The Contradiction of Agile Measures: Customer as Focus, but Process as Measured?

Performance measures are being used in the agile approach as a powerful tool to understand the customer\u27s impact of a software delivery. However, it is common to find measures related to the process instead of the customer, which would cause the team to forget the customer value delivery. This research study adopts a systematic mapping process to understand which agile approach is related to performance measures, what kind of measures are being used, and if the papers are focused on product measures or process measures. The analyzed articles showed that Scrum is the most frequently referenced agile approach that mentions measures. However, the review shows that the focus was on process measurements, while, despite the rhetoric about customer focus and agility, product measurements appear less important. This result opens the way for future research to explore the consequences of adopting performance measures that are related to this high emphasis on the process

Characteristics and Challenges of Agile Software Development Adoption in Brazilian Government

Governments worldwide have been working to provide better digital services to citizens. In Brazil, this initiative is ongoing since the 2000’s with the aim create better digital solutions that provide access to government information, improvements in public services, and increase social participation. One of the strategies for developing digital solutions – i.e. software solutions – is the adoption of agile software development (ASD) methods, which are forms of software processes that enable delivering working software in a timely manner to respond to customer needs. While industry surveys are performed annually to understand ASD adoption in companies, little is known about the adoption of ASD in Brazilian government organizations and which are the challenges faced by these organizations. The goal of this study is thus to describe agile software development adoption in the Brazilian public sector, by showing the characteristics for adoption and challenges. We conducted a survey with practitioners of government-based organizations in Brazil and statistically analyzed data. Out of the 167 responses, we learned that ASD projects are mostly successful and, on their majority, they are conducted combined with other software development approaches. Also, accelerating product delivery and increasing productivity are ranked as the main reasons for agile adoption, followed by cultural change and resistance to change as the main challenges still faced by Brazilian government IT organizations in the use of ASD

Project Management Tools in Agile Embedded Systems Development

Agile methods have become increasingly popular in the field of software engineering. While agile methods are now generally considered applicable to software projects of many different kinds, they have not been widely adopted in embedded systems development. This is partly due to the natural constraints that are present in embedded systems development (e.g. hardware–software interdependencies) that challenge the utilization of agile values, principles and practices. The research in agile embedded systems development has been very limited, and this thesis tackles an even less researched theme related to it: the suitability of different project management tools in agile embedded systems development. The thesis covers the basic aspects of many different agile tool types from physical tools, such as task boards and cards, to web-based agile tools that offer all-round solutions for application lifecycle management. In addition to these two extremities, there is also a wide range of lighter agile tools that focus on the core agile practices, such as backlog management. Also other non-agile tools, such as bug trackers, can be used to support agile development, for instance, with plug-ins. To investigate the special tool requirements in agile embedded development, the author observed tool related issues and solutions in a case study involving three different companies operating in the field of embedded systems development. All three companies had a distinct situation in the beginning of the case and thus the tool solutions varied from a backlog spreadsheet built from scratch to plug-in development for an already existing agile software tool. Detailed reports are presented of all three tool cases. Based on the knowledge gathered from agile tools and the case study experiences, it is concluded that there are tool related issues in the pilot phase, such as backlog management and user motivation. These can be overcome in various ways epending on the type of a team in question. Finally, five principles are formed to give guidelines for tool selection and usage in agile embedded systems development.Siirretty Doriast

Examining the relationship between agile adoption motivation factors and agile practice clusters used by software startups in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Agile software development methodology (ASDM) has been increasingly adopted in organizations. Despite many benefits offered by ASDM, successful ASDM adoption is a big challenge for organizations. Many studies show that these methods were adopted partly by selecting a set of agile practices. Therefore, it is difficult for new adopters to choose agile practice sets that fit their organization needs as ASDM has a big pool of available practices or clusters. Agile practices should be selected based on motivation factors that include the organization needs in order to maximize the benefit of adopting them. The aim of this study is to identify the relationships between organization’s ASDM adoption motivation factors and the agile practices clusters. This study used a quantitative approach to evaluate the relationships between these variables. The study was conducted using a questionnaire with 76 software practitioners from software startups in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The analysis generated 4 clusters; each is associated with a list of practices. These clusters are labeled as project management, quality assurance, software process, and incremental and iterative clusters. This study finds that three adoption motivation factors (a motivation for increased software quality, increased efficiency, or increased effectiveness) are associated with the quality assurance, software process, and incremental and iterative clusters. By understanding these factors in terms of ASDM adoption and which types of agile practice cluster is more suitable will help to increase the success of the agile adoption process. Furthermore, the study will help to understand how the startups selected the practices used. Also, the study could help new startups to easily choose the proper agile practices based on their motivation and needs. The findings will help the organization to select suitable agile practices cluster by matching the motivation factors that correspondingly affect the ASDM successful adoption

