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The importance of incorporating an agile approach into creating sustainable products has been widely discussed. This approach can enhance innovation integration, improve adaptability to changing development circumstances, and increase the efficiency and quality of the product development process. While many agile methods have originated in the software development context and have been formulated based on successful software projects, they often fail due to incorrect procedures and a lack of acceptance, preventing deep integration into the process. Additionally, decision-making for market evaluation is often hindered by unclear and subjective information. Therefore, this study introduces an extended TOPSIS (Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method for sustainable product development. This method leverages the benefits of cloud model theory to address randomness and uncertainty (intrapersonal uncertainty) and the advantages of rough set theory to flexibly handle market demand uncertainty without requiring extra information. The study proposes an integrated weighting method that considers both subjective and objective weights to determine comprehensive criteria weights. It also presents a new framework, named Sustainable Agility of Product Development (SAPD), which aims to evaluate criteria for assessing sustainable product development. To validate the effectiveness of this proposed method, a case study is conducted on small and medium enterprises in China. The obtained results show that the company needs to conduct product structure research and development to realize new product functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Espacios is the property of Talleres de Impresos Oma and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A system that will have major and dire repercussions in the event of a failure or malfunction is considered a critical system. Therefore, Software developers usually apply strict standards, testing, and regulatory compliance while developing, operating, and maintaining critical systems to ensure their reliability, security, and resilience due to the high risks involved. Software developers and large organizations try to apply the best methodologies to develop critical systems. The PMBOK framework and Agile methodologies have gained wide acceptance by software developers. These frameworks became more popular because they applied best practices and made them suitable for working in the management of critical systems development processes. The main objective of the research is to review the characteristics associated with the failure of critical systems and analyze how to reduce the failure of critical systems through the use of appropriate software development frameworks. This is done through a literature review, where published studies and research on the failure of critical systems and their critical characteristics will be reviewed. Along with emphasizing Agile Software Development Methods (ASDM) like Scrum, LeSS, and SAFe, this analysis also contrasts them with PMBOK’s best project management practices and recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selecting the most suitable agile software development method is a challenging task due to the variety of available methods, each with its strengths and weaknesses. To achieve project goals effectively, factors such as project needs, team size, complexity, and customer involvement should be carefully evaluated. Choosing the appropriate agile method is crucial for achieving high client satisfaction and effective team management, but it can be a challenging task for project managers and higher-level management officials. This paper presents a solution aiming to help them in selecting the most suitable software development method for their project. In this regard, this solution includes a pre-project management approach model and a decision tree that considers the unique requirements of the project. In the proposed solution results, Scrum was found to be suitable for both small and large projects, on the condition that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and that the approach is people-centric. Furthermore, high-risk mitigation measures should be added for small projects. To facilitate the use of our model, a software application has been developed which implements the decision-making tree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile methods have been widely adopted by the industry and its teaching has seen a surge, particularly in the software development field. However, these methods have a number of limitations which affect product outcomes, such as the fact that many software development companies now use Scrum to get developers to work without interruption between iterations, rather than to maintain a sustainable rhythm. Agile experts have stated the importance of incorporating creativity into Scrum, and although there are several agile resources that help with the learning process, it seems essential to approach such learning from a practical point of view. Furthermore, none of these resources introduce creativity. In this paper, we present an educational resource in the form of a serious game that allows you to acquire all the key concepts of agile and creative methods. The game is based on the use of LEGO pieces to simulate a real project, applying the key concepts of the Scrum and Design Thinking frameworks in a gamified way. It was assessed in a professional training centre of computer science by using surveys through which participants evaluated their previous knowledge of agile and creativity methods. We analysed the improvement of these competences, as well as the general level of satisfaction with the game. After the game, the results showed that the participants' knowledge of the Scrum and Design Thinking frameworks had improved and that they were very satisfied with the whole experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms increasingly apply agile approaches in their development processes, and therefore researchers started investigating how agility affects innovation performance. However, previous research on agility often only considers software development or approaches the concept only from an outcome perspective (i.e. increased adaptability to changes) instead of from a capability perspective (i.e. how to organise for adaptability to be successful). Consequently, research failed to investigate how the organisation of agile research and development (R&D) units in physical new product development (NPD) affects innovation performance. We apply structural equation modelling on 162 R&D units in a large industrial firm and analyse the interplay of agile R&D units’ organisation, the resulting agility, front-end success and NPD success. Moreover, we consider contingency factors of environmental turbulence. The study extends research on agility’s neglected capability perspective in innovation management, thus providing a better understanding of agility’s relationship with innovation performance and showing managers how to increase their unit’s NPD success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the significant challenges