A Scrum-based approach to CMMI maturity level 2 in Web Development environments

Scrum has become one of the most popular agile methodologies, either alone or combined with other agile practices. Besides, CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is accepted as a suitable model to measure the maturity of the organizations when developing or acquiring software. Although these two approaches are often considered antagonist, the use of an agile approach to reach certain CMMI maturity levels may result beneficial to organizations that develop Web systems, since they would take the advantages of both approaches. In Web community, this union may be very interesting, because agile approaches fits with the special needs of Web development, and they could be a useful tool for companies getting a certain grade of maturity. This work analyzes the goals of CMMI maturity level 2 and the feasibility of achieving them using the practices proposed by Scrum, trying to assess whether the use of this methodology is suitable for meeting the CMMI generic and specific goals or not. Finally, and based on this analysis, this paper raises a possible extension of Scrum, based on agile techniques, to accommodate the CMMI maturity level 2.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2010-20057-C03-02Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

Agile, Web Engineering and Capability Maturity ModelI ntegration : A systematic literature review

Context Agile approaches are an alternative for organizations developing software, particularly for those who develop Web applications. Besides, CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) models are well-established approaches focused on assessing the maturity of an organization that develops software. Web Engineering is the field of Software Engineering responsible for analyzing and studying the specific characteristics of the Web. The suitability of an Agile approach to help organizations reach a certain CMMI maturity level in Web environments will be very interesting, as they will be able to keep the ability to quickly react and adapt to changes as long as their development processes get mature. Objective This paper responds to whether it is feasible or not, for an organization developing Web systems, to achieve a certain maturity level of the CMMI-DEV model using Agile methods. Method The proposal is analyzed by means of a systematic literature review of the relevant approaches in the field, defining a characterization schema in order to compare them to introduce the current state-of-the-art. Results The results achieved after the systematic literature review are presented, analyzed and compared against the defined schema, extracting relevant conclusions for the different dimensions of the problem: compatibility, compliance, experience, maturity and Web. Conclusion It is concluded that although the definition of an Agile approach to meet the different CMMI maturity levels goals could be possible for an organization developing Web systems, there is still a lack of detailed studies and analysis on the field

Agile in Public Administration: Oxymoron or reality? An experience report

In the last 10 years, Agile methods and practices have emerged as an alternative for software development. Different "flavors" of Agile have appeared ranging from project management to tests organization. These approaches have being gaining popularity and involve now a solid option for organizations developing software, but what about Public Administrations? Is Agile a suitable option for developing software in Public Administrations? Even if Public Administrations have been traditionally regarded as changeresistant, Agile approach can also provide them with the benefits of quick adaptation and frequent value delivery. This paper presents the results of two different projects, which use an Agile framework based on Scrum, developed by a Spanish Public Administration. Additionally, after considering the obtained results, it takes out some relevant learned lessons on the suitability of applying Agile approaches to Public Administration environments.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2010-20057-C03-02Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

An Approach to Transform Public Administration into SOA-based Organizations

Nowadays, Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) is widely spread in private organizations. However, when transferring this knowledge to Public Administration, it is realized that it has not been transformed in terms of its legal nature into organizations capable to operate under the SOA paradigm. This fact prevents public administration bodies from offering the efficient services they have been provided by different boards of governments. A high-level framework to perform this transformation is proposed. Taking it as starting point, an instance of a SOA Target Meta-Model can be obtained by means of an iterative and incremental process based on the analysis of imperatives and focused on the particular business context of each local public administration. This paper briefly presents a practical experience consisting in applying this process to a Spanish regional public administration.Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

Estimating, planning and managing Agile Web development projects under a value-based perspective

Context: The processes of estimating, planning and managing are crucial for software development projects, since the results must be related to several business strategies. The broad expansion of the Internet and the global and interconnected economy make Web development projects be often characterized by expressions like delivering as soon as possible, reducing time to market and adapting to undefined requirements. In this kind of environment, traditional methodologies based on predictive techniques sometimes do not offer very satisfactory results. The rise of Agile methodologies and practices has provided some useful tools that, combined with Web Engineering techniques, can help to establish a framework to estimate, manage and plan Web development projects. Objective: This paper presents a proposal for estimating, planning and managing Web projects, by combining some existing Agile techniques with Web Engineering principles, presenting them as an unified framework which uses the business value to guide the delivery of features. Method: The proposal is analyzed by means of a case study, including a real-life project, in order to obtain relevant conclusions. Results: The results achieved after using the framework in a development project are presented, including interesting results on project planning and estimation, as well as on team productivity throughout the project. Conclusion: It is concluded that the framework can be useful in order to better manage Web-based projects, through a continuous value-based estimation and management process.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-

