Challenges In Transitioning From Waterfall To Scrum

In today\u27s fast-paced, fiercely competitive world; speed and flexibility are essential. Companies are increasingly realizing that the sequential approach to developing new product simply will not get the job done. The goal of this thesis is to investigate critical issues and challenges that occur during the transition from a traditional software development methodology such as Waterfall to Scrum. During the last decade, Scrum has gained a vast success in software development due to its lightweight character and efficient way of handling the challenges of increased market speed, change and product complexity. This thesis is based on a sequential exploratory mixed methods research model, which uses both qualitative as well as quantitative research methods to investigate the problem. The rationale for this is that neither method is sufficient by itself to capture the trends and details of situations. When used in combination, both quantitative and qualitative methods complement each other and provide a more complete picture of the research problem. There are six main results from this thesis. First the main challenges are identified. Second, they are ranked based on their frequency of occurrence and thirdly, based on their importance. Fourth, the correlation between the frequency of occurrence of challenge and their importance is measured. This thesis also examines the varied perspectives of Scrum Coaches and Scrum Practitioners regarding the frequency of challenges as the fifth result and regarding the importance of challenges as the sixth result

A Software Engineering Team's Perspective on the Switch to Agile Software Development

Healthcare information technology is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. There are millions of errors made in the medical paper chart at hospitals around the world, resulting in mistaken medication and death. Healthcare information technology provides a way to eliminate these errors and to allow patients access to their medical record from anywhere in the world. Corporation X is the foremost leader in the industry and has been providing solutions to hospitals and doctors’ offices for the past 30+ years. Developing software that affects peoples’ lives requires many processes and certifications. As a result, the software development process is instrumental in providing high quality software for Corporation X’s clients. In the past, Corporation X has employed the Waterfall Software Methodology to design and implement their software. This methodology or process has been in use since the beginning of software. There are distinct phases that need to be sequentially followed, requiring much up-front work. There are many advantages and disadvantages to this process. As the healthcare information technology industry grows and new competitors make their way to market, Corporation X has been forced to re-think this process and adapt to the ever-changing external environment. The recent popularity of Agile Software Development has spread across the world. In the past 10 years, Agile has become the most used process for software development. In 2010, Corporation X decided to switch from Waterfall to Agile, to keep up with the industry and improve it’s own processes. The advantages of the switch to Agile have proven to be a great asset to Corporation X’s engineering teams. The new process has increased code quality, increased client satisfaction, and produced more revenue for Corporation X. There were, however, a few disadvantages such as resource pooling and team morale.. A new concept was introduced with Agile, resource pooling. This was Corporation X’s own spin on resourcing, not something that is traditionally a part of Agile practices at most companies. This proved to be a disadvantage because it caused teams to lose that camaraderie and closeness that is typical of a team. Engineers had to start over with people with every project. Corporation X also put a new defect accountability process in place to help drive down the number of defects by introducing the feeling of ownership. And with this new process, engineers became more aware of the number of defects being introduced to clients. All of these factors will be discussed and explained in this study. This study will help dissect the transition from Waterfall to Agile from the software engineers’ viewpoint

Factors that contribute significantly to scrum adoption as perceived by scrum practitioners working within South Africa organisations

Text in EnglishScrum is the most adopted and under-researched Agile methodology. The research conducted on Scrum adoption is mainly qualitative. Therefore, there was a need for a quantitative study to investigate Scrum adoption challenges. The general objective of this study was to investigate the factors that have a significant relationship with Scrum adoption as perceived by Scrum practitioners working within South African organisations. To achieve this objective a narrative review to synthesise the existing challenges was conducted, followed by the use of these challenges in the development of a conceptual framework. After that, a survey questionnaire was used to test and evaluate the developed framework. The research findings indicate that relative advantage, complexity, and sprint management are factors that have a significant linear relationship with Scrum adoption. The findings are generalisable to the population, and the author recommends that organisations review the findings during their adoption phase of Scrum.Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)University of South Africa (UNISA)School of ComputingM.Sc. (Computing

Uso do Scrum em um processo de gestão de demandas de desenvolvimento de software por terceiros para um órgão público federal brasileiro

Monografia (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade UnB Gama, Curso de Engenharia de Software, 2014.O governo federal brasileiro é um grande consumidor do serviço de desenvolvimento software através de contratação, que necessita de insumos para auditoria e gestão contratual o que induz a um processo de desenvolvimento de software dirigido a planos baseados no modelo Cascata, tanto no Brasil como em outros países do mundo. Porém com o aumento da popularidade das metodologias ágeis de desenvolvimento de software tem-se encontrado iniciativas de adequação destas ao ambiente contratual, inclusive no Brasil, como alternativa ao desenvolvimento cascata ou baseado no RUP. Reconhecendo o Scrum como a mais emblemática representante das metodologias ágeis, o complexo contexto legal para contratações no Brasil e dados os relatos acadêmicos de adaptação e combinação desta metodologia com outras, este trabalho utiliza um estudo de caso de um órgão público federal brasileiro para, dadas as características deste órgão, propor as adaptações necessárias ao contexto de contratação no setor público federal brasileiro Dentre as adaptações definidas destacam-se os eventos voltados ao Product Owner, a proposta do papel do Product Owner Partner (POP), além de outras adaptações em artefatos mantendo-se o foco do desenvolvimento no produto de software com o mínimo de documentação exigida