in scaling agile software development is organizing software development teams to ensure effective communication among members while equipping them with the capabilities to deliver business value independently. A formal approach to address this challenge involves modeling it as an optimization problem: given a professional staff, how can they be organized to optimize the number of communication channels, considering both intra-team and inter-team channels? In this article, we propose applying a set of bio-inspired algorithms to solve this problem. We introduce an enhancement that incorporates ensemble learning into the resolution process to achieve nearly optimal results. Ensemble learning integrates multiple machine-learning strategies with diverse characteristics to boost optimizer performance. Furthermore, the studied metaheuristics offer an excellent opportunity to explore their linear convergence, contingent on the exploration and exploitation phases. The results produce more precise definitions for team sizes, aligning with industry standards. Our approach demonstrates superior performance compared to the traditional versions of these algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile software development has reached wide adoption in various countries including Turkey, even though from which its original cultural backgrounds differ. In Turkey, many organizations have started to adopt Agile approaches more and more in their software development processes. This interest in the country's software development is parallel to what the academic literature on Agile in the country exhibits. However, despite the prevalence of Agile in Turkey, there is a lack of sufficient secondary research and comprehensive review on Agile in Turkey, which poses a significant necessity for further investigation. Considering this gap, we performed a quantitative bibliometric analysis of Agile software development publications produced by Turkish organizations in a holistic and broad approach both for scholars and practitioners. We provide a summary of relevant academic studies that emerged in Agile research in Turkey by focusing on many aspects including bibliometric properties of papers, researchers, affiliations, venues, and thematic contents that are separated into 15 sub‐research questions. After delivering results based on the questions, we discuss the results and findings of our study and present implications regarding the findings. The main contributions of our work are twofold. First, the paper may help the readers to have a quick idea, understand the subject, and gain insight from a large volume of scientific data. Second, the paper can help readers to use these analyses to form future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main advantage of Agile Project Management (APM) lies in its ability to investigate and resolve issues that arise during the project period, making timely adjustments to save resources and deliver successful projects on time and at a lower cost. Customers play a crucial role in determining many of these changes, highlighting their special involvement in managing projects using an agile approach. This paper prioritizes the factors influencing challenges related to customer knowledge in APM, initially identifying three categories: individual, organizational, and technological factors. Expert opinions from the software development industry verified these factors, while the DANP method explored their causal relationships and importance. The analysis revealed organizational factors' impact on the other two categories, with individual factors ranking highest, followed by technological factors. Notable challenges related to customer knowledge include lack of time for knowledge sharing, reluctance to adopt information technology systems, ineffective communication between knowledge-holders and seekers, inadequate training on new technology, and a lack of awareness regarding knowledge benefits for project partners. These findings are presented as suggestions to project teams for effectively managing agile projects and addressing customer knowledge challenges. By implementing these recommendations, projects can achieve greater efficiency and success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software Development based on Scrum Agile in a distributed development environment plays a pivotal role in the contemporary software industry by facilitating software development across geographic boundaries. However, in the past different frameworks utilized to address the challenges like communication and collaboration in scrum agile distributed software development (SADSD) were notably inadequate in transparency, security, traceability, geographically dispersed location work agreements, geographically dispersed teamwork effectiveness, and trust. These deficiencies frequently resulted in delays in software development and deployment, customer dissatisfaction, canceled agreements, project failures, and disputes over payments between customers and development teams. To address these challenges of SADSD, this paper proposes a new framework called ChainAgile, which leverages blockchain technology. ChainAgile employs a private Ethereum blockchain to facilitate the execution of smart contracts. These smart contracts cover a range of functions, including acceptance testing, secure payments, requirement verification, task prioritization, sprint backlog, user story design and development and payments with the automated distribution of payments via digital wallets to development teams. Moreover, in the ChainAgile framework, smart contracts also play a pivotal role in automatically imposing penalties on customers for making late payments or for no payments and penalties on developers for completing the tasks that exceed their deadlines. Furthermore, ChainAgile effectively addresses the scalability limitations intrinsic in blockchain technology by incorporating the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) is used for storage solutions as an off-chain mechanism. The experimental results conclusively show that this innovative approach substantially improves transparency, traceability, coordination, communication, security, and trust for both customers and developers engaged in scrum agile distributed software development (SADSD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scrum is an important and essential technique for developing software. Scrum framework is a project management technique that can emphasize software development teamwork. If you are starting, consider scrum as a method for accomplishing tasks as a team in manageable chunks simultaneously, with ongoing experimentation and feedback loops to learn and improve as you go. Scrum enables individuals and groups to collaboratively and gradually generate value. Being an agile framework, scrum gives people and teams the perfect structure to fit into their workflows while still including the best practices to cater to their requirements. There are some important considerations for security in the agile software development process such as threat modeling, secure coding practices, continuous security testing, authentication, and authorization. In this work, we