A Feature-Based Tool-Selection Classification for Agile Software Development

Abstract-With the advancement in technology, software development complexities are rising across the globe. This trend is forcing companies and organizations to adopt management methods and tools to accelerate time to market, more easily manage changing priorities, increase the customer satisfaction and reduce product expenses. Agile software development methods offer a solution to these issues, but problems remain over evaluation along with the offering of the correct agile software as well as a collection of agile tools. The purpose of this paper is to introduce best tools and features, criteria used for evaluating currently existing tools and propose a classification model to right agile tool selection. To prepare a list of the best tools and their features in the market, a practical research on existing tools and their features were performed. Finally, a classification model was prepared and the results show which tools best fit into different level of maturity in projects and companies

Estudio de mapeo sistemático de las herramientas y técnicas para la identificación de los niveles de agilidad del equipo de desarrollo en un proyecto de software

El presente estudio registra los instrumentos, herramientas y técnicas para identificar el nivel de agilidad, se realizó una investigación en base al Método del Mapeo Sistemático (SMS), se investigó en diferentes bibliotecas virtuales. Los instrumentos, herramientas y técnicas permiten identificar los niveles de agilidad tanto en las organizaciones y equipos. Se tiene como finalidad evaluar el conocimiento, además, el nivel de agilidad mediante diferentes escalas, al momento de desarrollar sus proyectos, contribuyen con el mejoramiento continuo.He present study records the instruments, tools and techniques to identify the level of agility, an investigation was carried out based on the Systematic Mapping Method (SMS), it was investigated in different virtual libraries. The instruments, tools and techniques allow to identify the levels of agility in both organizations and teams. The purpose is to evaluate knowledge, in addition, the level of agility through different scales, at the time of developing your projects, they contribute to continuous improvement

Upgrade of Agile Development Support Tool

Cílem diplomové práce "Rozšíření nástroje pro podporu agilního vývoje softwaru" je studium agilních metodik a jejich aplikace v praxi. Z agilních metodik se práce detailněji zabývá metodikou Scrum, kterou používá oddělení Corporate Technology společnosti Siemens v Brně. Práce se dále věnuje analýze a srovnání nejpoužívanějších profesionálních nástrojů pro agilní vývoj, které zároveň poskytují inspiraci pro rozšíření nástroje v oddělení  společnosti Siemens. Na základně analýzy byla identifikována možná vylepšení nástroje s cílem ještě více zefektivnit agilní vývoj. Tyto závěry byly předloženy konzultantovi ze společnosti Siemens a na základě vzájemné dohody byly implementovány moduly pro  revizi kódu  a  retrospektivu . Součástí implementace bylo také několik dílčích úprav současného nástroje. Všechna implementovaná rožšíření byla prováděna s důrazem na úsporu času, optimalizaci administrativní zátěže a další zefektivnění vývoje. Závěrem  je diskutován přínos implementovaných řešení a možné další směry rozvoje nástroje.The goal of the diploma thesis "Upgrade of agile development support tool" is to study agile methodologies and its use in practice. Thesis is focused on the Scrum framework used by The Corporate Technology department of Siemens, s.r.o. in Brno. Furthermore the thesis analyzes and compares the most used software support tools for agile methodologies which also gives an inspiration for the upgrade of support tool used by the department of Siemens. Thesis identifies possible upgrades based on an analysis with the goal to make agile development even more effective. Results were consulted with the representative of the Siemens company and then modules for Code review and Retrospective were chosen to implement. Implementation consists even of some minor upgrades of the tool. Goals of all implemented upgrades were to save time, optimize administrative work and make development even more effective. Benefits and further upgrades are consulted at the end of the thesis.