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There have been success stories reported regarding the adoption of agile software development methods in the industry. There also exist observations on their limitations. One of these limitations is scalability since agile methods like Scrum were originally designed for small software teams. Scalable agile frameworks were introduced to address this limitation. We conducted an industrial case study on the adoption of such a framework, called Nexus. Our study involves quantitative and qualitative evaluation based on observations within a product development organization over a period of 12 months. Scrum is used for the development of a product during the first 6 months of this period. Nexus is used in the remaining 6 months. Data are collected throughout the whole period for measuring productivity, quality, and team member motivation. Results suggest a significant increase in productivity and product quality after switching to Nexus. Team motivation was slightly improved as well. [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]

Scrum is one of the most used frameworks for agile software development because of its potential improvements in productivity, quality, and client satisfaction. Academia has also focussed on teaching Scrum practices to prepare students to face common software engineering challenges and facilitate their insertion in professional contexts. Furthermore, advances in learning technologies currently offer many virtual learning environments to enhance learning in many ways. Their capability to consider the individual learner preferences has led a shift to more personalised training approaches, requiring that the environments adapt themselves to the learner. We propose an adaptive approach for training developers in Scrum, including an adaptive virtual learning environment based on Felder's learning style theory. Although still preliminary, our findings show that students who used the environment and received instruction matching their preferences obtained sightly higher learning gains than students who received a different instruction than the one they preferred. We also noticed less variability in the learning gains of students who received instruction matching their preferences. The relevance of this work goes beyond the impact on learning gains since it describes how adaptive virtual learning environments can be used in the domain of Software Engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The software industry is increasingly facing the need for continuous deployment of systems. This leads to the adoption of continuous activities, including planning, integration, and deployment (a.k.a. Continuous Software Engineering (CSE)). At the same time, systems should exhibit high-quality architectures, which are often achieved through architecture evaluation methods. However, there is little insight of how such evaluation happens in the context of CSE. To cover this gap, we investigate in this work the state of the art of continuous evaluation of software architectures in CSE, including agile processes like SCRUM. For this, we systematically examine the literature to collect and summarize evidence. Our results show a diversity of means for evaluating architectures in continuous mode to support the continuous evolution of systems. We also found how such evaluation has been incorporated within continuous development processes and agile processes like SCRUM and Crystal. We finally derive the main trends and open issues in the area, aiming to support the community to better understand and further consolidate the field of continuous evaluation of software architectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meetings that involve both collocated and remote participants can be hindered by various technological and human difficulties. Taking an ethnomethodological and conversation analytic approach, this paper investigates how participants establish and maintain progressivity in hybrid meetings ensuring the continuous flow of work. Based on video-recorded data from hybrid daily Scrum meetings at a software development company, we focused on instances where participants are interrupted by problems diminishing the meeting progressivity. Our micro analysis shows that in the meetings resolution of work-progress related trouble is prioritized over the resolution of technical problems. To establish and maintain progressivity, participants orient to the organizational imperatives while simultaneously circumventing technical problems arising in the meetings. In overcoming problems, the different layers of organizational goals and meeting goals are accounted for in the common effort to get work done by (a) reminding of the time budget; (b) sticking to the agenda (c) reconfiguring responsibilities to fill in for missing members; and (d) referencing shared resources that reflect team progress. This analysis suggests that to improve hybrid and/or online meetings, practitioners should aim to increase the social intelligibility of activities scheduled for meetings by defining improved and specific meeting frameworks that promote continuity and reduce ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software organisations aim to develop and maintain high‐quality software systems. Due to large amounts of behaviour data available, software organisations can conduct data‐driven software maintenance. Indeed, software quality assurance and improvement programs have attracted many researchers' attention. Bayesian Networks (BNs) are proposed as a log analysis technique to discover poor performance indicators in a system and to explore usage patterns that usually require temporal analysis. For this, an action research study is designed and conducted to improve the software quality and the user experience of a web application using BNs as a technique to analyse software logs. To this aim, three models with BNs are created. As a result, multiple enhancement points have been identified within the application ranging from performance issues and errors to recurring user usage patterns. These enhancement points enable the creation of cards in the Scrum process of the web application, contributing to its data‐driven software maintenance. Finally, the authors consider that BNs within quality‐aware and data‐driven software maintenance have great potential as a software log analysis technique and encourage the community to deepen its possible applications. For this, the applied methodology and a replication package are shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early effort estimation is important for efficiently planning the use of resources in an Information Technology (IT) project. However, limited research has been conducted on the topic of effort estimation in agile software development using artificial intelligence. This research project contributes to strengthening the use of hybrid models composed of algorithmic models and learning oriented techniques as a project-level effort estimation method in agile frameworks. Effort estimation in agile methods such as Scrum uses a story point approach that measures, using an arithmetic scale, the effort required to complete a release of the system. This project relied on labeled historical data to estimate the completion time measured in days and the total cost of a project set in Pakistani rupees (PKR). using a decision tree, random forest and AdaBoost to improve the accuracy of predictions. Models were trained using 10-fold cross-validation and the relative error was used as a comparison with literature results. The bootstrap aggregation (bagging) ensemble made of the three techniques provides the highest accuracy, and project classification also improves the estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the evolution of software systems, empirical methodologies have been used in their development process, even in the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, to develop IoT-based systems (IoTS). In this paper, we review the fundamentals included in the manifesto for agile software development, especially in the Scrum methodology, to determine its use and role in IoTS development. Initially, 4303 documents were retrieved, a number that was reduced to 186 after applying automatic filters and by the relevance of their titles. After analysing their contents, only 60 documents were considered. Of these, 38 documents present the development of an IoTS using some methodology, 8 present methodologies focused on the construction of IoTS software, and 14 present methodologies close to the systems life cycle (SLC). Finally, only one methodology can be considered SLC-compliant. Out of 38 papers presenting the development of some IoTS following a methodology for traditional information systems (ISs), 42.1% have used Scrum as the only methodology, while 10.5% have used Scrum combined with other methodologies, such as eXtreme Programming (XP), Kanban and Rapid Prototyping. In the analysis presented herein, the existing methodologies for developing IoTSs have been grouped according to the different approaches on which they are based, such as agile, modelling, and service oriented. This study also analyses whether the different proposals consider the standard stages of the development process or not: planning and requirements gathering, solution analysis, solution design, solution coding and unit testing (construction), integration and testing (implementation), and operation and maintenance. In addition, we include a review of the automated frameworks, platforms, and tools used in the methodologies analysed to improve the development of IoTSs and the design of their underlying architectures. To conclude, the main contribution of this work is a review for IoTS researchers and developers regarding existing methodologies, frameworks, platforms, tools, and guidelines for the development of IoTSs, with a deep analysis framed within international standards dictated for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural component of the project team is recognized as one of the most critical factors in the implementation of agile project management (APM), especially in nonsoftware industries, where the diffusion of APM still involves several challenges. Particularly, the successful implementation of scrum—the most diffused APM methodology—seems related to the project teams’ subculture, which may differ from the overall organizational culture of the company. This article contributes to the APM literature in nonsoftware contexts by studying the cultural values that develop inside agile teams and the scrum principles and practices that are particularly relevant for fostering these values. Using interview data collected from seven manufacturing and service organizations, we use the competing value framework as the theoretical model to understand the cultural profiles of their organizations, how they deploy into the project teams’ subculture, and what, if any, connections exist with the adoption of scrum principles and practices. We find that clan and market values are the dominant subcultures in agile teams. These cultural values are fostered at a strategic level by a subset of scrum values (i.e., courage, openness, and respect) and pillars (i.e., transparency and adaptation). At an operational level, retrospective meetings and the definition of particular artifacts also contribute to develop these dominant cultural values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The SCRUM approach and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework are critical in assessing the factors that influence the efficiency of a business process and ensuring that business objectives are fulfilled, and the process is on track to meet those objectives. Flexibility and change adoption are critical features for both SCRUM and SOA approaches. Even though both sides encourage agility, the integration of the two independent concepts (SOA is the architectural framework while SCRUM is the development process) should be considered before being used in software management and development projects. This study assessed and analyzed both SCRUM and SOA's diverse and different software architectural frameworks and development methodologies as well as their environment, which is integrated with the context of software project management and development setup for the software development industry. In addition, this study explores the similarities between the SCRUM process model and the SOA architectural framework to see if they are compatible and, if so, how they may be combined to enhance SOA-based projects. This research also looks at how to build and use a SCRUM methodology for large-scale SOA projects. As a result, SCRUM was chosen as the software development methodology for a research and development project based on SOA. In terms of project development and implementation, the complete project structure is made up of eight main parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enable organizations to achieve carbon neutrality through agile capabilities, this paper establishes an integrative framework of carbon-zero agility consisting of three dimensions: search scope agility, search locus agility, and search pace agility. However, applying common agile methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, and Lean to cultivate these capabilities inevitably introduces feedback ambiguity, which can paralyze decision-making and increase errors due to inherent human cognitive limitations. To address this, tailored carbon-zero feedback algorithms are proposed to complement human judgment in agile workflows. Specifically, prescriptive analytics, federated learning, and probabilistic programming are injected into Scrum, Kanban, and Lean respectively to restore clarity amidst ambiguity. The framework is grounded in cases from the textile industry to demonstrate applicability in practical settings. By targeting the roots of distortions with human-algorithm collaborations, it provides an actionable roadmap to implement carbon-zero agility. • Establishes carbon-zero agility framework: search scope, locus, and pace agility. • Identifies behavioral challenges, and feedback ambiguity in agile for carbon-zero. • Proposes tailored carbon-zero feedback algorithms to enhance agility. • Connects agile processes with broader organizational sustainability capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SCRUM approach and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework are critical in assessing the factors that influence the efficiency of a business process and ensuring that business objectives are fulfilled, and the process is on track to meet those objectives. Flexibility and change adoption are critical features for both SCRUM and SOA approaches. Even though both sides encourage agility, the integration of the two independent concepts (SOA is the architectural framework while SCRUM is the development process) should be considered before being used in software management and development projects. This study assessed and analyzed both SCRUM and SOA's diverse and different software architectural frameworks and development methodologies as well as their environment, which is integrated with the context of software project management and development setup for the software development industry. In addition, this study explores the similarities between the SCRUM process model and the SOA architectural framework to see if they are compatible and, if so, how they may be combined to enhance SOA-based projects. This research also looks at how to build and use a SCRUM methodology for large-scale SOA projects. As a result, SCRUM was chosen as the software development methodology for a research and development project based on SOA. In terms of project development and implementation, the complete project structure is made up of eight main parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Cheminformatics; machine learning; materials informatics; polymer science EN Cheminformatics machine learning materials informatics polymer science 637 642 6 08/09/22 20220601 NES 220601 Article note: A collection of invited papers on Cheminformatics: Data and Standards. The overarching goal of the data infrastructure is to enable data organization, access, and security for cross-team collaboration and end-use machine learning applications. This assessment described building ML models from limited data, followed by iteratively generating more data with guidance from the model coupled with subject matter expertise. [Extracted from the article]

The SCRUM approach and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework are critical in assessing the factors that influence the efficiency of a business process and ensuring that business objectives are fulfilled, and the process is on track to meet those objectives. Flexibility and change adoption are critical features for both SCRUM and SOA approaches. Even though both sides encourage agility, the integration of the two independent concepts (SOA is the architectural framework while SCRUM is the development process) should be considered before being used in software management and development projects. This study assessed and analyzed both SCRUM and SOA's diverse and different software architectural frameworks and development methodologies as well as their environment, which is integrated with the context of software project management and development setup for the software development industry. In addition, this study explores the similarities between the SCRUM process model and the SOA architectural framework to see if they are compatible and, if so, how they may be combined to enhance SOA-based projects. This research also looks at how to build and use a SCRUM methodology for large-scale SOA projects. As a result, SCRUM was chosen as the software development methodology for a research and development project based on SOA. In terms of project development and implementation, the complete project structure is made up of eight main parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper is presented a methodology for the design and implementation of automation products for technological processes from the Cuban pharmaceutical industry. The proposed methodology is based on a scrum approach, by using own software technologies which reduce the time of development and start up, provide great flexibility and efficiency in operations, significantly improve the traceability of processes and facilitate work based on user-friendly designs of the human-machine interface among its main advantages. The methodology developed is applicable to the automation of most of the pharmaceutical industry processes and guarantees to satisfy the demanding quality indicators of this industry and the requirements of the Drug Control Center (CECMED) of Cuba. The application of the methodology in the Cuban pharmaceutical industry has meant a saving to the country more of three and half million of euros in the last five years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The animal production industry is undergoing an exponential technological transformation through the incorporation of new software and hardware. These technologies aim to support and improve decision-making on agricultural properties, increase production efficiency, minimize economic risks, and promote new breeding systems. Among the various challenges in pig farming, ensuring thermal comfort is often one of the most critical. Technological solutions that assist producers in making decisions regarding thermal comfort risks for pigs have not been identified during research. This article proposes an innovative solution for managing risks related to animal thermal comfort, the GRT Suínos app. The aim was to design, develop, and validate the mobile application constructed upon the Android operating system, employing the Scrum methodology. The main innovation of the app is its ability to guide the producer in identifying, analyzing, and evaluating thermal comfort risks for pigs, allowing the generation of a management report with proposals for possible treatments for these risks at the end of the process. The study's findings resulted in a high level of user satisfaction and good usability, confirming the app's acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments (VUCA) complicate and condition project management. With the emergence of agile project management, it is proposed to co-construct it with the client's active participation. Two used agile methodologies are Scrum and Kanban. Scrum is based on executing fast, interactive cycles (Sprints) for the incremental construction of products. Kanban promotes the balance of the continuous workflow through synchronizing tasks and seeking perfection. The combined use of Scrum-Kanban facilitates the integration of the best of both approaches. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) proposes a method for managing constraints in a system (Constraint Management). The Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) method and Buffer Management are practical applications of this theory. This study seeks to maximize the continuous flow of value (Throughput) in agile project management by synergistically integrating the DBR method with Scrum-Kanban. The five-step process is implemented for the planning, executing, and controlling the Kanban board in a Scrum Sprint cycle. Four scenarios are evaluated: (1) Balanced Line; (2) Unbalanced Line; (3) Unbalanced Line Modification 1 - Stable, Robust and Fast; and (4) Unbalanced Line Modification 2 - Focusing and Elevation. Measurement of completed work (Kanban cards in the "Done" column) and final inventory for the Sprint cycle reveals that Simulation 4 is the optimal scenario, achieving the highest average "output" ("Done" cards) with reduced inventory ("Doing" cards). The integration of DBR with Scrum-Kanban maximizes the completed work (Throughput) and minimizes the final inventory of the Sprint cycle, which is corroborated by the principle of Little's Law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

They identify problems with current MDE tooling support for DevOps and give an industrial experience report describing how they enabled CI/CD pipelines using DevOps and MDE. From the perspective of MDE researchers, incorporating Agile practices into MDE appeared to be a way to widen the uptake of MDE to more general software application areas. Agile methods have become a widely used software development approach across many industry sectors [[14]], with established benefits in terms of increased responsiveness to change and decreased time to market. [Extracted from the article]

This paper presents the review of three main existing agile approaches: Scrum, Lean Software Development and Kanban, which served as the basis for the development of a proposal for a new approach in Agile development. To achieve this, a description of each agile approach to software development and a comparison of their strengths and weaknesses are made. Then, the new proposal is established based on the integration of the three approaches, defining a set of metrics and developing a case study to evaluate the integration and obtain quantitative and qualitative data. The results obtained from the case study proved to be quite positive because it allowed us to comprehensively evaluate the new approach. These results represent a promising start to continue working in this line of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Product Configuration System (PCS) is a software system that facilitates the sales and production processes of defined customizable products. PCS are specific software developments in the sense that they are knowledge-intensive so that they require models to formalize the complex knowledge inherent to product configurations also leading to dependencies between software functionalities. Scrum is a widely used agile method, but its training has been the subject of little research. Model-driven development implicitly impacts the way development is conducted especially when adopting an agile method as Scrum. This paper, as exploratory research, evaluates Scrum training for PCS projects through a qualitative case study. The goal is to identify the elements that should be focused on within Scrum background training. This research first studies and assesses the training experiences at the case company. Then, it reports on respondents' opinions about the strengths and challenges of applying Scrum in the mentioned context. The latter is based on multiple data sources: documentation, interviews, participant observations, and workshops. Issues in applicability lead to enhanced training support for learning how to (i) combine Scrum with the model-driven approach inherently required within PCS development, (ii) manage time and effort estimation on the basis of accurate artifacts and (iii) access key employees possessing domain or specific technical knowledge indispensable for pursuing the development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the new choral music education teaching strategy called Agile Development Instructional Framework (ADIF) which is based on the agile development philosophy of software development and the ''scrum'' methodology. Topics discussed include shift in teacher roles, the concept of student-centered problem-based learning and rehearsal values for agile development. Topics including student responsibilities and sprint planning are discussed.

Scrum teams aim to deliver products productively with highest possible value and quality, so they try to deliver high priority and high value product backlog items in earlier sprints.Making size esti- mation of product backlog items correctly is one of the most prominent factors for effective sprint planning. Retrospective meetings are an opportunity for teams to improve product quality, their productivity, and estimation capability. Enhancing in those areas requires empiricism as agil- ity requires; hence, measureable indicators should be inspected and adapted at regular intervals. In this study, we assessed how and what kind of historical data is required to be collected for monitoring, and how statistical analysis can be investigated for inspection and adaptation in retrospective meetings. We experimented that statistics of "Correlation between Story Point and Actual Effort" and "Consistency of Relative Estimation" were convenient for inspection and adaptation of estimation capability of teams. Past retrospective meetings also showed that statistics of "Team's Actual Effort on Product," "Team Velocity," "Actual Effort for One Story Point," "Innova- tion Rate," and "Velocity vs Unplanned Effort Rate" were helpful to control and increase the productivity of teams. "Actual Effort Rate of Quality Activities" and "Subcomponent Defect Density" statistical results helped to enhance product quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 'Agile cost estimation in scrum development. • Cost estimation methods in scrum and limitations. • Suggested a cost estimation model. Agile has been invented to improve and overcome the deficiencies of efficient software development. At present, the agile model is used in software development vastly due to its support to both developers and clients resourcefully. Agile methodology increases the interaction between the developer and client to make the software product defect-free. The agile model is getting to be a well-known life cycle model because of its particular features and most owing is to allow changes at any level of the project from the product owner. However, on other hand, this novel feature is a disadvantage of the agile model due to frequent change requests from the client has increased the cost and time. To overcome cost and time estimation issues different cost estimation techniques are being used in agile development but no one is pertinent for accurate estimation. Therefore, this study has proposed a cost estimation technique. The proposed estimation technique is predictions-based and has different categorizations of projects based on user stories complexities and the developer's expertise. We have applied the suggested technique to ongoing projects to find the results and effectiveness. We have used two projects with different sizes and user stories. Both projects have different modules and developers with different expertise. We have used the proposed estimation technique on projects and done a survey session with the teams. This survey session's main objective is to reveal the statistical findings of the proposed solution. We have designed the 12 hypotheses for statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the quantitative perspective of the agile transformation processes in IT organisations. The phenomenon of agile transformation becomes a complex challenge for an IT organisation since it has not been analysed in detail sofar. There is no research on the readiness of IT organisations to realise agile transformation processes. Such processes also prove to have uncontrolled character. Therefore, to minimise the risk of failure referring to the realisation of transformation processes, it is necessary to monitor them. It is also necessary to identify and analyse such processes to ensure their continuous character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, considerable attention is paid to agile methods as a means to improve management of software development processes. The widespread use of such methods in professional contexts has encouraged their integration into software engineering training and undergraduate courses. Although several research efforts have focused on teaching Scrum through simulating a software development project, they covered only the learning of programming practices within a Scrum team. Furthermore, few studies tackle nontechnical skills other than the development practices themselves. The work presented here introduces an original Scrum-based training model enhanced with agile coaching to maximize student performance. This was validated by a case study on a capstone project in a Scrum course. This paper summarizes the positive results of introducing agile coaching, which resulted in approximately 22% more coverage of software engineering practices. In addition, a survey data showed that, compared to students who did not receive coaching, coached students gained valuable insight into the internalization of Scrum, problem solving, and guidance by means of checkpoint meetings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today several trends, such as liberalization, decarbonization, renewable energy sources (RES) growth, electrification, and digitalization, are putting more and more pressure on the way the energy sector operates. This has resulted in ongoing transformation into smart grids (SG) and spreading of energy communities (EC), making use of new digital technologies and renewable sources. Within this paper we aimed to compare the conceptual designs of EC energy market topologies with some of their practical applications in Europe. Although previous studies have already examined selected SG topologies, our work provides an umbrella view of all potential designs of energy market configuration in which a community plays an active role. In addition, we follow a pragmatic