Creative idea exploration within the structure of a guiding framework : the card brainstorming game

I present a card brainstorming exercise that transforms a conceptual tangible interaction framework into a tool for creative dialogue and discuss the experiences made in using it. Ten sessions with this card game demonstrate the frameworks' versatility and utility. Observation and participant feedback highlight the value of a provocative question format and of the metaphor of a card game

Agile Software Development: Exploring the Values and Principles, Collaboration and Boundary Objects

Agile software development, both a movement and a set of software development methods, guided by the values and principles state in the Manifesto for Agile development (Beck et al. 2001), should not be seen only as a collection of development methods. This thesis proposes that in order to understand what constitutes differences or similarities between Agile organisations, one should apply a holistic view of Agile development. This view consists of three elements that form the Agile development environment: the perspective the organisations have towards Agile, the Agile process the organisations follow and the Agile structures that form the basis for the process. By proposing this framework of Agile engagement, the thesis answers following research questions: 1. How does collaboration in organisations differ under the various approaches towards Agile? 2. How do organisations structure collaboration between Agile teams and business stakeholders? 3. How are boundary objects used in collaboration between these groups? As research method, I followed the eight steps of the SPS approach and conducted a qualitative, interpretive case study. The study consists of three case studies. First, the Extreme Inc. case is an example of an organisation where the members hold an Avid perspective towards Agile methods. The organisation had arranged the collaboration to follow a tightly integrated model where boundary objects are applied to support the pair programming method and foster face-to-face collaboration. The case of Escapade and Carmine presents an example of an Inclusive Agile perspective, where organisations strive to focus on collaboration and boundary mitigation. The organisations had set up a collaboration configuration, where boundary spanners and all boundary objects were designed to create a sense of presence and ease of collaboration. The last case, the PrecautionCorp program, is a study of an organisation where the members of the organisation have chosen to observe Agile methods in a Pragmatic way. All collaboration between the stakeholders was organised via selected boundary spanners who mitigated the boundaries but also maintained a level of control over the chaos by applying a variety of boundary objects. By analysing the three case studies, I have identified three main elements that impact Agile software development: the perspective the organisations have towards the Agile philosophy which impacts the Agile process, that is, how the Agile methods are applied in practice; the configuration of the business stakeholder collaboration; and the application of the boundary objects. Based on this analysis, I have presented the framework for Agile engagement, a holistic theory that tied together the elements of Agile development. The practical contributions of this thesis are several: practitioners can apply the framework for Agile engagement when analysing their own positions, can benefit from better understanding of the relations between Agile process, Agile perspective and Agile structures, and can enhance their understanding of the best possible application of boundary objects

Examining Organizational Implications of Innovations in Software Development: Agile and Simulation

Software development is a complex process involving stakeholders with divergent perspectives, skills, and responsibilities who must work together to create a software product of high quality. Problems such as miscommunications and misunderstandings among project stakeholders, especially between the IS and business functions, exist in software development. To help address these issues, innovative methods are being increasingly adopted such as the Agile software development methodology and software simulation. These two methods share the same goal of bringing stakeholders together to establish a common understanding so that the system can be built quicker and better than with traditional approaches. This dissertation, which consists of two essays, focuses on these two innovative methods of software development – Agile methodology and software simulation – and examines how they can be best applied and under what conditions they lead to positive outcomes. The first essay studies the introduction of the Agile methodology in a company steeped in the traditional Waterfall software development method. The essay reports on how the Agile methodology was integrated with the traditional software development process including an in-depth analysis of the organizational and project controller-controlee relationships before and after the Agile methodology implementation. We find that outcome control, which was the predominant control mechanism, used in the company’s Waterfall development process, gave way to a hybrid control mechanism that possesses attributes of emergent control while maintaining vestiges of some Waterfall-like outcome control mechanisms. In addition, we find that the IS function must relinquish some influence over software development resources with the introduction of the Agile method. Lessons learned from this case study point to the complexity of designing organizational and project control mechanisms during the transition from the Waterfall to an Agile approach.As much as innovations in software development methods improve the software creation process, the risk of failing to create a quality software product are heightened when requirements are misinterpreted. Recent innovations in requirements simulations provide stakeholders with an opportunity to see realistic simulations of the system before it is built to quickly reach a common understanding of the requirements. Hence, the second essay empirically examines how the use of software simulations with various degrees of realism can help mitigate project requirements risk including project novelty, data interdependence, system interdependence, requirements instability, and requirements diversity, leading to higher software product quality. Results suggest that simulation realism partially mediates the relationship between project requirement risk and software product quality indicating the importance of investing in highly realistic simulations in software project requirement risk mitigation.Overall, this dissertation sheds light on how software development managers can employ innovative methods such as an Agile method and software simulation to bring greater stakeholders unity and produce higher quality software products

