Customer involvement in scaled agile framework implementations

Trienekens, J., Himawan H.B., & van Moll J., (2017). Customer Involvement in Scaled Agile Framework Implementations. In: P. Lorenz, J.Trienekens (editors), Proceedings of The Second International Conference on Advances in Computation, Communications and Services, ACCSE2017, Volume 2 (page 3-6), ISBN: 978-1-61208-570-8 The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) has emerged over the last years as an approach which supports the improvement of software and systems development. Several software companies have reported on success stories regarding the implementation of SAFe. SAFe claimes solutions for business challenges, such as shortening cycle’s times, improving product quality, increasing team members’ satisfaction, and involving the customer in product development. However, regarding customer involvement, there is limited research, both in SAFe and in real-life agile software development projects. This study aims to develop a conceptual customer involvement process model as a basis for case studies in industrial companies which are implementing SAFe. As such, this study reflects work-in-progress, and our conceptual model can be considered as a partial achievement of a longer-term research project

Decision criteria for software component sourcing:an initial framework on the basis of case study results

\u3cp\u3eSoftware developing organizations nowadays have a wide choice when it comes to sourcing software components. This choice ranges from developing or adapting in-house developed components via buying closed source components to utilizing open source components. This study aims at structured decision support in this type of decision. As a basis for this study an initial set of criteria is taken, that has been identified and validated in a particular software development environment in a previous study on the subject (Kusters et al, 2016). In the paper at hand we report on the results of the application and validation of the initial set of sourcing criteria in a completely different case study environment, namely a software environment in that. medical embedded software is being developed. In addition, and based on the outcomes of our case study, a further step is made towards structured decision support for sourcing decisions by the development of an initial sourcing criteria framework.\u3c/p\u3

Customer involvement in the scaled agile framework:results from a case study in an industrial company

\u3cp\u3eThe Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) has emerged over the last years as an approach which supports the improvement of software and systems development. SAFe claimes solutions for business challenges, such as shortening cycle's times, improving product quality, increasing team members' satisfaction, and involving the customer in product development. However, regarding customer involvement, there is limited research, both in SAFe and in real-life agile software development projects. In previous work we developed an initial conceptual customer involvement model for the SAFe domain in Philips Medical Systems. In this paper this initial model will be extended and enriched on the basis of a case study in an industrial company.\u3c/p\u3

Identification of factors that influence defect injection and detection in development of software intensive products

The objective of this study is the identification of factors that influence defect injection and defect detection. The study is part of a broader research project with the goal to lower the number of residual defects in software intensive products, by using the influencing factors to decrease injection of defects and to increase detection of defects. As a first step, we performed an extensive literature search to find influencing factors and processed the factors to achieve consistently formulated sets of factors without duplications. As a second step, we used a cluster analysis to reduce the number influencing factors to manageable-sized sets for practical application. As a last step, final groupings of factors were obtained by expert interpretation of the cluster analysis results. These steps were separately performed for defect injection and detection influencing factors, resulting in sets of, respectively, 16 and 17 factors. Finally, the resulting factor groupings were evaluated. The findings (1) are the basis for further research focusing on a framework for lowering residual defects, (2) already provide information to enable practitioners to devise strategies for lowering residual defects, and (3) may create awareness in organizations to reconsider policies regarding development and Verification & Validation

Can Certification Enhance the Feasibility of Insurance?

The feasibility of insurance heavily depends on the behaviour of the insured. Certification can be a tool to facilitate risk classification and monitoring. This chapter aims to analyse the role of certification for insurance of risks in agriculture. We develop three cases: (1) liability insurance in the animal feed industry, (2) epidemic disease insurance for farmers, and (3) liability insurance in the horse business. Findings illustrate that certification schemes have potential to enhance feasibility of insurance schemes, among others as a tool to cope with adverse selection. It is recommended to further exploit opportunities of certification as part of insurance design to also address problems of moral hazard and systemic risk