reviewed various scrum developing techniques to find out the research gaps. This article consider the scrum technique with blockchain technologies for review because it is preferred by most of the software industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agile methodology stands out as a prevalent model for efficient software development, particularly favored for its adaptability and suitability in small-scale projects across various software industries. Nevertheless, its widespread adoption has brought to light certain communication challenges, particularly when applied to large-scale distributed teams. Agile, it appears, may not be the optimal choice for extensive teams engaged in global software development efforts. This study delves into the intricacies of issues faced by teams employing agile in the context of large-scale distributed development, particularly focusing on communication-related challenges and their repercussions. Our approach involved in-depth interviews with diverse developers and teams hailing from various sectors within the software industry. Moreover, we conducted an extensive quantitative analysis, surveying 50 developers representing different distributed teams. The outcomes of our investigation unearthed several communication-related deficiencies that significantly impact the development process. To arrive at these insights, we employed two robust statistical analysis methods: descriptive analysis and regression analysis. The implications of our findings have led us to propose innovative software solutions, bearing distinctive features engineered to mitigate the communication issues often encountered in large-scale software development. These solutions have the potential to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of agile practices when applied in extensive and globally dispersed development endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main obstacles in software development projects is requirement volatility (RV), which is defined as uncertainty or changes in software requirements during the development process. Therefore, this research tries to understand the underlying factors behind the RV and the best practices to reduce it. The methodology used for this research is based upon qualitative research using interviews with 12 participants with experience in agile software development projects. The participants hailed from Austria, Nigeria, the USA, the Philippines, Armenia, Sri Lanka, Germany, Egypt, Canada, and Turkey and held roles such as project managers, software developers, Scrum Masters, testers, business analysts, and product owners. Our findings based on our empirical data revealed six primary factors that cause RV and three main agile practices that help to mitigate it. Theoretically, this study contributes to the body of knowledge relating to RV management. Practically, this research is expected to aid software development teams in comprehending the reasons behind RV and the best practices to effectively minimize it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An agile approach to the EU AI Act and its surrounding ecosystem of hard and soft law can promote more dynamic AI governance in the EU. Agile has powered the rise of AI; it originates from the field of software development and is a style of working that embraces change and brings fast, tangible value to stakeholders through iterative product development. In this opinion I highlight two challenges that the AI Act faces and discuss how an agile mindset can be applied to mitigate their negative effects. I advocate that the AI Act ecosystem can, and should, be improved in iterations based on real-life testing, informed by the EU's own Better Regulation toolbox and international best practices in innovative, agile regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society today is moving towards rapid digitalization of almost every aspect of our lives. From healthcare and transport to work or entertainment, we depend on software products that need to function properly. The adequate construction of these software products can be evaluated and certified by means of quality standards. However, adopting quality standards is a complex and time-consuming task that requires experienced practitioners with advanced knowledge about standards and development practices. This presents a dichotomy for development companies that are transitioning to more agile schemes, where the necessary quality knowledge is scarce and poorly documented, and is slowly learnt and applied by novel practitioners. To overcome these issues, this paper presents a model-driven approach to automate the analysis of software development processes that must be aligned to quality standards. The approach has been implemented in an open-source tool and applied to a case study to automatically generate a gap analysis by reusing expert knowledge related to the ISO 9001 standard. The application has demonstrated it is possible to reduce the effort required from expert practitioners to perform the analysis and improve development processes to ensure the fulfillment of specific quality standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Agile principles have been widely used in software development team practice since the creation of the Agile Manifesto. Studies have examined variables related to agile principles without systematically considering the relationships among key team, agile methodology, and process variables underlying the agile principles and how these variables jointly influence the achievement of software development agility. In this study, the authors tested a team/methodology–process–agility model that links team variables (team autonomy and team competence) and methodological variable (iterative development) to process variables (communication and collaborative decision-making), which are in turn linked to software development agility (ability to sense, respond and learn). Design/methodology/approach: Survey data from one hundred and sixty software development professionals were analyzed using structural equation modeling methods. Findings: The results support the team/methodology–process–agility model. Process variables (communication and collaborative decision-making) mediated the effects of team (autonomy and competence) and methodological (iterative development) variables on software development agility. In addition, team, methodology and process variables had different effects on the three dimensions of software development agility. Originality/value: The results contribute to the literature on organizational IT management by establishing a team/methodology–process–agility model that can serve as a basis for developing a core theoretical foundation underlying agile principles and practices. The results also have practical implications for organizations in understanding and managing holistically the different roles that agile methodological, team and process factors play in achieving software development agility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital transformation in the public sector provides digital services to the citizens aiming at increasing their quality of life, as well as the transparency and accountability