Mapping Agile Practices to CMMI-DEV Level 3 in Web Development Environments

Agile approaches formally appeared ten years ago and nowadays they are a valid alternative for organizations developing software. Agile methodologies are especially interesting to those developing Web environments applications, as they can fit properly the special characteristics of this type of developments. In addition, maturity models like CMMI-DEV (Capability Maturity Model Integration for Development) focus on assessing the maturity level of organizations developing or acquiring software. These models are well established and can increment quality of development process to enhance costumers’ satisfaction. CMMI-DEV level 3 provides a good compromise on maturity gained and effort needed. The feasibility of reaching it through a combination of Agile methods can be very useful to organizations developing systems in Web environments, as they can keep the adaptability of Agile together with a more mature development process. This paper proposes a set of Agile methods so as to reach all CMMI-DEV maturity level 3 generic and specific goals. Based on this analysis, the paper proposes further research lines

An Agile approach to CMMI-DEV levels 4 and 5 in Web development

CMMI (Capability Maturity Model-Integration) model proposes a set of process areas, including suggested practices, with the aim of helping organizations to improve the quality of their products and processes. It is commonly accepted that as an organization progresses through the different levels of CMMI, the quality of its development might improve as well as the overhead of the development process, impeding it to quickly adapt to customers or partners changing needs. Besides, Agile practices allow quick adaptation and early delivery of business value. The specificity of Web environments makes them suitable for Agile approaches. However, as quality requirements for Web systems increase, a combination of Agile practices allowing organizations to achieve higher levels of CMMI-DEV with a limited process overhead can be very interesting to organizations that aim to keep adaptability. This way, they might strengthen their development processes in order to produce high quality results. This paper presents a gap analysis between the most used Agile practices (Scrum and XP) as well as a mapping proposal, including ad-hoc modifications and other Agile practices, to achieve all CMMI-DEV level 4 and 5 specific goals. To conclude, it drafts relevant conclusions and proposes future lines of researc

Using Agile Methods for Infrastructure Projects: A Practical Experience

Agile approaches have emerged in Software Development projects during the last decade becoming a real alternative for organizations developing software. These approaches have been used successfully in several and different projects: from small teams of in-site developers to teams comprising hundreds of developers all over the world. Nevertheless, Agile approaches are not only suitable for Software Development projects, but these methodologies can also be considered to be a framework to plan, estimate and manage any kind of project s focused on quick-response, adaptation to customers’ needs and early delivery of value to costumers. This paper presents the result of an experience dealing with using an Agile framework, based on Scrum, in an infrastructure project applied to a Spanish Public Administration. According to the results of the project, the paper takes out the main lessons learned and proposes further lines of research.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2007-67843- C06_03Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2010-20057-C03-02Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

A Delphi‑based expert judgment method applied to the validation of a mature Agile framework for Web development projects

The validation of any new methodological proposal demands several real-life implementations. However, organizations are reluctant to invest without the firm guarantee that they will be returned the entire expended amount of money. For this purpose, expert judgment techniques are very useful to provide a less-costly initial validation that, when positive, may encourage organizations to use these new proposals. Therefore, the primary goal of the paper will be to assess how expert judgment techniques based on the Delphi method can be applied to Web Engineering field and, more in particular, to assess the validity of the NDT-Agile framework. NDT-Agile is a framework that combines Agile and Web Engineering techniques to meet Capability Maturity Model Integration development goals. The paper presents a real example of an application of a Delphi-based expert judgment method to assess NDT-Agile framework validity, explaining the design as well as the selection and usage of the different techniques it involves. The application of the method will allow assessing benefits and limitations of use in Web Engineering. As a main conclusion, we will state the utility of the proposed methods to obtain a low-resource initial validation of a certain proposal. Finally, we will identify further lines of research related to the analyzed topics.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2015-71938-RED

NDT-Agile: An Agile, CMMI-Compatible Framework for Web Engineering

Agile and Web Engineering show important synergies, making Agile a common approach for Web development. Besides, several initiatives emerged to support CMMI-DEV within Agile, where CMMI-DEV aims to improve organizations’ software development process. An approach integrating Agile, Web and CMMI-DEV might be of great value, since they might allow Web development teams to use Agile, as well as progress through CMMI-DEV maturity levels. For this purpose, we developed NDT-Agile, an NDT-based Agile framework to achieve the goals of CMMI-DEV in the context of Web Engineering. It was developed by mapping Agile practices to the goals of CMMI-DEV so as to identify existing gaps. Next, we searched for suitable Agile practices to cover the gaps and integrated them into a framework called NDTAgile, which was validated using an expert-judgment technique: the Delphi method. This paper describes how we integrated Agile and CMMI-DEV into a Web Engineering framework. Besides, it also analyzes its initial evaluation, together with a first tool developed to support it.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED