System dynamics modelling of the impact of agile practice on the quality of continuous delivery projects

Abstract

The adoption of agile practices in software projects has been faced with scepticism by practitioners, with concerns about the actual effectiveness of these practices. Using system dynamics, this study investigates the impact of four popular agile practices, Test-Driven Development, Pair Programming, On-site Customer Involvement and Pair Testing, on the quality of continuous delivery projects. The developed system dynamic model, called the predictive continuous delivery model, was developed with an extensive use of existing literature, supported by survey, interviews, historical data and expert’s judgement. Simulation results showed all the investigated agile practices except pair programming have a significant impact on the quality of continuous delivery projects.