What are Hybrid Development Methods Made Of? An Evidence-Based Characterization

Among the multitude of software development processes available, hardly any is used by the book. Regardless of company size or industry sector, a majority of project teams and companies use customized processes that combine different development methods— so-called hybrid development methods. Even though such hybrid development methods are highly individualized, a common understanding of how to systematically construct synergetic practices is missing. In this paper, we make a first step towards devising such guidelines. Grounded in 1,467 data points from a large-scale online survey among practitioners, we study the current state of practice in process use to answer the question: What are hybrid development methods made of? Our findings reveal that only eight methods and few practices build the core of modern software development. This small set allows for statistically constructing hybrid development methods. Using an 85% agreement level in the participants’ selections, we provide two examples illustrating how hybrid development methods are characterized by the practices they are made of. Our evidence-based analysis approach lays the foundation for devising hybrid development methods

Powering the Academic Web

Context: Locating resources on the Web has become increasingly difficult for users and poses a number of issues. The sheer size of the Web means that despite what appears to be an increase in the amount of quality material available, the effort involved in locating that material is also increasing; in effect, the higher quality material is being diluted by the lesser quality. One such group affected by this problem is post-graduate students. Having only a finite amount of time to devote to research, this reduces their overall quality study time. Aim: This research investigates how post-graduate students use the Web as a learning resource and identifies a number of areas of concern with its use. It considers the potential for improvement in this matter by using a number of concepts such as: collaboration; peer reviewing and document classification and comparison techniques. This research also investigates whether by combining several of the identified technologies and concepts, student research on the Web can be improved. Method: Using some of the identified concepts as components, this research proposes a model to address the highlighted areas of concern. The proposed model, named the Durham Browsing Assistant (DurBA) is defined, and a number of key concepts which show potential within it are uncovered. One of the key concepts is chosen, that of document comparison. Given a source document, can a computer system reliably identify other documents which most closely match it from other on the Web? A software tool was created which allowed the testing of document comparison techniques, this was called the Durham Textual Comparison system (DurTeC) and it had two key concepts. The first was that it would allow various algorithms to be applied to the comparison process. The second concept was that it could simulate collaboration by allowing data to be altered, added and removed as if by multiple users. A set of experiments were created to test these algorithms and identify those which gave the best results. Results: The results from the experiments identified a number of the most promising relationships between comparison and collaboration processes. It also highlighted those which had a negative effect on the process, and those which produced variable results. Amongst the results, it was found that: 1. By providing DurTeC with additional source documents to the original, as if through a recommendation process, it was able to increase its accuracy substantially. 2. By allowing DurTeC to use synonym lists to expand its vocabulary, in many cases, it was found to have reduced its accuracy. 3. By restricting those words which DurTeC considered in its comparison process, based upon their value in the source document, accuracy could be increased. This could be considered as a form of collaborative keyword selection. Conclusion: This research shows that improvements can be made in the accuracy of identifying similar resources by using a combination of comparison and collaboration processes. The proposed model, DurBA would be an ideal host for such a system

Broadening the Scope of Security Usability from the Individual to the Organizational : Participation and Interaction for Effective, Efficient, and Agile Authorization

Restrictions and permissions in information systems -- Authorization -- can cause problems for those interacting with the systems. Often, the problems materialize as an interference with the primary tasks, for example, when restrictions prevent the efficient completing of work and cause frustration. Conversely, the effectiveness can also be impacted when staff is forced to circumvent the measure to complete work -- typically sharing passwords among each other. This is the perspective of functional staff and the organization. There are further perspectives involved in the administration and development of the authorization measure. For instance, functional staff need to interact with policy makers who decide on the granting of additional permissions, and policy makers, in turn, interact with policy authors who actually implement changes. This thesis analyzes the diverse contexts in which authorization occurs, and systematically examines the problems that surround the different perspectives on authorization in organizational settings. Based on prior research and original research in secure agile development, eight principles to address the authorization problems are identified and explored through practical artifacts

Agility and Resilience as Sources of Competitive Advantages a Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

Today’s hypercompetitive global climate makes lasting competitive edge unsuitable. Firms face increasing complexity due to the rapid entry and growth of internationalizing firms from emerging markets, technological breakthroughs, discontinuous innovation, and the uncertainties surrounding unexpected shocks transmitted across world markets, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. In this research, I examine how firms have built and applied two adaptive abilities (agility and resilience) to respond to environmental changes and disruptions to create sustainable competitive advantage. An agile organization is simultaneously a resilient organization. Despite agility’s increased relevance in the academy and practitioners\u27 publications, its epistemological and ontological analyses are superficial at best. Specifically, supported by inductive and deductive analysis, I bring clarity to agility’s concept and its boundary conditions. Thus, I propose an integrative multilevel framework of the antecedents, the enablers, and the outcomes of the process of agility performance. Moreover, through in-depth interviews with executives, I explore how agility and resilience manifested in emerging market multinational firms (EMNEs) enhance their competitiveness by using both adaptive abilities in their international operations. The findings reveal that all organizations possess some degrees of agility and resilience simultaneously as two faces of the same coin. Furthermore, agility and resilience are interdependent, comprising five common domains

Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering

Get the most out of this foundational reference and improve the productivity of your software teams. This open access book collects the wisdom of the 2017 "Dagstuhl" seminar on productivity in software engineering, a meeting of community leaders, who came together with the goal of rethinking traditional definitions and measures of productivity. The results of their work, Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering, includes chapters covering definitions and core concepts related to productivity, guidelines for measuring productivity in specific contexts, best practices and pitfalls, and theories and open questions on productivity. You'll benefit from the many short chapters, each offering a focused discussion on one aspect of productivity in software engineering. Readers in many fields and industries will benefit from their collected work. Developers wanting to improve their personal productivity, will learn effective strategies for overcoming common issues that interfere with progress. Organizations thinking about building internal programs for measuring productivity of programmers and teams will learn best practices from industry and researchers in measuring productivity. And researchers can leverage the conceptual frameworks and rich body of literature in the book to effectively pursue new research directions. What You'll Learn Review the definitions and dimensions of software productivity See how time management is having the opposite of the intended effect Develop valuable dashboards Understand the impact of sensors on productivity Avoid software development waste Work with human-centered methods to measure productivity Look at the intersection of neuroscience and productivity Manage interruptions and context-switching Who Book Is For Industry developers and those responsible for seminar-style courses that include a segment on software developer productivity. Chapters are written for a generalist audience, without excessive use of technical terminology. ; Collects the wisdom of software engineering thought leaders in a form digestible for any developer Shares hard-won best practices and pitfalls to avoid An up to date look at current practices in software engineering productivit

Uppskalning av agil systemutveckling: en flerfallstudie av ramverket Scaled Agile Framework