Human-computer interaction's role in geographical information systems development

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informátca e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Requirements engineering challenges and practices in large-scale agile system development

Context: Agile methods have become mainstream even in large-scale systems engineering companies that need to accommodate different development cycles of hardware and software. For such companies, requirements engineering is an essential activity that involves upfront and detailed analysis which can be at odds with agile development methods. Objective: This paper presents a multiple case study with seven large-scale systems companies, reporting their challenges, together with best practices from industry. We also analyze literature about two popular large-scale agile frameworks, SAFe (R) and LeSS, to derive potential solutions for the challenges. Methods: Our results are based on 20 qualitative interviews, five focus groups, and eight cross company workshops which we used to both collect and validate our results. Results: We found 24 challenges which we grouped in six themes, then mapped to solutions from SAFe (R), LeSS, and our companies, when available. Conclusion: In this way, we contribute a comprehensive overview of RE challenges in relation to largescale agile system development, evaluate the degree to which they have been addressed, and outline research gaps. We expect these results to be useful for practitioners who are responsible for designing processes, methods, or tools for large scale agile development as well as guidance for researchers

Spaces of working in modern software organisations

The growing use of digital media in the workplace is shifting work to digital platforms, whilst digital working is often seen to be replacing office-based work practices. This study captures the opposite. It explores the appropriation of features of both physical and digital environments by collocated software development teams in a multinational IT company. These environments are designed in isolation, yet they become integrated in practice by employees. This study is positioned within the information systems literature as a step to address the gap on digital work and understand the essential role played by the physical environment in the usage and appropriation of digital tools in modern organisations. It posits a view of space as constantly in the making through sociospatial practices. It empirically demonstrates that the physical environment is not only integral to work practices and deeply entangled with digital interactions and activities, but space emerges as a result of a mutual shaping, where physical and digital coexist in tightly woven symbiotic form. In this manner, this study extends existing knowledge through four novel concepts including a combined theorisation to understand how work is performed in modern digital organisations: (a) spatial work practices extend the concept of spatial practices (de Certeau 1984) as they are intrinsically attached to work activities. They are responsible for the creation and the dismantling of (b) physical-digital assemblages, which conceptualise and explain how actors combine and configure elements from the physical environment and digital technologies to create (c) spatialities, as planned spatial effects to influence the way in which work activities are performed. These concepts are integrated through the emergent framework of (d) crafted workspaces, which enables the theorisation of new types of organisational space that transcend traditional dichotomous notions of physical or digital. This research thus responds to recent calls for a ‘spatial turn’ in organisational studies and information systems literature, enabling modern working practices to be understood and effectively integrated into modern organisations, whilst in turn calling for greater attention to space as a performative and constitutive element of digital work in information systems research

Negotiating Response-ability and Repeat-ability in Requirements Engineering

Requirements engineering (RE) practices are critical to success during the development of business software. As managers assess RE practices, they apply specific perspectives that determine problems identified and recommendations for improvement. Two perspectives have recently dominated managerial thinking within the software industry, one rooted in software process improvement and the other rooted in agile software development. Underpinning these perspectives are two theories about what constitutes good software practice. In this paper, we explicate these theories in relation to RE and show how they differ in basic assumptions about the nature of requirements, requirements capture, requirements usage, change management, and approach to improvement. The repeat-ability theory holds that good requirements practices are plan-driven and follow generic best practices to arrive at an agreed-upon baseline of software requirements. Response-ability holds that good requirements practices are adaptive and involve close interaction between customers and developers to arrive at satisfactory software solutions. We use case study data from a software firm, TelSoft, to show how the theories lead to different interpretations about why current practices are problematic and how problems are resolved. Relating to the improvement strategy adopted at TelSoft, we demonstrate the superiority, for managers, of negotiating response-ability and repeat-ability concerns when improving RE practices. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for research and practice