Describing Agile Requirements Development and Communication using Complex Adaptive Systems Theory

Agile software development methods help software development teams respond to changing requirements. Fundamental to this ability to respond to change is the manner in which requirements are communicated and developed. The question of agile requirements development is considered through the lens of Complex Adaptive Systems theory, a theory used to explain agility in software development teams. A case study of the communication and development of requirements in a software development team is reported, where the three dimensions of CAS Theory described by Vidgen and Colleagues (Vidgen and Wang 2009) are adapted to describe requirements communication and development practices in greater detail. We find that this focus on requirements practices can further explain increases in a software team’s agility

Agile Succes Factors : a qualitative study about what makes agile projects successful

Various studies show great improvements in software projects when agile software development is applied. However, there are still remaining problems and there are also reports about project failures in the agile community. This raises the question of what factors distinguish successful agile software projects and teams from less successful ones? The authors of the Swiss Agile Study wanted to shed some light on these questions. We conducted a qualitative interview study with eight successful agile IT companies. We asked them about the essential success factors in their agile projects. The findings are divided into three different categories: Engineering practices, management practices and the values, or culture, they live. On the engineering level it was found that these companies apply many technical practices in a very disciplined way, with a strong emphasis on quality assuring practices like unit testing, continuous integration and automation, and clean coding. On the management level it was pointed out that clear requirements, which are verified and validated in very close collaboration with the customer, are essential. The same was true for very close communication within the team. The third aspect that was found, was that in each successful team there was a kind of Agile Champion who motivated and inspired the team to use agility. On the value level we found that successful agile teams live a culture of openness and transparency. They establish an agile culture at least on the team and organizational level (we found only one company who had established the agile method in the whole company). Third, they live an attitude of craftsmanship, being proud of their work and striving for high quality work. Finally we noticed, that while putting high emphasize on the above practices, mature agile teams start adapting these practices and the agile process to their needs, when they notice that some of the practices do not work or that following the recipe is insufficient. A constant probing, sensing and appropriate responding was observed. This is the typical pattern for moving forward in complex adaptive systems. Applying a sense-making methodology like the Cynefin framework, theoretically explains the observations in the present study. Companies should therefore be aware, that software projects are often located in the complex domain, i.e. can be modeled as complex adaptive systems. These kinds of problems rather require emergent practices instead of good or best practices and an understanding of the implications of complexity theory is of merit

47P. Understanding Agile Software Development in Practice

Over the last ten years Agile Software Development (ASD) has received much attention from researchers and practitioners as an approach for dealing with change. However, the proper application area and the use of a mixed - agile and traditional, more plan-driven -approach are still much debated. In this paper, we report from a mission critical project that was considered agile by the involved staff, but which actually employed a mixed agile and plan-driven strategy. We introduce a framework, which allows for (1) descriptive analysis of the project, (2) its discussion against the agile values as presented in the agile manifesto, and (3) a comparison of findings to Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory. We contribute to the debate with rich insight about: which work practices were applied in practice? which of the applied work practices were agile and/or which were more plan-driven in nature? and which of the applied practices fit with CAS theory and/or with a more plan-driven perspective? The analysis of our case shows that some of the agile practices were used in a way that supported both agile values and a traditional focus on processes, documentation, and planning. Moreover, certain traditional practices were in line with CAS theory, while some agile practices fit both CAS and traditional concepts. We suggest that to understand ASD in practice it is relevant to investigate how the applied practices are actually used in the particular case and that the agile manifesto and CAS theory are useful, complementary lenses for doing so

Misalignment challenges when integrating security requirements into mobile banking application development

This study identifies and explores the core challenge faced when integrating security requirements into the mobile application software development life cycle. Studies on key issues in Information Systems (IS) have been on-going in the past decades, with security moving up the ranks of top issues in IS. Security requirements can be added into mobile application development processes by practising secure coding or by adding a third party security tool. This study gathered data from a single case study and employs grounded theory methodology to reveal misalignment as the core challenge to integrating security requirements into mobile banking application development. Identified forms of misalignment include that between security requirements and (1) external entities, (2) roles, (3) skills and (4) system requirements. Some of the findings indicate the need for further research. Research indicates that mobile application development follows agile methods for development. Agile methods have been compared with Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). For this reason, research in IS could benefit from studies that focus on CAS as a theory to provide a better explanation on the misalignment issues in mobile application development. From the current study, the research also identified the need to address misalignment issues before embarking on a project involving integrating of security requirements

Autonomous agile teams: Challenges and future directions for research

According to the principles articulated in the agile manifesto, motivated and empowered software developers relying on technical excellence and simple designs, create business value by delivering working software to users at regular short intervals. These principles have spawned many practices. At the core of these practices is the idea of autonomous, self-managing, or self-organizing teams whose members work at a pace that sustains their creativity and productivity. This article summarizes the main challenges faced when implementing autonomous teams and the topics and research questions that future research should address