An Empirical Study of Scrumban Formation based on the Selection of Scrum and Kanban Practices

Scrumban is a combination of practices from Kanban and Scrum practices to manage the development of software based on different project situations. Scrumban practices formation can differ based on different projects and team members. However, since each method has its own pros and cons, inappropriate formation of Scrumban practices may lead to increased waste and time of development, and decreased quality, which in turn, affect the Agile organizations and cause inefficient and ineffective development. Practitioners of Kanban and Scrum are convinced that a combination of both methods is better than the use of one and thus, practitioners should be guided in their decision making. This study aims to show how Scrumban method is formed based on a combination of Kanban and Scrum methods. Scrumban formation and the identification of the factors, which assist in the combination of Kanban and Scrum were conducted through a review of the previous work and semi-structured interviews with 7 Agile experts, after which, content analysis was conducted to analyse the gathered data. Different factors - the method prescription, roles and responsibilities, adoption time, team size, batch size, requirements prioritization, feature size, lead time, technical practices, cost and quality, assist Agile team members in the formation of Scrumban by combining appropriate Kanban and Scrum practices. In addition, Scrumban were found to be more appropriate than Scrum or Kanban in saving time, improving quality and minimizing waste

Problem-based Learning for Programming Education

Computer Programming is a core subject in Computer Science. This course requires the analysis and solving of problem critically. These skills are also required in preparing Computer Science students for the career world. Problem-based Learning is thus regarded as one of the suitable methods for Teaching and Learning programming. Although this method has been proven to hone student skills in other areas such as Medicine, its usage in Computer Programming courses has yet to bring about any impacts. This is because, to date, Problem-based Learning has been employed based on the practitioner’s intuition without specifically meeting the principles and concepts of Programming courses from the human, process, and product aspects. The human aspect involves practitioners during the process. The framework for this study is built using a qualitative method that combines theoretical and empirical studies. The theoretical study includes reviews of the implementation of previous Problem-based Learning in Computer Science as well as other fields. The empirical study involves information obtained from both the theoretical and empirical studies were analysed by utilising the Thematic Analysis method to generate the proposed framework for this study. This framework can be utilised as a guide for the management and practitioners in Computer Science education to use Problem-based Learning as an effective Teaching and Learning method for Programming courses

Understanding requirements dependency in requirements prioritization: a systematic literature review

Requirement prioritization (RP) is a crucial task in managing requirements as it determines the order of implementation and, thus, the delivery of a software system. Improper RP may cause software project failures due to over budget and schedule as well as a low-quality product. Several factors influence RP. One of which is requirements dependency. Handling inappropriate handling of requirements dependencies can lead to software development failures. If a requirement that serves as a prerequisite for other requirements is given low priority, it affects the overall project completion time. Despite its importance, little is known about requirements dependency in RP, particularly its impacts, types, and techniques. This study, therefore, aims to understand the phenomenon by analyzing the existing literature. It addresses three objectives, namely, to investigate the impacts of requirements dependency on RP, to identify different types of requirements dependency, and to discover the techniques used for requirements dependency problems in RP. To fulfill the objectives, this study adopts the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method. Applying the SLR protocol, this study selected forty primary articles, which comprise 58% journal papers, 32% conference proceedings, and 10% book sections. The results of data synthesis indicate that requirements dependency has significant impacts on RP, and there are a number of requirements dependency types as well as techniques for addressing requirements dependency problems in RP. This research discovered various techniques employed, including the use of Graphs for RD visualization, Machine Learning for handling large-scale RP, decision making for multi-criteria handling, and optimization techniques utilizing evolutionary algorithms. The study also reveals that the existing techniques have encountered serious limitations in terms of scalability, time consumption, interdependencies of requirements, and limited types of requirement dependencies

Whole of government critical success factors towards integrated E-government services: a preliminary review

Electronic Government (E-government) becomes one of the key elements for sustainable development of the country. Previous studies on E-government indicate that most governments are performing well in E-government implementation. However, the issues of process duplication and bureaucracy in services should be addressed to build trust and increase citizens’ satisfaction. Currently, there is a necessity to focus on the development of integrated and tailored-made services that suit with citizens’ needs. This initiative entails high commitment and collaboration from agencies, which can be achieved through the whole of government (WoG) approach. This study aims to identify the critical success factors of WoG towards the development of integrated E-government services. A preliminary review was conducted on previous studies and reports to get some insights of the subject being studied. The identified data were coded and analysed using content analysis method. The findings demonstrate that there are a number of critical success factors for WoG, which consist of technical and non-technical aspects. The findings act as a theoretical framework for better understanding about WoG approach for integrated E-government services