Agile software development methods have been extensively studied in the context for which they were originally developed: small, collocated and cross-functional teams. The proven benefits of agile methods have caused larger organizations and programs to take an interest in them, although adopting such methods at large is far more challenging. Several frameworks for adopting agile methods in a larger context exist but research surrounding them is scarce, consisting almost entirely of industry-produced experience reports. In this thesis we have studied the adoption of a popular scaling framework, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), in two Finnish companies: Comptel, a telecom company; and NAPA, a company specialized in ship design and operation software. We sought to understand why these organizations chose to adopt SAFe, how they did it, what successes and challenges related to the adoptions the organizations encountered, and what effects the adoptions had. We reviewed existing literature in order to find out why and how other organizations had adopted SAFe. Using the results of the review we constructed a set of questions which we used in 16 interviews at the case organizations. The interviews spanned all organizational layers of SAFe: we interviewed people from leadership, middle management, and teams. The results of the interviews support many of the findings of the literature review, showing that planning the adoption in detail, training key personnel, and putting significant effort into the first planning session are key success factors in adopting SAFe. The interviews also showed that internal drivers of change are vital in establishing support for the adoption. Our results indicate that SAFe is a viable option for scaling agile software development, potentially improving visibility, collaboration and alignment.Agila systemutvecklingsmetoder blir allt vanligare och har studerats extensivt i den kontext för vilken de ursprungligen utformats: små självorganiserande och samordnade team. De påvisade fördelarna med agila metoder leder allt fler och större organisationer till att försöka implementera dem---dock växer svårighetsgraden i takt med organisationsstorleken. Ett flertal ramverk för uppskalning av agila metoder existerar, men akademisk forskning kring ämnet saknas nästan helt då majoriteten av litteraturen är fallstudier av varierande kvalité. I detta diplomarbete har vi studerat ibruktagningarna av det populära ramverket Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) i två finska företag: Comptel, ett globalt telekommunikationsföretag; och NAPA, ett företag specialiserat på mjukvara för formgivning och anförande av fartyg. Vi ville förstå varför företagen valt att ibrukta SAFe, hur de gjort det, vilka problem och framgångsfaktorer de stötte på, samt vilka effekter ibruktaganden hade. Vi undersökte den existerande litteraturen för att få preliminära svar på de ovannämnda frågorna, och skapade en serie intervjufrågor på basis av resultaten. Dessa brukade vi i 16 intervjuer vid fallföretagen, där vi intervjuade ledare, mellanchefer samt medlemmar av team i ett försök att täcka alla de lager av organisationen som även SAFe täcker. Intervjuresultaten stöder många av litteraturstudiens resultat: noggrant planerande av ibruktagningen, utbildning av nyckelroller, samt en storsatsning på det första planeringstillfället är viktiga framgångsfaktorer för ibruktagandet. Intervjuerna visade också att interna pådrivare av förändringen är essentiella för att samla stöd för ibruktagandet. Våra resultat tyder på att SAFe är ett genomförbart alternativ för att uppskala agil systemutveckling, då det kan medföra ökad synlighet, ökat samarbete samt bättre anslutning mot ett gemensamt mål

Mapping CMMI process areas to agile best practices

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementTo maintain competitiveness, software development companies are pressured to deliver products in less time, without compromising on quality and budget. To meet this demand, companies often adopt Agile software development techniques that enable shorter delivery times through constant smaller deliveries and shorter interactive cycles in software development processes. Although the innovation and the decrease of development time provided by these techniques, companies have perceived that quality is a differentiated factor and feel the urge to maintain the quality of their software to stand out from the competitors. At this point CMMI is presented as a reference model that contains a set of practices which lead to the maturity of organizations with focus on the improvement of organization processes and reduction of processes risk of failure increasing quality. In contrast with Agile, that puts individuals and their interactions in higher importance than processes and tools and where being adaptable to changes is more important than following strictly what was planned, CMMI it is a strict traditional approach that implies extensive formalism and focus on the processes. Derived of those apparent opposite beliefs, Agile development methods and CMMI best practices are frequently perceived to be at odds with each other. There is a great discussion about CMMI ability to be Agile and Agile methods to adapt to CMMI requirements without losing agility. This study aims to map CMMI for development process areas to Agile best practices to help in the understanding of the compatibilities and incompatibilities regarding the integration of CMMI and Agile. That will guide companies into the successful integration of Agile and maturity models together taking full advantage of their capabilities leading to enhanced software development. With the integration of those two approaches it is expected that Agile practices can help mature organizations to become more flexible, and CMMI could help Agile organizations to increase processes quality, fulfilling their goals and having their competitiveness sustained

Swimming with microbes: an individual-based modelling approach to ocean microbial ecology across scales