of a public administration. Since adaptation to the citizens changing needs is central for its success, Agile methodologies seem best suited for the software development of digital services in that area. However, as well documented by an attempt to use Scrum for an important Public Administration in Italy, substantial modifications to standard Agile were needed, giving rise to a new proposal called improved Agile (in short, iAgile). Another notable example is the Scrum@IMI method developed by the City of Barcelona for the deployment of its digital services. However, given the importance of digital transformation in the public sector and the scarcity of efforts (documented in the scholarly literature) to effectively bring Agile within it, a strategically important contribution that Computer Science can offer is a general paradigm describing how to tailor Agile methodologies and, in particular, Scrum, for such a specific context. Our proposal, called Scrum@PA, addresses this strategic need. Based on it, a public administration has a technically sound avenue to follow to adopt Scrum rather than a generic set of guidelines as in the current state of the art. We show the validity of our proposal by describing how the quite successful Scrum@IMI approach can be derived from Scrum@PA. Although iAgile can also be derived from our paradigm, we have chosen Scrum@IMI as a pilot example since it is publicly available on GitHub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Risk management is often overlooked in the software industry, especially in agile methodology-based projects, which can have negative impacts on the schedule, budget, and quality of a project, eventually leading to customer dissatisfaction. Hence, it is essential to identify the risks and prioritize them based on their level of importance. This study has utilized the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology for prioritizing the software risk factors identified during our previously executed risk identification phase experimental study in small and medium software enterprises that follow agile and traditional methodologies for software development. Among the 16 risk factors categorized under four different risk natures named 'difficulties', 'changes', 'mistakes', and 'challenges', the 'challenges' risk nature category is found to be the most significant one by the research findings, followed by 'difficulties', 'mistakes', and 'changes' risk natures. The results also highlight that 'proper utilization of funds', 'complicated tasks', and 'convincing the customer with alternative technologies' are the most significant risk factors. The study gives an insight into the possible risk factors in a software environment, along with their significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study seeks to illuminate the managerial tensions inherent in implementing scaled agile (on the organizational, top management, middle management and team levels) and to frame these challenges within the broader context of project management. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a grounded theory approach and delves into a qualitative dataset sourced from 34 interviews with subject matter experts actively engaged in scaling agile initiatives within large organizations spanning various industries. Additionally, the data have been enriched through a comprehensive literature review of the existing body of knowledge on scaling agile. Findings: As a result of our investigation, we propose a framework of managerial tensions in scaling agile in large corporate settings and a series of research propositions and questions that may contribute significantly to the body of knowledge surrounding the phenomenon of "deprojectification" and propose agenda for the future studies in the field of project management. Research limitations/implications: The study also carries significant managerial implications. Firstly, based on the insights from the practice of scaling agile in large corporate setting, management can build awareness of the challenges inherent of transitioning to agile practices. This may help to anticipate the possible problems and proactively develop strategies how to address them. Secondly, management can be instructed about contingencies inherent in scaling agile, along with the potential disfunctions and side effects (unintended outcomes) that may emerge during the transition process. Thirdly, project management practitioners can gain insights on how scaling agile may cause shifts in the approach to managing projects, project team management and competencies that need to be developed to cope with environments where various approaches to managing projects coexist. Practical implications: These insights can aid in the agile transition process, beginning with directing managerial attention toward contextual factors and progressing through potential challenges at the organizational, top management, middle management and team levels. Furthermore, the study highlights possible dysfunctionalities and side effects of scaling agile, shedding light on the "dark side" of agile. Originality/value: The study contributes to the expansion of the empirical database on the implementation of agile practices in large organizational settings. It plays a role in defining and delineating the phenomenon of scaling agile within the context of project management and outlines a research agenda for future project management studies. Additionally, our study adds to the ongoing discourse surrounding the "deprojectification" effect that can occur during the scaling of agile. Lastly, it establishes connections between project management and software development literature regarding the implementation of agile at scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Agile Manifesto (AM) provides principles guiding agile software development as an alternative to traditional software development processes. While attempts have been made to adapt processes to the agile context, representation of AM principles remains underdeveloped and subjective. The Semat (Software Engineering Method and Theory) Essence kernel offers a common ground for representing software development endeavors. In this paper, we represent some AM principles using the language provided by the Semat Essence kernel to establish a common ground. Additionally, we define constraints in OCL (Object Constraint Language) to enhance the Semat Essence kernel, enabling the introduction of time management in our representation. Such a representation will allow us for adapting and assessing different processes in an agile context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Tecno Lógicas is the property of Instituto Tecnologico Metropolitano and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Tecno Lógicas is the property of Instituto Tecnologico Metropolitano and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Lean production is becoming popular in IT-related industries, including the business processes outsourcing (BPO) industry. Managers of companies try to implement lean principles in software development projects and, as a result, Agile Software Development (ASD) is becoming more common in practice. According to ASD