8 research outputs found
are software startups applying agile practices the state of the practice from a large survey
Software startups operate under various uncertainties and the demand on their ability to deal with change is high. Agile methods are considered a suitable and viable development approach for them. However, the competing needs for speed and quality may render certain agile practices less suitable than others in the startup context. The adoption of agile practices can be further complicated in software startups that adopt the Lean Startup approach. To make the best of agile practices, it is necessary to first understand whether and how they are used in software startups. This study targets at a better understanding of the use of agile practices in software startups, with a particular focus on lean startups. Based on a large survey of 1526 software startups, we examined the use of five agile practices, including quality related (regular refactoring and test first), speed related (frequent release and agile planning) and communication practice (daily standup meeting). The findings show that speed related agile practices are used to a greater extent in comparison to quality practices. Daily standup meeting is least used. Software startups who adopt the Lean Startup approach do not sacrifice quality for speed more than other startups do
Generative Artificial Intelligence for Software Engineering -- A Research Agenda
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools have become increasingly
prevalent in software development, offering assistance to various managerial
and technical project activities. Notable examples of these tools include
OpenAIs ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Amazon CodeWhisperer. Although many recent
publications have explored and evaluated the application of GenAI, a
comprehensive understanding of the current development, applications,
limitations, and open challenges remains unclear to many. Particularly, we do
not have an overall picture of the current state of GenAI technology in
practical software engineering usage scenarios. We conducted a literature
review and focus groups for a duration of five months to develop a research
agenda on GenAI for Software Engineering. We identified 78 open Research
Questions (RQs) in 11 areas of Software Engineering. Our results show that it
is possible to explore the adoption of GenAI in partial automation and support
decision-making in all software development activities. While the current
literature is skewed toward software implementation, quality assurance and
software maintenance, other areas, such as requirements engineering, software
design, and software engineering education, would need further research
attention. Common considerations when implementing GenAI include industry-level
assessment, dependability and accuracy, data accessibility, transparency, and
sustainability aspects associated with the technology. GenAI is bringing
significant changes to the field of software engineering. Nevertheless, the
state of research on the topic still remains immature. We believe that this
research agenda holds significance and practical value for informing both
researchers and practitioners about current applications and guiding future
research
Data extraction form
Data extraction sheet for a systematic mapping study of hybrid work in agile software development</p
Software startup education around the world : A preliminary analysis
New software startups are born everyday around the world.
Nonetheless, failure is the fate of most of them. The community already
knows that several facts, such as market competition or lack of resources,
can impact the destiny of a startup. However, little has been explored in
term of the impact of software startup education on the success of failure
of startups. In this sense, this study presents the initial steps that we
are taking to understand how software startups are taught around the
world. To do so, we design a qualitative survey aimed at software startup
educators at Universities. Our goal is to gather enough information so
we can help the academic community in improving their own courses. So
far, we have gathered 10 responses from lecturers across the globe. This
paper describes these findings.peerReviewe
Impact in Software Engineering Activities After One Year of COVID-19 Restrictions for Startups and Established Companies
The restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic required software development teams to adapt, being forced to work remotely and adjust the software engineering activities accordingly. In the studies evaluating these effects, a few have assessed the impact on software engineering activities from a broader perspective and after a period of time when teams had time to adjust to the changes. No studies have been found comparing software startups and established companies either. This paper aims to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on software development activities after one year of the pandemic restrictions, comparing the results between startups and established companies. Our approach was to design a cross-sectional survey and distribute it online among software development companies worldwide. The participants were asked about their perception of COVID-19’s pandemic impact on different software engineering activities: requirements engineering, software architecture, user experience design, software implementation, and software quality assurance. The survey received 170 valid answers from 29 countries, and for all the software engineering activities, we found that most respondents did not observe a significant impact. The results also showed that software startups and established companies were affected differently since, in some activities, we found a negative impact in the former and a positive impact in the latter. Regarding the time spent on each software engineering activity, most of the answers reported no change, but on those that did, the result points to an increase in time. Thus, we cannot find any relation between the change in time of effort and the reported positive or negative impact
Work-from-home and its implication for project management, resilience and innovation--a global survey on software companies
[Context] The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people
work and collaborate across all global economic sectors, including the software
business. While remote working is not new for software engineers, forced
Work-from-home situations to come with both constraints, limitations, and
opportunities for individuals, software teams and software companies. As the
"new normal" for working might be based on the current state of Work From Home
(WFH), it is useful to understand what has happened and learn from that.
[Objective] The goal of this study is to gain insights on how their WFH
environment impacts software projects and software companies. We are also
interested in understanding if the impact differs between software startups and
established companies. [Method] We conducted a global-scale, cross-sectional
survey during spring and summer 2021. Our results are based on quantitative and
qualitative analysis of 297 valid responses. [Results] We observed a mixed
perception of the impact of WFH on software project management, resilience, and
innovation. Certain patterns on WFH, control and coordination mechanisms and
collaborative tools are observed globally. We find that team, agility and
leadership are the three most important factors for achieving resilience during
the pandemic. Although startups do not perceive the impact of WFH differently,
there is a difference between engineers who work in a small team context and
those who work in a large team context. [Conclusion] The result suggests a
contingency approach in studying and improving WFH practices and environment in
the future software industry
Work-from-home impacts on software project: a global study on software development practices and stakeholder perceptions
Context
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact on how people work and collaborate across all global economic sectors, including software business. While remote working is not new for software engineers, forced WFH situations come with both limitations and opportunities. As the ânew normalâ for working might be based on the current state of Work-from-home (WFH), it is useful to understand what has happened and learn from that.
Objective
This study aims to gain insights into how their WFH arrangement impacts project management and software engineering. We are also interested in exploring these impacts in different contexts, such as startups and established companies.
Method
We conducted a global-scale, cross-sectional survey during the spring and summer 2021. Our results are based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of 297 valid responses.
Results
We characterize the profile of WFH in both spatial and temporal aspects, together with a set of common collaborative tools and coordination and control mechanisms. We revealed some areas of project management that are relatively more challenging during WFH situations, such as coordination, communication and project planning. We also revealed a mixed picture of the perceived impact of WFH on different software engineering activities.
Conclusion
WFH is a situational phenomenon which can have both negative and positive impact on software teams. For practitioners, we suggest a unified approach to consider the context of WFH, collaborative tools, associated coordination and control approaches and a process that resolve those aspects that are sensitive to physical interaction.peerReviewe