Job Satisfaction in Agile Development Teams: Agile Development as Work Redesign

Agile software-development advocates claim that an important value proposition of agile methods is that they make people more motivated and satisfied with their jobs. While several studies present anecdotal evidence that agile methods increase motivation and satisfaction, research has not theoretically explained or empirically examined how agile development practices relate to team members’ feelings about their work. Drawing on the management and software-development literature, we articulate a model of job design that connects agile development practices to perceptions of job characteristics and, thereby, improve agile team members’ job satisfaction. Using data collected from 252 software-development professionals, we tested the model and found a positive relationship between agile project-management and software-development practices and employees’ perceptions of job characteristics. Further, we found direct effects between agile development-practice use and job satisfaction. Finally, we found interaction effects between the use of agile project-management and software-development approaches and the perception of job autonomy. With this study, we contribute to the literature by theoretically explaining and directly evaluating agile development practices’ impact on individuals’ perceptions about their job characteristics and on their job satisfaction

Success of Agile Environment in Complex Projects

This paper discusses the impact of agile methodology in complex and modular interrelated projects based on the authors’ practical experience and observations. With the advancement of Web technologies and complex computer systems, business applications are able to transcend boundaries in order to fully meet business requirements and comply with the legislation, policies and procedures. The success of software development as well as software deployment of these complex applications is dependent upon the employed methodology and project management. This is so because employed methodology plays an important position in capturing and modeling of business requirements and project management helps to ensure delivery. Agile methods are rapidly becoming popular in the software development industry. This paper examines this crucial role of agile methodology in a software development and deployment environment

Role of Agile Mindfulness in Wellbeing of Agile Team Members

Today, agile approach is arguably the most-widely-used project management method in software development industry. The dynamic nature of agile methods however is putting an overwhelming pressure on agile team members which in turn might negatively influence their overall agile wellbeing. Drawing on IT mindfulness as a theoretical foundation, this research-in-progress develops a conceptual model to examine the potential impact of agile mindfulness, in conjunction with agile identity, on the agile wellbeing of individuals in information system development projects. The findings of this research, upon completion, will contribute to IS literature by providing an evidencebased theoretical understanding of the relationship between agile mindfulness, agile identity, and agile wellbeing. The findings could also help agile teams to understand what improves agile wellbeing of team members, and in turn help them maintain, promote, and enhance it

Enhancing Requirements Change Request Categorization and Prioritization in Agile Software Development Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Software development now relies heavily on agile methods, which call for the efficient administration and prioritization of change requests. In order to improve requirement prioritization using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Agile methods, this study article presents a new framework for classifying software requirements into Small Change Requests (SCRs) and Large Change Requests (LCRs). The paper examines the difficulties associated with requirement prioritization and categorization in Agile settings and offers a methodical system for dividing change requests into categories based on complexity, impact, and timeline. In order to provide a thorough grasp of the project scope and objectives, the framework considers both functional and non-functional needs. A case study containing several Agile software development projects is used to evaluate the performance of the suggested categorization and prioritization model. According to the findings, the combination of SCR and LCR categorization with AHP enables more effective teamwork and greater matching of development goals with partner objectives. The research also shows that the suggested framework's integration into the Agile development process results in a more efficient decision-making process, less time wasted on talks, and improved resource distribution. The model aids in risk mitigation by allowing a methodical and quantifiable approach to requirement prioritization. These risks are related to quick changes in project scope and changing client requirements. By presenting a fresh framework for requirement categorization and prioritization, this study adds to the current discussion on successful requirement management in Agile methods. Agile software development projects become more effective and adaptable overall thanks to the incorporation of AHP, which guarantees a more methodical and objective prioritization process. This study has the potential to greatly improve the administration of shifting needs and user expectations in Agile settings by offering a structured method to classify and rank change requests

Agile Methodologies in Large Scale Information Systems Project Context : A Literature Review and Reflections

Expected benefits from agile methodologies to project success have encouraged organizations to extend agile approaches to areas they were not originally intended to such as large scale information systems projects. Research regarding agile methods in large scale software development projects have existed for few years and it is considered as its own research area. This study investigates agile methods on the large scale software development and information systems projects and its goal is to produce more understanding of agile methods suitability and the conditions under which they would most likely contribute to project success. The goal is specified with three research questions; I) what are the characteristics specific to large scale software engineering projects or large scale Information Systems project, II) what are the challenges caused by these characteristics and III) how agile methodologies mitigate these challenges? In this study resent research papers related to the subject are investigated and characteristics of large scale projects and challenges associated to them are recognized. Material of the topic was searched starting from the conference publications and distributions sites related to the subject. Collected information is supplemented with the analysis of project characteristics against SWEBOK knowledge areas. Resulting challenge categories are mapped against agile practises promoted by Agile Alliance to conclude the impact of practises to the challenges. Study is not a systematics literature review. As a result 6 characteristics specific to large scale software development and IS projects and 10 challenge categories associated to these characteristics are recognized. The analysis reveals that agile practises enhance the team level performance and provide direct practises to manage challenges associated to high amount of changes and unpredictability of software process both characteristic to a large scale IS project but challenges still remain on the cross team and overall project level. As a conclusion it is stated that when seeking the process model with agile approach which would respond to all the characteristics of large scale project thus adding the likelihood of project success adaptations of current practises and development of additional practises are needed. To contribute this four areas for adaptations and additional practises are suggested when scaling agile methodologies over large scale project contexts; 1) adaptation of practises related to distribution, assignment and follow up of tasks, 2) alignment of practises related to software development process, ways of working and common principles over all teams, 3) developing additional practises to facilitate collaboration between teams, to ensure interactions with the cross functional project dimensions and to strengthen the dependency management and decision making between all project dimensions and 4) possibly developing and aligning practises to facilitate teams' external communication. Results of the study are expected to be useful for software development and IS project practitioners when considering agile method adoptions or adaptations in a large scale project context. ACM Computing Classification System (CCS) 2012: - Social and professional topics~Management of computing and information systems - Software and its engineering~Software creation and managemen

Ketterien projektinhallintamenetelmien vaikutus projektin menestykseen

Tiivistelmä. Projektien keskeinen tavoite on menestys. Hyvin iso osa yritystoiminnasta on projektimuotoista. Menestys on niin projektinhallinnan kuin koko yritystoiminnan keskeinen pyrkimys. Menestyksen saavuttamiseksi on tärkeää määrittää, mitkä ovat projektin tavoitteet ja menestyskriteerit. Tässä työssä esitellään menetelmiä projektin suorituskyvyn mittaamiseksi ja niitä hyödynnetään ketterien projektinhallintamenetelmien menestyksen arvioinnissa. Tämän työn tarkoituksena on tutkia ketterien projektinhallintamenetelmien vaikutuksia projektin menestykseen. Erityisesti työssä selvitetään projektin kriittisiä menestystekijöitä ja menestyskriteereitä. Työssä myös esitellään ja arvioidaan tilanteita, mihin ketterät menetelmät soveltuvat parhaiten. Tutkimuskysymykset tässä työssä ovat: — Miten ketterät menetelmät vaikuttavat projektin menestykseen? — Minkälaisiin tilanteisiin ketterät menetelmät soveltuvat? — Mitkä ketterät ominaisuudet parantavat menestystä? Tutkimusmenetelmänä työssä käytetään pääsääntöisesti kirjallisuuskatsausta. Tehtyjen tutkimusten ja olemassa olevaan kirjallisuuteen pohjautuen arvioidaan ketteriä menetelmiä projektissa hyödyntäneiden menestystä ja menestykseen johtavia tekijöitä. Menestykseen johtavien tekijöiden pohjalta muodostetaan malli, joka kuvaa mitkä ketteryyden periaatteista ovat tärkeimpiä, ja miten niitä voidaan hyödyntää osana perinteistä projektinhallintaa. Ketterillä menetelmillä on havaittu selkeä vaikutus menestykseen erityisesti ohjelmistoprojekteissa ja ainutlaatuisissa projekteissa, kuten uuden tuotteen kehityksessä. Projektin ympäristön tulee siis sisältää epävakautta tai projektin tulee olla tyyliltään ainutlaatuinen. Suurin hyöty ketterillä menetelmillä saadaan asiakasvaatimusten huomioimisen osalta. Ketterät projektinhallintamenetelmät painottavat jatkuvaa kehitystä ja korostavat asiakkaan roolia. Ketterälle projektitiimille on tyypillistä sen pieni koko, tiimijäsenten ammattitaito ja kokemus. Tämän työn tuloksia voidaan käyttää hyödyksi projektinhallintamenetelmän valinnassa ja arvioinnissa. Tuloksia ei kuitenkaan voi yleistää jokaiseen tapaukseen, sillä tutkimus tehtiin pääsääntöisesti ohjelmistokehityksen kontekstiin. Tulokset ovat siis suuntaa antavia.Impact of agile project management methods on project success. Abstract. Success is a common goal for projects. A significant part of the activities in organizations are project-based. Success is a common ambition both in project management and in organizations in general. Regarding project’s success it is also necessary to determine the key success factors for project management. In this thesis methods for measuring project’s success are presented. These measures are used to evaluate the success of agile project management methods. The aim in this thesis is to study the impacts agile methods have on project success. Especially this study aims to find critical success factors regarding projects success and to find situations in which the agile methods are particularly useful. The research questions for this study are following: — What kind of impacts do agile methods have on project success? — In what kind of situations are agile methods effective? — What agile characteristics improve project success? Research method used in this thesis is literary survey. Based on existing researches and literature the goal is to measure the impacts of agile methods. The factors resulting to successful projects are identified. Based on them the goal is to form a model of the characteristics leading to successful projects. The single characteristics identified can be included as part of traditional methodology to improve project performance. Agile methods are perceived to have a positive impact on project success especially in the field of software development and other unique type of projects. The project environment must contain uncertainty to get the most out of agile methodology. The most significant benefit gained with agile methods is responding to customer requirements. Agile methods emphasize continuous improvement and the role of a customer. Typical agile team is relatively small, professional and experienced. The results of this thesis can be used to choose and evaluate methods for project management. These results can’t be generalized in every situation as the research was done mainly in software development context. The results are therefore suggestive