authors, this approach aims to increase employee productivity and provide better working conditions. However, little is known about the experience of working in such conditions. This article aims to analyze the experience of working under ASD conditions in the BPO industry in Poland. Based on interviews with employees and trade unionists in the BPO industry and using Grounded Theory Methodology procedures during the data analysis, three categories of work experiences in the BPO industry were reconstructed. The reconstructed categories are: "enthusiasm," "instrumentalism," and "disenchantment." Modes of experience were determined by biographical work experiences, individual resources, and objective context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scaled agile development approaches are now used widely in modern software engineering, allowing businesses to improve teamwork, productivity, and product quality. The incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into scaled agile development methods (SADMs) has emerged as a potential strategy in response to the ongoing demand for simplified procedures and the increasing complexity of software projects. This paper explores the intersection of AI-driven assistants within the context of the scaled agile framework (SAFe) for large-scale software development, as it stands out as the most widely adopted framework. Our paper pursues three principal objectives: (1) an evaluation of the challenges and impediments encountered by organizations during the implementation of SADMs, (2) an assessment of the potential advantages stemming from the incorporation of AI in large-scale contexts, and (3) the compilation of aspects of SADMs that AI-driven assistants enhance. Through a comprehensive systematic literature review, we identified and described 18 distinct challenges that organizations confront. In the course of our research, we pinpointed seven benefits and five challenges associated with the implementation of AI in SADMs. These findings were systematically categorized based on their occurrence either within the development phase or the phases encompassing planning and control. Furthermore, we compiled a list of 15 different AI-driven assistants and tools, subjecting them to a more detailed examination, and employing them to address the challenges we uncovered during our research. One of the key takeaways from this paper is the exceptional versatility and effectiveness of AI-driven assistants, demonstrating their capability to tackle a broader spectrum of problems. In conclusion, this paper not only sheds light on the transformative potential of AI, but also provides invaluable insights for organizations aiming to enhance their agility and management capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Investigación e Innovación en Ingenierías is the property of Universidad Simon Bolivar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As the size and complexity of projects grows, estimates are increasingly used, especially in the agile community. Software development cannot begin without first conducting thorough planning and estimation. Estimating how much work a project will take is a common first step in the software development life cycle. By employing ensemble techniques, we integrate multiple learning algorithms to build a more accurate predictive model. The core elements of our proposed stacked ensemble strategy include Decision Tree, Principal Components Regression, Random Forest, NeuralNet, GLMNET, XGBoost, Earth, and Support Vector Machine. Moreover, we augment the model's performance by incorporating a blend of these foundational algorithms with other ensemble regression methods. Extensive testing in the suggested research work with a number of Super Learners demonstrates that Regression is the best technique for judging effort. The evaluation of the different estimators involved the use of various metrics, including Mean Absolute Error, Root Mean Squared Error, Mean Squared Error, Percentage of Close Approximations within 25% of the True Values (PRED (25)), R-Squared Coefficients, Precision, Recall, and F1-Score. The proposed method yields more trustworthy predicted performance than either single-model approaches or stacked ensembles. Effort estimation serves as the foundation for the rest of the project management process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term agile is frequently used in IT especially in the area of software engineering. The broad pervasiveness of the term agile is astonishing, because it is not well defined in the area of software engineering. The fuzziness of the term agile comes with the danger of ill‐founded decisions and ideological discussions. Both slow down the gain in knowledge in the domain of software engineering. The term agile should therefore not be used either in science nor in the industry. This article provides a critical discussion of the term agile. By using a three‐layered abstraction concept for software development processes, the use of the term agile can be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The importance of the team, its internal dynamics, and its performance are widely recognized within the software engineering community. While popular frameworks identify wholeness, stability over time, and smallness as important factors, they offer little guidance on how to form teams that achieve these three characteristics. The objective of this study is to investigate how these team characteristics interact in large‐scale software development contexts, particularly focusing on the impact of stable and dynamic teaming approaches. This was done through a multivocal study of literature, followed by individual semi‐structured interviews with 19 engineers from two companies and validation workshops with an additional two companies from unrelated industry segments. The study results show that the question of stable versus dynamic approaches to forming software engineering teams is largely unaddressed in industry, with stable teams representing a habitual default option. Meanwhile, both stable and dynamic teams clearly have respective strengths and weaknesses, calling for careful consideration of the most suitable approach in any given situation. To support such consideration, this paper presents a model of how team stability, wholeness, and smallness interact. This model is found relevant, accurate, generalizable, and useful by practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project management in the software industry is the process of successfully planning, managing, and completing software development projects. Software projects can often be complex, constantly changing, and full of uncertainties, so project management is of particular importance in the software industry. There are two basic approaches to the execution of software projects. In the waterfall model, the project stages are operated in the determined order and after each stage is completed, the next stage is passed, while in the agile approach, the project is divided into small and priority parts, and the work processes are repeated at regular intervals and improvements are made depending on the feedback received. Recently, there has been a trend