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The purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review based on Webster's and Watson's (2002) methodology in order to explore the integration of Stage-Gate and Agile Manufacturing in New Product Development. Findings show that many companies have no formal NPD system yet and ad hoc systems provide decision makers with too much discretion which leads to mistakes. Agile software development has been utilized to answer the challenges of software system development in spite of the lack of empirical evidence from academic research. Agile methods are applied within the context of existing Stage-Gate NPD models. The need of developing a NPD software improvement framework which should follow the principles of manufacturing agility frameworks has been stated by researchers. Apparently, such a software product has not been yet fully achieved in practice by large industrial NPD organizations. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, the structured methodological framework which was used demonstrates how the academic interest in NPD and Agile Manufacturing has evolved over the years and it highlights areas that need further research. Secondly, this literature review can be useful for managers in order to increase the understanding of the complexity of areas regarding NPD, Stage-Gate and Agile software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional way universities approach the educational process is often rigid and doesn't support constant feedback. To enable students to adapt to the changing environment and become more creative in finding the best solution for a particular situation, universities must adapt their teaching approach to the demands of the 21st century. The use of agile methodologies like Scrum in other areas besides software development where it has its roots, is not new. Likewise, other areas such as marketing or education, can take advantage of the values offered by these methodologies. Scrum may be useful for increasing student involvement in the educational process and thus gaining their commitment during the learning process. Using such an approach for educational purposes, helps students receive feedback regularly and helps teachers adapt their competences according to market demand. Given the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the learning process moved online and by going agile, some of the challenges teachers and students face, can be diminished. This paper presents a working framework of how to apply agile methodologies to teaching and learning in universities. The following issues will be addressed: the basic principles of the agile methodologies, the way these values may be used to support educational activities and also on how the specific meetings and roles usually used in Scrum may also be adapted for conducting the higher-education learning process. The paper concludes with the lessons learned by applying the agile principles when working with students and also gives a series of proposals for a better implementation of the agile methodologies in the education context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cyber offense-defense balance theory evaluates the relative effort offense and defense forces need to prevail in conflict. Cyber conflict is a large domain, and many factors influence the offense-defense balance. Recent investments into Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and Agile development can be used to make more accurate predictions using existing cyber offense-defense models. This paper predicts future shifts in the balance of cyber warfare caused by the current and projected capabilities of AI-augmented Agile software development pipelines. Initially, increased investments and capabilities are predicted to give an advantage to aggressing forces. Over time, however, technology advances and more standardized processes will likely create a more significant advantage for defensive capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As a result of the changing labor market in a post-pandemic world, remote work in the IT sector is becoming almost a standard. It is known intuitively that the organisational climate changed compared to the stationary work, but it is difficult to determine how and what elements are going through the change. The aim of the article is to present the aspect of organisational climate in agile development teams working remotely compared to their stationary work. Methodology: The study was conducted using author own personally designed assessment questionnaire among ten programming teams using agile software development methodology. The number of members of the analysed teams varies from four to eight. This paper compares changes in each dimension of the organisational climate that have occurred in teams after switching to remote work. Using Cohen's d statistic, it determines the magnitude of the impact of these changes. Findings: The article is an attempt to answer which elements (dimensions) of the organisational climate, in what direction (positive vs negative) and to what extent (size effect) is remote work influencing in the context of agile software development teams. Value: Such knowledge will allow appropriate modeling of organisational climate factors, thus affecting performance and the well-being of team members. This is the first step to verify, whether the previous research about the impact of the organisational climate on agile development teams still applies to those teams working remotely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the development of a learning game with focus on motivation and engagement. During the investigation a competitive learning game with the purpose of training addition through repetition, was developed. The game, Tile War, relies upon motivated play and continued engagement. Existing math games with focus on arithmetics are primarily designed from a structure where the player is progressing the games by solving equations. Typically, the narrative of the games does not include a direct connection to the equations being solved, creating dissonance between the two. State of the art competitive math games are often limited to beating other players’ high scores providing little to no social interaction during play. This paper includes the development of a serious game that aims at integrating basic addition operations in a game structure, in such a way as to integrate the game mechanics tightly with the frame of the game, all to create a coherent player experience. The multiplayer competitive game structure is designed to include a social aspect thought to engage and motivate players. The working hypothesis is that such a design will present the player with a game that will increase player engagement and motivation, resulting in expanded playtime and increased skill of performing the basic arithmetic skill of addition. The development project used an agile and iterative design process where ideas and prototypes were developed and improved through player tests with 85 pupils in 5th, 6th and 7th grade, on three different private schools. The findings show the game was indeed motivating and engaging, however further development should consider adding dynamic difficulty adjustment (DDA) to support and expand a single and multiplayer modes together with a matchmaking system to make the multiplayer mode reach full maturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile is knowledge-sensitive. Knowledge feeds the entire adaptive life cycle from envision to transition. Main agile frameworks (i.e., SAFe®), toolkits (i.e., DA® -- Disciplined Agile) and standards (i.e., PMBOK® 7th Edition) underline in different ways and at different levels of detail the relevance of knowledge for generating business value. So, all right? Everything is fine? Are we on the same page? In principle yes, but there are three main knowledge lacks: implicit knowledge, knowledge framework, knowledge roles/responsibilities. Therefore, negative effects are determined at different ontological levels: project performance, team dynamics, personal development. Presently, the agile landscape shows a relevant awareness of the topic of knowledge. However, this awareness is fragmented, ambiguous in key concepts, poorly addressed, even misleading in some cases. Knowledge in the agile environment is too often a fuzzy topic. The self-dimension of an agile team (self-directing, self- organizing, self-learning, self-empowering) erroneously assumes that knowledge is well addressed, wasting time, money, resources, decreasing performance and results. This paper provides a practical framework and tips for avoiding these negative effects. The AKP® -- Agile Knowledge Projector might be a practical solution for better addressing knowledge in an agile project environment, improving value. AKP® is an organizational framework that fosters the creation of a dynamic mix of knowledge, combining in a continuous way explicit organizational artifacts, implicit team patterns and tacit individual expertise, for the entire duration of the agile project. AKP® consists of nine processes, focused on main agile dynamics of a complex and innovative project. AKP® is a powerful but not self-regulated framework: thus, it needs to be carefully designed and administered, according to specific knowledge roles and rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to identify fields requiring improvement in "organizational knowledge sharing" in an agile organizations. It has been proven that "agile methods" highly facilitate "knowledge sharing" in a project team. Agile development allows a productive, flexible, and adaptive environment, when limitations of knowledge sharing are important. Knowledge is an important resource for agile organisations. This knowledge is transformed into products and services during the development process. Knowledge sharing is essential throughout any organisation. Knowledge creates the value for the organisation and this value increases when it is shared. Organisational knowledge sharing aims at transferring to the organisation the information, skills and expertise a person or team has. Nowadays, "agile development methods" have attracted particular attention in the software development community. Agile development approaches rely on socialization through communication and collaboration to access and share tacit knowledge within project teams. However, implementing knowledge sharing is not an easy task for agile development teams compared to its increased demand. The main benefit of Agile Project Management is its ability to respond to issues as they arise throughout the course of the project. Making a necessary change to a project at the right time can save resources and, ultimately, help deliver a successful project on time and within budget. Agile project methodology breaks down projects into small pieces that are completed in work sessions that run from the design phase to testing and quality assurance. These sessions are called "sprints", the term for iteration used in one specific and popular agile development method known as "scrum". In this paper, we will explore the role that "knowledge sharing" plays in agile organizations. We will review agile methods and agile practices available in the literature improving "organizational knowledge sharing" in an agile company and finally, review survey knowledge sharing techniques for agile software engineering. The development of the survey will be an object for another paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software development companies are knowledge intensive and usually adopt either traditional or agile methods to drive their projects. This paper concentrates on organizations that have been using Agile Methods (AM), which focus is, from a knowledge perspective, on tacit knowledge. Although the knowledge might flow well within agile teams, there are often opportunities in terms of knowledge flowing across teams' boundaries, which can negatively impact organizational learning. Furthermore, difficult relations between individuals within an organization may constitute a barrier to knowledge sharing (KS). Given this scenario, this article aims to analyse the influence of the relational dimension of social capital theory on tacit and explicit KS among individuals from different software development teams. To this end, a survey was conducted among individuals working in software development teams using agile methodology in which 205 completed questionnaires were collected. The data were analysed using descriptive measures and partial least squares structural equation modelling. The findings show: 1) reciprocity directly influences tacit and explicit KS; 2) norms of cooperation and trust directly influence tacit KS; 3) reciprocity, norms of cooperation and trust indirectly influence explicit KS; and 4) tacit KS influences explicit KS. These findings are aligned with the characteristics of AM, which prioritise tacit knowledge. This study should help managers and scholars: 1) identify how to increase KS among individuals from different teams using AM; and 2) understand the relevance of reciprocity, which is the only motivation directly associated with tacit and explicit KS among individuals from different teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software organisations have been experiencing software development failures since the start of software development. These failures include among others abandoned and runaway projects, cost overruns, and low quality software. One of the major causes of software development failure is the inability of software organisations to learn from past mistakes. Many intervention strategies have been tried by software organisations to address this issue. Such strategies include software process improvement (SPI) models such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and new software development methodologies such as agile methods. These intervention strategies don't seem to be working because software development projects continue to fail. Current statistics from surveys indicate that less than 50% of projects are successful. To dress this issue, today, software organisations are turning to knowledge management. This is because the software development process is a knowledge intensive task. Knowledge management is a series of processes that seek to acquire, create, capture and store, transfer and apply knowledge to organisational routines and processes. It aims to make knowledge available to the right people and processes at the right times in the right presentation for the right cost. Knowledge management is believed to promote learning in software organisations so that they become learning software organisations. In software organisations, knowledge workers use the captured knowledge in their daily tasks thus learning from it. Organisational learning increases efficiency and prevents past mistakes from happening in the future. This paper presents a theoretical framework that shows how knowledge management facilitates learning of individuals, teams and the organisation. Specifically, it argues that knowledge management plays a vital role in facilitating learning in software organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the upcoming digital transformation era more and more IT changes get implemented quickly on an agile way like for example the Scrum method. Besides that, there are stable legacy IT Platforms where IT Demand is managed plan driven. To deal with these different technological developments organizations choose for BiModal IT, where organizations support both "old" legacy IT platforms as well as "new" agile front end IT platforms and therefor forced to use different IT Governance frameworks. For various reasons (cost-increasing effect, time consuming), this is not desirable. Therefore, in this study we investigate the possibility to handle the two technological developments within the same framework. To manage IT Demand in the Netherlands the Business Information Service Library (BiSL) framework is frequently used. BiSL is a process framework that describes activities to link business with IT. A case study was performed within the Dutch Ministry of Defence and investigated the following research question: Does the BiSL framework support agile realization of IT Changes? Based on the theory of BiSL and Scrum, a conceptual model was developed in which seven themes were defined. On these themes semi-structured interviews were conducted. In total five IT change projects were analysed in three different domains.. The results show that the BiSL framework can support parts of the agile demand and implementation of IT changes, but there are also some considerations to bear in mind. These considerations are mainly non IT related. When introducing an agile method like Scrum into the organization it is important to look at aspects of Management & Organization, People, Process and Technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Buglione-Trudel Matrix (BT Matrix) is a tool based on Six Sigma Transfer Functions. It originated from practical experiences in managing software development with agile teams. It maps User Stories to Business Goals. It manages the development work in a transparent way. Its primary objectives are visualizing tasks, prioritizing user stories, and assigning them to sprints. Tasks are represented as Story Cards, representing a user story, or a portion of it that fits into a single sprint. Story cards carry various software measurements; functional size, testing intensity and applicable test cases, technical debt, effort estimates (by story points), and value for customers. The BT Matrix is used to communicate story cards to the teams, and managers, of the project, and to give feedback to developers how to align their story cards with the overall project goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]