that allowed empirically verifying the theories presented in the model. A field study was also conducted among specialists, and the results were tabulated and tested. The main results include the verification that adoption of certain agile practices contributes to the promotion of entrepreneurial abilities and the finding that both agile practices and entrepreneurial abilities in software developers can be visualized as visible artifacts of an agile culture sustained by a set of principles, values and basic shared suppositions