towards managing software projects with agile methodologies, as it provides flexibility and adaptability. However, there is no quantitative evaluation of the benefits of agile structuring both in the literature and in the sector, and this benefit is expressed with verbal expressions referring to the formation of a dynamic culture. For this reason, the productivity increase brought by the agile project approach cannot be measured and the benefit it provides cannot be scaled. In this study, a model that takes linguistic uncertainty into account is proposed to quantitatively scale the productivity increase provided by agile project structuring. The proposed model has been applied in a business where enterprise resource planning solutions have been developed and the effect of the transition from waterfall model to agile methodology on the productivity of the project has been investigated. Within the framework of the procedure proposed by the model, expert evaluations were taken in line with the determined quantitative and qualitative criteria, these criteria were listed with the fuzzy SWARA method, and the productivity increase provided by agile methodology was calculated using this information. The findings also allowed us to get an idea of the point of scaling the increase in productivity across the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agile planning offers a number of benefits that make the customers active members of the team throughout the project. In global software development (GSD), geographic separations demand special attention to harness these benefits. Our paper conducted a systematic mapping study (SMS) to analyze GSD-specific agile planning challenges followed by a systematic literature review (SLR) for efficient solutions. These studies led to a model for agile planning in global software development supporting GSD practitioners during this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Literature reveals ongoing debates around the role of business analysts in agile software development (ASD) teams. This can be attributed, in part, to a knowledge gap concerning how business analysts contribute to overall team capabilities, particularly those which are essential in enabling teams to respond to fast-paced environmental changes. The purpose of this study was to address this gap by investigating how business analysts (BAs) contribute to the dynamic capabilities of ASD teams. Design/methodology/approach: Through a deductive approach, this study adapted and applied a research model based on the team dynamic capabilities (DC) theory to explore the contributions of BAs in agile teams. The study was executed using a qualitative, single case study research strategy directed at an ASD team in the financial services industry. Moreover, data were collected through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews; a focus group; non-participant observation and physical artefacts review. The thematic analysis technique was used to analyse the data. Findings: The study contributes to teams DC theory through four theoretical propositions centred on the role of BAs. The proposition highlights how BAs relationship management, tacit knowledge sharing, task mental models and transactive memory are key contributors of ASD teams' DC. The study also found that BAs contribute to ASD teams' ability to embrace agile principles 2, 4, 6 and 12. This study can inform the design of capacity development programmes for individual team members and BAs and thus help managers curate teams that will best promote DC. Practical implications: This study can inform the design of capacity development programmes for individual team members and BAs and thus help managers curate teams that will best promote DC. Originality/value: This study builds on the relatively few studies which focus on DC within software development (SD) teams and ASD project teams. Moreover, the study explores how an individual (i.e. a BA) can contribute to the DC of a team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides empirical evidence to the body of knowledge in Agile methods adoption in small, medium, and large organizations in the global context. This research explores facilitators and inhibitors of Agile methods adoption in software development organizations. A survey was conducted among Agile professionals to gather survey data from 52 software organizations in seven countries across the world. This study found many facilitators of Agile adoption to be significant such as customers' dominant issues, encouragement, project champion, highly competent team, use of tools, etc. Similarly a correlation analysis revealed multiple inhibitors as significant: absence of a full set of right Agile practices, absence of customer presence, absence of tracking mechanisms during Agile progress, and failure to determine the role of the client. The present study identifies that an Agile team with high expertise and competence leads to higher quality in software, customer satisfaction along with return on investment (ROI) while a small Agile team increases ease in handling changing requirements, customer satisfaction, reduced delivery time, and increased ROI. Frequent delivery accelerates better control over work, adds to software quality, customer satisfaction, and in shortening delivery time along with increase ROI. It has also been observed that providing essential features early leads to increase in software quality and customer satisfaction. This study confirms that active customer focus leads to better control over work. Further, absence of customer decreases dealing with changing requirements, and customer satisfaction while absence of progress tracking lowers customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published studies on agile effort estimation predominantly focus on comparisons of the accuracy of different estimation methods, while efficiency comparisons, i.e. how much time the estimation methods consume was not in the forefront. However, for practical use in software development, the time required can be a very important cost factor for enterprises, especially when the accuracy of different agile effort estimations is similar. In this study, we thus try to advance the current standard accuracy comparison between methods by introducing efficiency, i.e. time it takes to use a method as an additional dimension of comparison. We conduct this comparison between three agile effort estimation methods that were not yet compared in the literature, namely, Planning Poker, Bucket System and Affinity Estimation. For the comparison, we used eight student teams with 29 students who had to use all the effort estimation methods during the course where they had to finish a programming project in 3 weeks. The results indicate that after the students get used to using the different methods the accuracy between them is not statistically significantly different, however, the efficiency is. On average, Bucket System and Affinity Estimation methods take half as much time as Planning Poker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of research in the article is the process of testing and operating software with cost minimization. In the Software Development Life Cycle, depending on the chosen option of the flexible methodology, special attention is focused on testing software versions both in the process of passing iterations and in the process of releasing alpha, beta and production versions. This article is devoted to the problem of developing a method for software testing cost optimization method that estimates the test cost function and the losses cost function from the occurrence of an error. Using the optimization method (for example, the first-order descent method) from the two functions of testing costs and estimating the losses caused during operation, it is possible to calculate the optimal cost of testing and operating the software product. The results obtained show that with the correct assessment of a cost function and a loss function such calculations allow to significantly save money and time for the production of the next version of the software product. These results are explained by the fact that the method of optimizing the cost function finds the optimum point and allows to pre-estimate the budget and risks during the development and operation of the software. The article provides several examples of the calculation and optimization of testing costs within the proposed concept for one iteration in a flexible software development cycle. The results of the study can be used in practice, provided that the functions of estimating costs for testing and compensation for losses caused during the operation of the software are set correctly. Experienced managers and project supervisors determine these functions quite accurately for a certain number of iterations, which makes it possible to apply the method of finding the minimum budget costs for testing and operating a software product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restrictive Scrum assumptions make the effectiveness of this approach debatable in projects deviating from typical execution conditions. This article delivers a comprehensive software development approach for both academic and commercial Information Technology (IT) projects effectuated by teams that are hampered by significantly unsystematic participation of project members and mercurial internal communication. The nature of ‘ad-hoc’ projects imposes another level of difficulty in terms of both managing the conduct of such a project and ensuring the quality of the end product. Multicyclic action research enabled a gradual adaptation of the Scrum approach to support such project conditions. This study introduces major alterations to Sprint implementation and minor enhancements within the documentation process to streamline knowledge sharing among Development Team members. Proposed key alterations include the evolution of Daily Scrum towards Weekly Scrum, the possibility of extending Sprints length, the eventuality to switch team members during Sprint due to substantial failure to meet deadlines, having at least two team members responsible for a single Product Backlog Item (PBI) at all times, as well as exclusion of Burndown Chart in favor of Development Team members updating their working time. Positive validation of enhancements in mixed settings confirms that the generic Scrum framework can be adapted to support highly volatile projects. The proposed approach is suitable not only for carrying out software development initiatives that rely heavily on the skills of external experts and/or volunteers. It also supports traditional Scrum teams that seek to reduce their exposure to risk arising from organizational changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention is currently being focused on DevOps, which aims to reduce software development time by means of close collaboration between the development and operations areas. However, little effort has been made to determine the role of requirements management in DevOps. The objective of this study is to help both researchers and practitioners by providing an overview of the best practices regarding requirements engineering in DevOps and identifying which areas still need to be investigated. A multivocal mapping study has, therefore, been carried out in order to study which methodologies, techniques and tools are used to support requirements management in DevOps environments. After applying the review protocol, 37 papers from formal literature and 14 references from grey literature were selected for analysis. The general conclusions obtained after analysing these papers were that, within DevOps, more attention should be paid to: (1) the reuse of requirements in order to identify systems and software artefacts that can serve as a basis for the specification of new projects; (2) the communication of requirements between the different areas of an organisation and the stakeholders of a project; (3) the traceability of requirements in order to identify the relationship with other requirements, artefacts, tasks and processes; (4) non-functional requirements in order to identify the requirements of the operations area in the early phases of a project; and finally (5) specific requirements tools that should be seamlessly integrated into the DevOps toolchain. All these issues must be considered without ignoring the agile and continuous practices of development, operations and business teams. More effort must also be made to validate new methodologies in industry so as to assess and determine their strengths and weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Application of agile software development methodologies in large-scale organizations is becoming increasingly common. However, working with multiple teams and on multiple products at the same time yields higher coordination and communication efforts compared to single-team settings for which agile methodologies have been designed originally. With the introduction of agile methodologies at scale also comes the need to be able to report progress and performance not only of individual teams but also on higher aggregation of products and portfolios. Due to faster iterations, production of intermediate work results, increased autonomy of teams, and other novel characteristics, agile methodologies are challenging existing reporting approaches in large organizations. Based on 23 interviews with 17 practitioners from a large German car manufacturing company, this case study investigates challenges with reporting in large-scale agile settings. Further, based on insights from the case study, recommendations are derived. We find that combining reporting and agile methodologies in large-scale settings is indeed challenging in practice. Our research contributes to the understanding of these challenges, and points out opportunities for future research to improve reporting in large-scale agile organizations by goal-setting and automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software development stands out as one of the most rapidly expanding markets due to its pivotal role in crafting applications across diverse sectors like healthcare, transportation, and finance. Nevertheless, the sphere of cybersecurity has also undergone substantial growth, underscoring the escalating significance of software security. Despite the existence of different secure development