Adoption Of Agile Methodologies Research Articles

Reducing Technical Debt through Strategic Leadership in Retail Technology Systems

In the fast-paced and highly competitive landscape of retail, the management of technical debt has become a critical challenge for organizations striving to maintain robust and scalable technology systems. Technical debt, the accumulated cost of prioritizing quick fixes or suboptimal solutions over more sustainable and efficient options, can significantly hinder an organization's ability to innovate, adapt, and grow. This paper explores the role of strategic leadership in effectively reducing technical debt within retail technology systems. By examining key leadership strategies, such as fostering a culture of continuous improvement, investing in long-term technology planning, and emphasizing cross-functional collaboration, the paper highlights how retail organizations can systematically address and mitigate technical debt. Strategic leadership in the retail sector involves a comprehensive understanding of both business and technological imperatives. Leaders must recognize the implications of technical debt not only in terms of immediate financial costs but also in the broader context of business agility, customer experience, and competitive advantage. The paper emphasizes the need for leaders to adopt a proactive approach, prioritizing technical debt reduction as a strategic objective that aligns with the organization's overall goals. One of the central arguments of the paper is that effective technical debt management requires a shift from reactive to proactive leadership. This involves anticipating potential issues, encouraging innovation, and making informed decisions that balance short-term gains with long-term sustainability. The paper discusses various leadership practices that contribute to this shift, including the implementation of robust governance frameworks, the adoption of agile methodologies, and the promotion of a learning-oriented organizational culture.

Agile transformation in the energy sector: empowering autonomous teams

Purpose This study aims to explore how to structure an energy organization to be more agile in the context of digitalization and find the common success factors and challenges the organizations face to transform. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative multiple-case study of an energy company and an online market company, both from the Nordic countries, was conducted in 2023. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with 16 participants. Findings This research provides valuable insights into the challenges and critical success factors crucial for a successful digital transformation. The study illuminates the interplay between technological advancements and organizational shifts, the adoption of agile methodologies, the importance of inclusive leadership and the integration of autonomous teams in realizing digital transformation goals. The research emphasizes the profound impact of these factors on the transformational journey within organizations. In particular, the adoption of agile methodologies takes on heightened significance in the swiftly evolving business landscape of today, calling for a transition from project-centric approaches to more adaptive and sustainable product-centric models. Originality/value The study contributes to the practice and enhanced understanding of organizing business and technology teams in energy companies to achieve fast flow. The analysis and discussion of various empirical findings shed light on the success factors and challenges of digital transformation – issues that many organizations are currently or will likely soon be grappling with. The impact of different organizational structures on agility in an organization has yet to be thoroughly studied.

Transforming educational leadership in higher education with innovative administrative strategies

In developing nations particularly in Africa, innovative administrative strategies are essential for educational leaders to navigate inherent challenges in education. This study aims to explore how educational leaders in higher education can be equipped with innovative administrative strategies to cause a positive change in education delivery. A systematic literature review was conducted to achieve this aim, drawing on the transformational leadership model as its theoretical underpinning. The search encompassed scholarly publications from major repositories like Scopus, Web of Science, and International Bibliography of the Social Sciences and Textbooks from 1967 to 2023. The search process went a series of exclusive and inclusive processes and yielded 43 research articles. The synthesized findings were analyzed using a thematic approach. The findings indicate that transformational leadership has the potential to incorporate innovation into higher educational administrative practices. It was also found that innovative administrative practices in higher education can be achieved through staff motivation, technology integration, adoption of agile methodologies, collaborative research, interdisciplinary collaboration, seminars, workshops, and positive organizational culture. Based on the findings, professional development programs for managers and administrators in higher education were highly recommended. These programs would help enhance the knowledge and skills of employees in educational administration.

Competitiveness as a Key Factor in Successful Strategic Business Management

This article explores the impact of competitiveness on the effectiveness of strategic business management. The study analyzes the main factors determining a company's competitiveness in the modern market, highlighting their interrelationship with strategic management approaches. A detailed examination of key methods and tools used to enhance competitiveness and ensure sustainable business development is presented. The paper characterizes how strategic management can influence a company's ability to maintain a competitive edge by aligning business processes with market demands. The research identifies innovative approaches and technologies as crucial elements for strengthening competitiveness. A comprehensive set of measures is proposed to improve strategic management, including the integration of digital solutions, process optimization, and the adoption of agile methodologies. The article also discusses the importance of aligning organizational culture with strategic goals to foster an environment conducive to continuous improvement and innovation. Furthermore, the study provides practical recommendations for implementing strategic initiatives aimed at reinforcing the company's market position amidst intense competition. These recommendations emphasize the need for adaptive strategies that can respond to rapidly changing market conditions and consumer preferences. The role of leadership in driving these strategic initiatives and the significance of cross-functional collaboration within the organization are also explored. The article concludes by considering the long-term prospects for further research in the field of strategic management, particularly in the context of ensuring sustained competitiveness. Future studies could focus on the evolving challenges of the global market and the strategies required to navigate these challenges effectively. The importance of continuous learning and the adoption of a proactive approach to strategic planning are underscored as essential for maintaining a competitive advantage in a dynamic business environment.

A THEORETICAL VIEW ABOUT AGILE MANAGEMENT IN BANK SECTOR

The adoption of Agile methodologies is one of the biggest topics in large organisations and many IT departments nowadays. Banks must introduce new flexible approaches to keep up with the changes in the market, especially regarding the new digital technologies. Large enterprises in all information system programs have implemented Agile approaches because of the widespread benefits. Unlike traditional development model, agile guidelines encourage businesses to follow a straightforward and data-oriented procedure and continually test and learn, rather than producing a final product before testing. This research aims to explore the benefits of Agile approaches in the banking industry and the problems with implementing such methods in product development processes. This study also leads to speedy marketing by offering a minimum viable product (MVP) that satisfies consumers’ needs and can be easily adapted. Although various studies explored the implementation of agile principles in multiple contexts, this research is based primarily on the banking software industry. The banking sector must transform itself, to become more digital. However, digital processes are not as simple as in other sectors because banks operate on regulated markets, making it even more challenging to adopt Agile methods. In conjunction with the Agile approaches, this study also illustrates the current management practices. This research is mostly theoretical and qualitative, attempting to complete an existing gap by thoroughly reviewing the existing literature on Agile methodologies for software development and reviewing the standards for banks’ software development life cycles. Managing the regulatory climate in which banks work is an essential challenge in optimizing agility. This paper’s findings contribute to the field by offering an insight into how Agile approaches can be implemented on the banking setting by analysing the existing literature, with a focus on financial software development.

Exploring the opportunity for a hybrid methodology in project management: a focus group approach

Nowadays, project-based work is no longer a challenge for a today company. Optimizing the workforce, better managing the results, delivering in time, quality and budget (the triple constrains [1]) are just a few of the advantages. Still, to re-organize an entire company into a project-based organization requires a lot of efforts and energy across its departments and teams. However, some companies step forward and change the project management methodologies multiple times. That brings another wave of changes, stress and reorganizations combined with a complex organizational phenomenon, which requires far more effort than just to replace the current tools and technologies with new ones [2]. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to reflect and present the results of the workshop called “Going Agile – the journey”, which was held on Project Management Forum 2019, a Conference organized inside of Continental Automotive Romania for all project managers working in the company. Based on the focus group technique there was identified the main struggles associated with the adoption of Agile methodology within Automotive Industry, the similarities with the plan-driven methodologies and willingness to advance the agility in company’s daily working life.

AUTILE Framework: An AUTOSAR Driven Agile Development Methodology to Reduce Automotive Software Defects

This article introduces AUTOSAR Driven Agile Development (AUTILE) Framework as a new methodology to develop automotive software with an aim to reduce the number of defects and their severity. Automotive software, developed in a traditional/legacy way, currently must be rewritten from scratch to support new features or modifications in associated hardware. Disruptive automotive megatrends: connectivity, electrification, and autonomous driving continue to demand new features in a complex software-base. As a result, greater quality issues are faced when more functionality is added to traditional, nonstandardized automotive software. Several researchers have proposed standardization of automotive software to improve the software quality. However, as yet, the industry lacks a de facto standard. At the heart of the AUTILE Framework, we recommend following automotive open system architecture standard as the basis to design modular and open software architecture. To further realize the benefits of modular software architecture designed in the first phase, AUTILE chooses and integrates Agile methodologies as its software development approach. Widespread adoption of Agile methodologies for automotive software development has not occurred and this research highlights the enablers and barriers in this domain. The proposed framework was applied practically to develop automotive software projects, demonstrating that defect reduction can be accomplished using the steps outlined in this new methodology.

Effects of Agile adoption on Trust, Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration in IT Organizations

Adoption of Agile methodologies in IT organizations has revolutionized software development. It has improved speed of development, quality of final product, customer satisfaction, project control and reduced risk and wastage. Agile methodology is however not just a process but it is a philosophy that has a deep impact on the behavior and mindset of employees. Current paper attempts to study this impact and deduce whether it has a positive impact on Trust, Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration.

Investigation on test effort estimation of mobile applications: Systematic literature review and survey

Abstract Context In the last few years, the exigency of mobile devices has proliferated to prodigious heights. The process of developing the mobile software/application proceeds amidst testing phase to verify the correctness of the mobile app. The estimation of testing plays a vital role in the effective completion of testing. Objective To identify how estimation of test effort for mobile applications is distinct from other software via published literature and from mobile software organizations. Second is to recognize different issues in adapting traditional test estimation methods to the mobile domain and if suggestions from survey results could be helpful in providing an improved test estimation model for mobile applications. Method A systematic literature review is conducted followed by a survey through an online questionnaire filled from experienced mobile application developers and testers. Results The results from SLR cover identification of mobile app specific characteristics and reports test effort estimation techniques in the mobile domain. Findings from survey corroborate that a) Function Point/Test Point Analysis is highly adapted traditional test estimation technique to mobile domain; b) Challenges like uncertain requirements, no tool support for test estimation, complexity in testing, client miscommunication etc. are reported; c)Suggestions to improve test estimation process include proper test planning, adoption of agile methodology, healthier communication among client, developer, and tester etc.; d) On the basis of responses, Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) identifies “Diverse Devices and OS” along with “Type of App” as highly influential mobile app characteristic on the test estimation process. Conclusion Results conclude that the importance of identified mobile app characteristics from SLR cannot be ignored in the estimation process of mobile software testing. There might be a possibility to improve existing test estimation techniques for mobile apps by giving weight to mobile app specific characteristics and by considering suggestions from experienced developers and testers.

Software Size Estimation in Incremental Software Development based on Improved Pairwise Comparison Matrices

sizing is a crucial activity among the task of software management. Work planning and subsequent estimation of effort required is based on the estimate of the software size required. Software developers are realizing the need to speed up the development process to respond to customers needs .This has resulted in adoption of rapid development methods and adoption of agile methodologies. Incremental method of software development has been adopted as one of the methods to speed up software development. Unfortunately there is little work that has been done to develop a clear framework to estimate software size and cost in incremental software development environment. This research work proposes the use of Pairwise Comparison matrices framework to estimate size and cost in incremental software development and evaluate the pairwise comparison framework against Putmans size estimation model to determine if it produces more accurate results in terms of estimation of size relative to actual size. Keywordsjudgment matrix; Incremental Estimation

Software Size Estimation in Incremental Software Development Based On Improved Pairwise Comparison Matrices

Software sizing is a crucial activity among the task of software management. Work planning and subsequent estimation of effort required is based on the estimate of the software size required. Software developers are realizing the need to speed up the development process to respond to customers’ needs. This has resulted in adoption of rapid development methods and adoption of agile methodologies. Incremental method of software development has been adopted as one of the methods to speed up software development. Unfortunately there is little work that has been done to develop a clear framework to estimate software size and cost in incremental software development environment. This research work proposes the use of Pairwise Comparison matrices framework to estimate size and cost in incremental software development and evaluate the pairwise comparison framework against Putman’s size estimation model to determine if it produces more accurate results in terms of estimation of size relative to actual size.

The Impact of Agile Methodologies on the Quality of Information Systems

Systems developers and IT project managers who apply agile methods for developing information systems (IS) subscribe to a set of values and principles. This adherence to a set of values and principles, along with a passion or fervor surrounding the agile philosophy, made us question whether the adoption of agile methodologies has an effect on information systems built, and in particular, the quality of the IS developed. In this paper we construct a conceptual model, conduct a survey of software developers, and analyze our results, which support our hypotheses about the importance of the strategic selection of a development methodology. We conclude that practicing project managers should consider the decision to use certain methodologies as part of the strategic process.