Strategic project management approach to the study of large-scale software development using system dynamics

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-123).Large-scale software engineering organizations have traditionally used plan-driven, heavyweight, waterfall-style approaches for the planning, execution, and monitoring of software development efforts. This approach often results in relatively long development schedules that are susceptible to failure, especially in a rapidly changing environment: Schedule pressure, defects and requirements changes, can drive endless redesign, delay the project, and incur extra cost. Many in the commercial software world have dealt with these pressures by adopting Agile Software Development, an approach designed to be flexible and responsive to high-change environments. Software development teams that are said to employ "Agile development" in effect practice a variety of "agile methods". These practices are advertised to reduce coordination costs, to focus teams, and to produce stable product iterations that can be released incrementally. Agile software development has become a de-facto approach to the engineering of software systems in the commercial world, and is now entering the aerospace and defense sectors. The APD model developed in this research aids in the understanding of the impact that alternative combinations of Agile practices, combined with different management policies, have on project performance, compared to a waterfall approach. This research culminates in a formulation of insights and recommendations for how to integrate Agile practices into a large-scale software engineering organization.by Firas Glaiel.S.M

Comparative Analysis of Methodological Trends in the Management of Software Projects: Identification of the Main Variables

Nowadays, there are many methodological proposals that support the various aspects of software development projects. In general terms, there are two big identifiable trends: traditional and agile. In the first instance, traditional methods are those characterized by privileging detailed planning work to ensure the quality of the final product. On the other hand, agile methodologies put prediction aside and open a space to changes in planning. This article presents the results obtained from the application of a comparative analysis to 12 methodologies for software projects management, and from 149 software development companies surveyed, leading to identify, from a theoretical - experimental model, the variables that generate the greatest impact on the success of this type of projects. The importance of studying this topic resided in the impact that the correct application of a management methodology has on the results of a project and thus on its success. Regardless of the methodology used, they all propose a series of common processes, considered good practices, which allow achieving the outlined goals

An approach to reconcile the agile and CMMI contexts in product line development

Software product line approaches produce reusable platforms and architectures for products set developed by specific companies. These approaches are strategic in nature requiring coordination, discipline, commonality and communication. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) contains important guidelines for process improvement, and specifies "what" we must have into account to achieve the disciplined processes (among others things). On the other hand, the agile context is playing an increasingly important role in current software engineering practices, specifying "how" the software practices must be addressed to obtain agile processes. In this paper, we carry out a preliminary analysis for reconciling agility and maturity models in software product line domain, taking advantage of both.Postprint (published version

Bridging the gap between research and agile practice: an evolutionary model

There is wide acceptance in the software engineering field that industry and research can gain significantly from each other and there have been several initiatives to encourage collaboration between the two. However there are some often-quoted challenges in this kind of collaboration. For example, that the timescales of research and practice are incompatible, that research is not seen as relevant for practice, and that research demands a different kind of rigour than practice supports. These are complex challenges that are not always easy to overcome. Since the beginning of 2013 we have been using an approach designed to address some of these challenges and to bridge the gap between research and practice, specifically in the agile software development arena. So far we have collaborated successfully with three partners and have investigated three practitioner-driven challenges with agile. The model of collaboration that we adopted has evolved with the lessons learned in the first two collaborations and been modified for the third. In this paper we introduce the collaboration model, discuss how it addresses the collaboration challenges between research and practice and how it has evolved, and describe the lessons learned from our experience