frameworks, the persistence of vulnerabilities or software errors remains, providing potential exploitation opportunities for malicious actors. One pivotal contributor to subpar security quality within software lies in the neglect of cybersecurity requirements during the initial phases of software development. In this context, the focal aim of this study is to analyze the importance of integrating security modeling by software developers into the elicitation processes facilitated through the utilization of abuse stories. To this end, the study endeavors to introduce a comprehensive and generic model for a secure software development process. This model inherently encompasses critical elements such as new technologies, human factors, and the management of security for the formulation of abuse stories and their integration within Agile methodological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need for process automation, using agile software development practices. However, when agile methods are used in scaled contexts, many software development efforts fail, mainly due to lacking requirements engineering practices. When business-oriented software needs to be developed within a scaled context, the story-card method (SCM), developed as part of a previous study, assists in structuring emerging software requirements within a taxonomy that represents enterprise operation. The SCM helps agile team members to develop a common understanding about enterprise operation when they construct the enterprise operation taxonomy. Digital participatory enterprise modeling (PEM) may increase collaboration and understanding among team members, especially when team members are geographically dispersed, when they co-model their understanding of enterprise operations. Using design science research to further evolve the existing SCM, we identified two concerns regarding the existing SCM: (1) The modeling software did not encourage active participation during modeling, and (2) Low quality of the resulting cooperation structure diagram (CSD) that is used to derive an enterprise operation taxonomy, i.e., the need to further extend the existing SCM. As main contribution of this article, we addressed previous deficiencies of the SCM, developing an extended SCM (eSCM), based on principles and guidelines that would encourage online participation during PEM, also providing a comprehensive case to demonstrate the eSCM. As a second contribution, we used survey-feedback from research participants, as well as activity tracking to evaluate whether the modeling tool encouraged active PEM. Our third contribution is to evaluate the quality of the resulting CSDs with suggestions for future improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The potential application of this study is to guide developers and organizations in effectively detecting and refactoring code smells, enhancing the quality and sustainability of software projects within an agile development context. (Context) Code smells indicate poor coding practices or design flaws, suggesting deeper software quality issues. While addressing code smells promptly improves software quality, traditional detection techniques often fail in continuous detection during software development. (Problem Statement) More recently, Interactive Detection (ID) technique has been proposed, enabling the detection of code smells continuously. Although the use of this technique by developers and organizations is promising, there are no practical recommendations for its use in the context of software development. (Goal) The objective of this study was to propose and evaluate the integration of ID into the widely adopted Scrum framework for agile software development. (Method) To achieve this objective, we utilized a mixed-method approach that combined a comprehensive literature review and expert knowledge to propose the integration. Furthermore, we conducted a focus group and a controlled experiment involving software development activities to evaluate this integration. (Results) The findings revealed that this integration significantly benefitted software development, such as early detection of code smells, increased effectiveness in code smell detection, and improved code quality. These findings shed light on the potential benefits of adopting this integration, offering valuable insights for developers and researchers. (Conclusions) This research emphasized the importance of continuous code smell detection as an integral part of agile development and opened avenues for further research in code quality management within agile methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In software projects that use the Agile methodology, the focus is on development in small iterations to allow both frequent changes and client involvement. This methodology affects the risks that may happen in Agile software projects. Hence, these projects need a clear risk management process to reduce risks and address the problems before they arise. Most software production methodologies must use a framework for risk management, but currently, there is no such framework for the Agile methodology. Therefore, we present a risk management framework for projects that use the Agile methodology to help the software development process and increase the likelihood of the project's success. The proposed framework states the necessary measures for risk management according to the ISO31000 standard at each stage of the Agile methodology. We evaluated the proposed framework in two running software projects with an Agile methodology by a number of expert experts. The results show that using our proposed framework increases the average positive risk reaction score by 49%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workflow automation is taking over software development systems, helping businesses increase efficiency, accelerate production, and adapt quickly to market changes. Combined with agile principles, it has given birth to the DevOps paradigm. However, practitioners often face an important issue known as vendor lock-in caused by the cost of tool replacement or migration to different platforms. This issue could be addressed by standardising service interfaces to facilitate their integration. Linked Data is an attractive choice for implementing such a standard without sacrificing versatility. Following this approach, the Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) proposal aims to build an environment where services can interoperate using standard models. Therefore, this article proposes an extension of the existing OSLC specification, based on the Event-Condition-Action (ECA) model, for event-based interoperable automation. This extension enables a new path in the field of semantic automation for OSLC services, which allows the self-interaction of services among them and with human users. The article presents the key concepts of the proposed model and exemplifies its application in an automation scenario with two real-life services. The validation of the proposal has been carried out using established ontology evaluation methods, such as coverage and similarity metrics and competency questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]