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The competition in the software market demands that the time required for any software product to reach the market be reduced if the product is to survive competition from other developers. The pursuit of this goal has led to the adoption of agile software development methodologies. While other agile methodologies provide guidelines as to the software engineering (SE) practices to be used during the development lifecycle, Scrum does not. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to identify the usage and level of importance of software engineering practices in the Scrum development environment; and second, to investigate how Scrum teams adopt an appropriate set of SE techniques and whether a hybrid Scrum/Extreme Programming (XP) methodology is an appropriate approach to take. This research was conducted by examining sample data from five organizations using the Scrum methodology. The sample included a range of industries including communications and embedded systems, financial asset management, software development houses and consulting firms in South Africa. The study employed a mixed method approach. A key finding was that, regardless of the fact that Scrum does not explicitly recommend engineering practices, there was extensive use of these practices by all of the participating organizations. The study also found that the lack of software engineering practices in Scrum does not constitute a barrier to a successful adoption of Scrum, provided the 'inspect and adapt' principle inherent in Scrum is properly followed. The study discusses the findings, explains the implications and suggests future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture influences how agile frameworks are implemented, and agility is said to be suitable in contexts where flexibility and spontaneity are emphasized. While past studies have investigated the influence of national culture on Agile implementations and practices in Western and Eastern contexts, studies focusing on a South African software development context is limited. Furthermore, few studies have focused on the effect of cultural differences within software engineering in general. The purpose of this study is to describe how national culture influences Agile practices within the South African software development context. In particular, the Hofstede, GLOBE and Schwartz frameworks of national culture were considered. The study was interpretive and was executed using a qualitative, semi-structured interview research strategy directed at Agile practitioners in South African software development teams. The thematic analysis technique was used to analyze the data. Eleven propositions were formulated to highlight how national culture dimensions influence Agile practices. The findings reveal that various national culture dimensions influence the decision-making process, the degree of Sprint interruptions, participation in Agile ceremonies, adherence to policies and prescribed Agile practices, how teams reach agreement, approaches to process improvement and Sprint Planning. The dimensions also influence the extent to which team members are encouraged to have fun and their work-life balance, commitment to achieving Sprint Goals and the sustainable working pace, the Definition of "Done", blocker management, how commitments are made, team cohesion, preparation for and outcomes of Sprint Retrospective, as well as the degree to which the Scrum Master is task-focused or people-focused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The continued in failure of agile and traditional software development projects have led to the consideration, attention and dispute to critical success factors that are the aspects which are most vital to make a software engineering methodology fruitful. Although there is an increasing variety of critical success factors and methodologies, the conceptual frameworks which have causal relationship are limited. Objective: The objective of this study was to identify and provide insights into the critical success factors that influence the success of software development projects using agile methodologies in South Africa. Method: Quantitative method of collecting data was used. Data were collected in South Africa through a Web-based survey using structured questionnaires. Results: These results show that organisational factors have a great influence on performance expectancy characteristics. Conclusion: The results of this study discovered a comprehensive model that could provide guidelines to the agile community and to the agile professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]