Microbial ecosystems, both on land and in the oceans, are the staging ground for the biogeochemical activity that sustains habitable conditions on Earth. Ocean microbes are of particular importance; the primary producers that drive biogeochemical ocean processes are almost entirely microbial, and are collectively responsible for about half of global net primary production. These ecosystems are extraordinarily complex, by virtue of being driven by very large numbers of living individuals, constantly interacting with each other and their highly dynamic physical environment. Much uncertainty remains about how these dynamics, from micro- to macro-scales, ultimately impact key ecosystem properties such as spatial dynamics and growth rates of populations and communities. In this project I use individual-based modelling (IBM) across a range of spatial and temporal scales, leveraging large, high-resolution physical and biological datasets along with advancements in modelling tools to shed light on spatial and temporal dynamics of microbial populations in inherently fluctuating environments. In doing so I clarify and quantify hitherto unresolved ecological questions relating to interactions between microbes and turbulence, inaccuracies in conventional modelling approaches, and the balance of competition and coexistence between microbes in the marine environment. In the Introductory Chapter, I review our current understanding of microbial ecology in the oceans, and illustrate how complex ecological behaviour emerges from the constant interaction of microbial individuals with each other and with their environment. In the Second Chapter, I begin at the smallest scales directly relevant to ocean microbes, investigating the impact of turbulence on microbial spatial dynamics and patchiness. I adopt an existing mathematical framework for modelling microbes capable of gyrotactic locomotion, with an IBM to reproduce their motion within a fully-resolved 3D simulation of convective turbulence. This work clarifies and extends to more realistic flow regimes the existing theory connecting micro-scale microbe patchiness to a coupling of turbulence and individual motility. Interpreting my results in the context of varying turbulent conditions from the surface to the bottom of the mixed layer, I propose that this turbulence-driven patchiness is ephemeral, non-ubiquitous, and depth-dependent. In the Third Chapter, I transition to larger spatial and temporal scales, and develop an IBM on top of the NEMO-MEDUSA oceanographic model and the global Biotraits database. I use this model to quantify, for the first time, to what degree fluctuating environmental conditions can influence estimates of a microbe's growth rate, due to nonlinear averaging effects similar to the phenomenon known as Jensen's Inequality. In a microbial growth context, such effects predict that growth rate estimates based on mean environmental conditions will differ from realised growth rates in a dynamic environment. I substantiate this prediction by simulating populations of marine phytoplankton following ocean currents, and demonstrating that realised growth differs substantially from mean-environment growth estimates for a clear majority of these simulated populations. I quantify the relative contributions of temperature and nutrient fluctuations to this microbial ``growth gap'' -- the magnitude of the difference between realised and mean-environment growth rates, and discuss the implications of my findings under a warming climate. In the Fourth Chapter, I apply my NEMO-MEDUSA-Biotraits IBM to investigate the ‘Paradox of the Plankton’ -- the puzzling absence of competitive exclusion among ocean microbes. I simulate populations of distinct species with thermal histories which significantly overlap in both space and time within the IBM, which I treat as competitors. I then examine whether the distinct thermal adaptations of these competitors can cause competitive advantage to shift back and forth over time as environmental conditions fluctuate, thus preventing any individual species from permanently outcompeting others. In the Final Chapter, I link my findings to each other and to the bigger picture of microbial ocean ecology, emphasizing how a maturing body of mathematical ecological theory, increasingly large and detailed datasets, and modern computational tools, allow us to shed light on long-standing questions by closely examining interactions between individuals and a dynamic environment.Open Acces

A new approach for agile teams' allocation in open innovation projects

Due to constant change in the marketplace, it can be difficult for companies to secure the material, human, and technological resources necessary for competitive innovation activities. In this sense, and to overcome these constraints, the open innovation model is a quite successful approach, where the sharing of resources among companies allows the formation of an innovation ecosystem. However, the execution time of these projects can be negatively affected if the performance of each work team is not taken into account. In this work, the application of the agile approach in open innovation projects is proposed as a way to reduce the uncertainty both in the execution time of the projects and in the respective implementation costs. In this sense, a methodology for optimal team assignment for agile teams in open innovation projects according to their performance on each project task is developed to determine the optimal team assignment that leads to the shortest project execution time. This methodology will support decision making in the project management of open innovation projects, especially in the selection of the internal and external work teams that will participate in a given innovation project. The application of the proposed methodology is illustrated with an example describing and analyzing the different steps of its application. The results show that with the proposed methodology it is possible to take into account the performance of each team when calculating the project execution time and that the project execution time varies depending on the assignment of the agile teams to the project tasks. It is also shown that it is possible to determine the optimal assignment with the shortest project execution time.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio