Harmonizing CMMI-DEV 1.2 and XP Method to Improve The Software Development Processes in Small Software Development Firms

Most software development organizations are small firms, and they have realized the need to manage and improve their software development and management activities. Traditional Software Process Improvement (SPI) models and standards are not realistic for these firms because of high cost, limited resources and strict project deadlines. Therefore, these firms need a lightweight software development method and an appropriate SPI model to manage and improve their software development and management processes. This study aims to construct a suitable software development process improvement framework for Small Software Development Firms (SSDFs) based on eXtreme Programming (XP) method and Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development Version 1.2 (CMMI-Dev1.2) model. Four stages are involved in developing the framework: (1) aligning XP practices to the specific goals of CMMI-Dev1.2 Key Process Areas (KPAs); (2) developing the proposed software development process improvement framework based on extending XP method by adapting the Extension-Based Approach (EBA), CMMI-Dev1.2, and generic elements of the SPI framework; (3) verifying the compatibility of the proposed framework to the KPAs of CMMI-Dev1.2 by using focus group method coupled with Delphi technique; and (4) validating the modified framework by using CMMI-Dev1.2 questionnaire as a main item to validate the suitability of the modified framework for SSDFs, and conducting two case studies to validate the applicability and effectiveness of this framework for these firms. The result of aligning XP practices to the KPAs of CMMI-Dev1.2 shows that twelve KPAs are largely supported by XP practices, eight KPAs are partially supported by XP practices, and two KPAs are not-supported by XP practices. The main contributions of this study are: software development process improvement framework for SSDFs, elicit better understanding of how to construct the framework, and quality improvement of the software development processes. There are possible avenues for extending this research to fulfil the missing specific practices of several KPAs, examining other agile practices and using CMMI-Dev1.3 to improve the framework, and conducting more case studie

Estudo sistemático em dependabilidade e métodos ágeis : uma análise de falhas e defeitos

Monografia (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Departamento de Ciência da Computação, 2013.Nos últimos anos os métodos ágeis têm ganhado cada vez mais espaço no cenário mundial de desenvolvimento de software, tanto em empresas de pequeno como grande porte. Apesar dos grandes avanços destas metodologias, que possuem um foco em co- laboração entre indivíduos e responder rápido a mudanças, há poucos estudos publicados acerca dos impactos que a utilização de métodos ágeis causa na confiabilidade do software. Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sistemático sobre a literatura existente, analisando principalmente os efeitos que as práticas ágeis têm sobre a ocorrência de falhas e defeitos no desenvolvimento do software e quais etapas do desenvolvimento possuem maior relação com elas. _______________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTIn recent years agile methods have been gaining more space over the world stage of soft- ware development, within both large and small companies. Despite the great advances on these methodologies, which focus on collaboration among individuals and responding fast to changes, there are few published studies about the impact using agile methods causes in software reliability. This work presents a mapping study on the existing literature, analysing mainly the effect agile practices have on the occurrence of faults and failures within software development and what stages of development possess major relation with them

An Empirical Study on the Role of Requirement Engineering in Agile Method and Its Impact on Quality

Agile Methods are characterized as flexible and easily adaptable. The need to keep up with multiple high-priority projects and shorter time-to-market demands could explain their increasing popularity. It also raises concerns of whether or not use of these methods jeopardizes quality. Since Agile methods allow for changes throughout the process, they also create probabilities to impact software quality at any time. This thesis examines the process of requirement engineering as performed with Agile method in terms of its similarities and differences to requirement engineering as performed with the more traditional Waterfall method. It compares both approaches from a software quality perspective using a case study of 16 software projects. The main contribution of this work is to bring empirical evidence from real life cases that illustrate how Agile methods significantly impacts software quality, including the potential for a larger number of defects due to poor non-functional requirements elicitation

Software quality assurance in Scrum the need for concrete guidance on SQA strategies in meeting user expectations

Includes abstract.Includes abstract.The purpose of this study is to identify and present the concerns of project stakeholders in relation to Software Quality Assurance (SQA) in a Scrum environment. Guided by the tenets of Classic Grounded Theory Methodology, this exploratory and inductive case study presents a broad range of SQA concepts related to the main concern of “Meeting User Expectations”. In trying to resolve the main concern, the Scrum project stakeholders alluded to lack of “Concrete Guidance” on SQA strategies, tools, and techniques in Scrum. The lack of concrete guidance in Scrum requires a development team to devise “Innovations” which may include “Adopting Practices” from other methodologies and carefully designing the “Process Structure” to accommodate the “Adopted Practices”, ensure “Continuous Improvement” of the process, and provide an environment for “Collaborative Ownership”. In addition to the “Need for Concrete Guidance”, the study reveals two other important concepts necessary for “Meeting User Expectations”: the “Need for Solid User Representation” and the “Need for Dedicated Testing”. While some Agile proponents claim that the Agile SQA practices are adequate on their own, the study reveals a number of challenges that impact on a team’s ability to meet user expectations when there is no dedicated tester in a Scrum environment

FeatureIT : a platform for collaborative software development

The development of enterprise software is a complex activity that requires a diverse set of stakeholders to communicate and coordinate in order to achieve a successful outcome. In this dissertation I introduce a high-level physical architecture for a platform titled FeatureIT that has the goal of supporting the collaboration between stakeholders throughout the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). FeatureIT is the result of unifying the theoretical foundations of the multi-disciplinary field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) with the paradigm and associated technologies of Web 2.0. The architecture was borne out a study of literature in the fields of CSCW, Web 2.0 and software engineering, which facilitated the identification of functional and non-functional requirements necessary for the platform. The design science research methodology was employed to construct this architecture iteratively to satisfy the requirements while validating its efficacy against a comprehensive set of scenarios that typically occur in the SDLC.ComputingM. Sc. (Information Systems

Agilizando lo ágil: un framework para la desarrollo de software bajo el modelo CMMI en compañías que usan metodologías ágiles de desarrollo de software usando el modelo acelerado de implementación (AIM)

Con este trabajo se pretende presentar una guía para que las organizaciones cuyo ciclo de vida de desarrollo de software se enmarcan dentro de las metodologías ágiles de desarrollo puedan mapear las prácticas de dicho ciclo de vida contra los objetivos genéricos, practicas genéricas, objetivos específicos y prácticas especificas del modelo CMMI niveles 2 y 3 y de esta forma puedan tener una guía para realizar la implementación del mismo usando el Método Acelerado de Implementación – AIM. Se presenta un modelo de herramienta que puede ser utilizado para medir el avance del proceso. / Abstract. This work aims to present a guide for organizations whose life cycle of software development are part of Agile development practices can map the lifecycle against generic goals, generic practices, specific objectives and practices CMMI model specific levels 2 and 3 and thus may have a guide for its implementation using the Accelerated implementation Method - AIM. We present a model tool that can be used to measure the progress of the process.Maestrí

Enhancing the Auditability of the Agile XP Software Development Process in the Context of EU Medical Device Regulations

Nowadays, there is increasing reliance on software in the healthcare industry, such as software used for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes and software embedded in a medical device, often known as medical device software. Regulatory compliance has become increasingly visible in healthcare industries. Software development companies that develop medical devices software in Europe must comply with EU Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR) regulations in order to get the CE marking. Agile development practices are increasingly adopted by generic software development companies. For example, agile extreme programming (XP) is now considered a common model of choice for many business-critical projects. The reason behind that is that Agile XP has several benefits, such as developing high-quality software with a low cost and in a short period of time, with the capability to embrace any changing requirements during the development process. However, healthcare industries still have a low rate of agile adoption. This is due to the challenges that software developers face when using Agile XP within the stringent requirements of healthcare regulations. These challenges are the lack of fixed up-front planning, lack of documentation, traceability issues, and formality issues. Agile software companies must provide evidence of EU MDR conformity, and they need to develop their own procedures, tools, and methodologies to do so. As yet, there is no consensus on how to audit the Agile XP software companies to ensure that their software processes have been designed and implemented in conformity with EU MDR requirements. The motivation of this research is to assist the companies developing medical device software that wish to adopt Agile XP practices in their effort to meet the EU MDR certification requirements (CE marking). In addition, this research aims to help the information system auditors to extract auditing evidence that demonstrates conformity to the EU MDR requirements that must be met by Agile XP software organisations. This research will try to answer three main questions: Do Agile XP practices support the EU MDR requirements? Is it possible to adopt Agile XP practices when developing medical devices software? Is it possible to submit conformity evidence to EU MDR auditors? The main aim of this research is to enhance the auditability of the Agile XP software development process in the context of EU MDRs. This aim can be achieved by two main objectives: first, proposing an extension to the Agile XP user story to enhance the early planning activities of Agile XP according to EU MDR requirements. Second, designing an auditing model that covers the requirements of EU MDR. This auditing model should provide the EU MDR auditors with auditing evidence that the medical device software developed with an Agile XP process has fulfilled the requirements of EU MDR. The main contribution of this research study is the auditing model for EU MDR requirements that is aligned with the principles of Agile XP. The proposed auditing model would help auditors to audit the Agile XP development process of the medical device with regard to the EU MDR requirements in way of obtaining evidence in conformity to EU MDR requirements. And also, this auditing model can be considered as a guideline that would guide the Agile XP developers to follow the EU MDR requirements. The proposed auditing model has been assessed based on relevant case studies. As result, the evidence gathered shows at least partial support for the requirements in each case study. However, no case study has been demonstrated as supporting fully the auditing yardsticks of the proposed auditing model

Towards understanding the value-creation in agile projects

In recent years, iterative and incremental approaches for software development appeared as an alternative to the traditional, waterfall-style development. The reason for this is the large number of software projects in the past that failed to deliver useful products within budget, and struggled with changing requirements and scope creep. Meanwhile it is a common sense understanding that not all projects are predictable from the beginning. Market uncertainty and a fast changing business environment drives changes during the development of a software product.\ud One of the key characteristics of any agile approach is its explicit focus on Business Value. Although any software development method aims at creating a product and thus creating value, in agile software projects the value creation for the clients represents the essence and defines the focus of the process. Thus, the agile development process is a value creation process.\ud The agile methods allow for frequent decisions about the requirements that will be considered for implementation during the short development cycles called iterations. In practice this decision-making is implemented by the process of requirements prioritization and re-prioritization, performed at the beginning of each iteration.\ud This work is dedicated to exploring and understanding the process of value-creation for clients in agile projects, with a particular focus on the requirements prioritization and reprioritization during a project, as an agile-specific value creation practice.\ud We performed a number of research steps to explore some of the current agile practices that seem to contribute to the value creation, and thus to distil knowledge that the agile practitioners apply and that might help to improve the agile practice.\ud Further, we studied in detail the agile prioritization process and identified the criteria, used in the decision-making process, and relations between the project context and the instantiation of the process.\ud In particular, we researched the following topics:\ud • How is business value perceived and measured in agile projects?\ud • What practices contribute to value creation in agile projects in different contexts?\ud • What concepts play a role in making re-prioritization decisions about\ud requirements?\ud These questions represent the focus of our research activities. They lead and framed the formulation of our Research Questions and the research design.\ud The main contribution of our work to the research and practitioners’ communities\ud consists in the rich contextual description of the process of requirements prioritization in agile projects as well as a conceptual model of this process