approach, comparing theory with practice, and showing how the theoretical EC concept is currently embedded in reality. This paper answers two research questions: (1) Which of the theoretical EC network topologies are currently used in practice (2) How and which network topologies of EC have the greatest chance for the implementation in the future projects? To answer these questions, we conduct a literature review together with a comparison analysis of three case studies from the Netherlands and Denmark. This comparison allowed us to formulate some observations and further recommendations on formal structure, communication, and management, which, in our opinion, are significant for organizations planning to set up their first smart EC initiative, especially in countries where the EC concept has not gained popularity yet. • Microgrid connection, centralized or decentralized business models of EC connection are the most common. • The participation of community members is crucial to succeed. • Technology advanced projects must focus on maintaining good relationship with the EC members. • Scrum framework may prove useful in the pursuit of designing tailor-made solutions. • The replication of the projects in another location is rather limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most critical issues related to the current application of virtual reality during design appraisal is the inability to have a collaborative virtual environment where a group of geographically remote stakeholders can interact and communicate effectively in real-time. This paper addresses this shortcoming by proposing a collaborative furniture, fixture and equipment virtual environment (COFFEE) that allows concurrent multi-users to interact, communicate and collaborate virtually during the design appraisal of interior furnishings of a facility The testing of the proposed system among various construction stakeholders (n = 26) to demonstrate the usability and functionality showed high degree of acceptance by stakeholders as a result of improved visualisation, multi-user communication, and collaboration in the virtual environment. In practice COFFEE is expected to assist interior design stakeholders to make informed decisions and create shared understanding before commencement of construction activity. • This study developed and tested a multiuser virtual reality environment for asynchronous design communication and collaboration in the furniture, fixture and equipment (FFE) sector. • The study utilises BIM, a game development engine and a low latency cloud server for collaborating with geographically dispersed stakeholders. • The study introduces the BIM authoring tool to game engine data exchange workflow without losing metadata. • A framework for integrating a collaborative multi-user virtual reality environment and Scrum methodology for lean construction is proposed. • The study contributes to the AEC industry and specifically the FFE sector's decision communication and collaboration in an immersive environment without information latency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Software scrum development. • Software cost estimation is still a complex task. • Effort estimation techniques in scrum still has some flaws that need to be resolve. Scrum methodology is the most useful and adopted part of the agile methodology. Many organizations are adopting Scrum for the last decade to meet their software requirements. It is facilitating the software industries to develop software applications according to the user's requirements. Scrum helps to fulfill the customer's requirements by interacting with the client and developer. Instead of this, scrum still has some challenges that influence the cost of a scrum. These challenging factors include coordination, team size, change request, complexity, and issues in daily meeting sessions. Due to these factors mostly the cost and time exceed scrum-based projects. To overcome these issues from the accurate and precise estimation in the scrum project we have developed a web-based software system to estimate the effort of a user story as well as the budget. There are some sophisticated cost estimation techniques for scrum-based projects. But all estimation techniques have some limitations that make them less useful for estimation and overcoming the effects of these factors in the scrum. We have surveyed the multiple software industries to get the static findings of the survey. We have designed the 30 hypotheses that main aim to reveal how much the proposed estimation technique is valuable for the accuracy of estimation. For the inclusion of participants, we have set the age criteria to get the opinions of the most experienced programmers. The main aim of this paper is to provide knowledge about key challenging factors in Scrum that cause exceed in cost and time, and also briefly explain why existing scrum cost estimation techniques are not pertinent for projects. In the last, we propose a framework as a solution to manage these factors and control cost and time from exceeding. We also adopted this estimation technique in different case studies in software industries for findings and results. The technique calculates the efforts autonomously. We design a software-based estimation technique that collects inputs from team/s and estimates the cost and time of a project. In outcomes, we found that our cost estimation approach reduced the issues from scrum software project development and make it more proficient for estimation of projects. Our proposed estimation technique introduced the new concept of estimation that facilitate the client, software industry, and developers as well to meet the requirements of the client, fulfill the changes during the sprints/s development and deliver the project within the time and cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]