Agile Based Software Development Research Articles

A conceptual model supporting decision-making for test automation in Agile-based Software Development

With the rise of agile development notion, software test automation is widely adopted by software organizations to reduce the testing time and costs during the software development process. However, it is essential to carefully implement the test automation to ensure the project’s success. In the literature, several studies have indicated that decision-making is crucial for the adoption of test automation. For deciding about test automation adoption, several factors, including the skill level of testers, test tool, and development process, need to be considered since automated testing performance heavily depends on the mentioned factors and their interactions. Thus, it is of vital importance to ascertain the factors that influence test automation in the context of Agile-based Software Development (ASD). To accomplish this, we perform a systematic literature review and a questionnaire-based survey. In total, 21 factors are identified that significantly impact test automation in the ASD context. Additionally, the identified factors are categorized into five main classes. Following the identified factors’ assessment, this work proposes a conceptual model that supports agile practitioners in deciding about the adoption of test automation in the context of ASD. Finally, this work validates the proposed model to assess its practical applicability. The validation of the proposed model is accomplished by using an expert-based validation approach. The attained results show that the proposed model supports agile practitioners in estimating the possibility of success when implementing test automation in the ASD context.

Feasibility documents as critical structuring objects: An approach to the study of documents in digital research production

Documents have been increasingly recognised as important objects of investigation in Science and Technology Studies (STS); however, so far, much less attention has been given to the study of documents produced in Digital Humanities. The author proposes therefore to use the method of the ‘STS of documents’ and analyse Feasibility documents that aim to assess technical and design requirements based on research questions and to organise a project workflow. Drawing on the ethnography of King’s Digital Lab, the article investigates Feasibility documents produced by the lab within the Agile-based Software Development Lifecycle framework. The article aims to show that Feasibility documents (1) inform ethnographic work about lab workflow and management and in doing so, are able to capture the interconnectedness of work layers and practices; (2) enable an empirical analysis of digital research projects and the process of translation from research questions, to methods, to technical solutions; (3) are critical structuring objects that structure the research process and relationships between involved actors and are structured by local institutional strategies and decisions. The author conducts a ‘feasibility analysis’ that reveals the project management and development stages: the analytical process (the translation of research questions into technical solutions); the production process (the move from technical and design practices to research answers) and the infrastructure and management process (project workflow and sustainability solutions). Drawing on Agre’s critical technical practice and Digital Humanities’ theories of critical production, the article seeks to shift attention from end-product digital artefacts towards the complex process of their creation, which can unpack a range of social, technological and management issues. In doing so, it also aims to provide a methodological framework for the analysis of documents produced in Digital Humanities that have the potential to unearth new questions about the socio-technical nature of digital production.

An Efficient Framework for Cost and Effort Estimation of Scrum Projects

Abstract: Software Process Models from its inception instill standardization and creates a generic culture of developing software for various IT industries. A great paradigm shift has been observed in terms of embracing Agile Development methodology as a viable development methodology in cross key business units. There is a buffet of agile methodologies comes under the umbrella of ASD, out of which Scrum got the highest popularity and acceptability index. Agile based software development is the need of immediate environment. There is an increasing demand for significant changes to software systems to meet ever-changing user requirements and specifications. As Agile is volatile, so effort estimation is challenging and still striving for perfection to decide size, effort, cost, duration and schedule of projects with minimum error. This cause sensitizes potential researchers all across the globe to start working on addressing the issue of inaccurate predication of efforts. The gap between estimated and actual effort is because of limited or no inclusion of various estimation factors like people and project related factors, inappropriate use of size metric and cost drivers, ignorance of testing effort, team member’s inability to understand user story size and complexity etc. This paper attempts to bridge the gap of estimated and actual effort by the use of soft computing techniques thus taking the research to advance frontier area in terms ofestimation. Keywords: Cost Estimation, Effort Estimation, Scrum, Machine Learning, Agile Software Development

An efficient effort and cost estimation framework for Scrum Based Projects

Software Process Models from its inception instill standardization and creates a generic culture of developing software for various IT industries. A great paradigm shift has been observed in terms of embracing Agile Development methodology as a viable development methodology in cross key business units. There is a buffet of agile methodologies comes under the umbrella of ASD, out of which Scrum got the highest popularity and acceptability index. Agile based software development is the need of immediate environment. There is an increasing demand for significant changes to software systems to meet ever-changing user requirements and specifications. As Agile is volatile, so effort estimation is challenging and still striving for perfection to decide size, effort, cost, duration and schedule of projects with minimum error. This cause sensitizes potential researchers all across the globe to start working on addressing the issue of inaccurate predication of efforts. The gap between estimated and actual effort is because of limited or no inclusion of various estimation factors like people and project related factors, inappropriate use of size metric and cost drivers, ignorance of testing effort, team member’s inability to understand user story size and complexity etc. This paper attempts to bridge the gap of estimated and actual effort by the use of soft computing techniques thus taking the research to advance frontier area in terms of estimation.

Collective tacit knowledge generation through play

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature by examining the generation of collective tacit knowledge (CTK) in organizations through social ludic activities (SLAs) as a specific form of playful micro-practice carried out by employees.Design/methodology/approachThis paper builds upon socially distributed cognition (SDC) and transactive memory systems (TMS) to analyze SLAs’ contribution to CTK creation in the workplace. These theories provide conceptual underpinnings for comprehending how workers self-organize shared activities to store, retrieve and use each other’s tacit knowledge within the collective. An example is provided to illustrate SLAs’ manifestation in an agile-based software development firm.FindingsSLAs may facilitate collective members’ knowing and learning whereby different solutions are sought and potential tactics to cope with work issues are attuned to changing conditions by the collective members at work. Four moderating factors, namely physical proximity, psychological safety, richness of communication pathways and intensity of interactions, are identified and propositions to conceptualize their role in CTK generation through SLAs are formulated.Practical implicationsSLA players’ efforts to solve dysfunctionalities at work are not merely prompted by interdependencies among work-related tasks but also driven by high levels of social embeddedness and interaction among employees. Managers should become more supportive of collective playful activities in their organizations by building a propitious corporate climate for the mobilization of CTK in the workplace. Understanding SLAs as a soft group device where CTK resides, transits, is enacted and continuously metamorphosed represents an important complement to hard devices offered by information systems.Originality/valueRelying on the notion of SLAs as a means to cope with work concerns, the authors integrate insights from organizational play, knowledge management, SDC and TMS literatures to advance the authors’ understanding of CTK creation through collective playful undertakings at work.

Empirical Study of Agile Software Development Methodologies

In today's software industry, technological prowess and ever-evolving customer requirements have led to more complex software demands. Agile based software development is increasingly being adopted by the software practitioners as it assures early software development and high quality software products. Also, it offers responsiveness to changes in user requirements, providing for their quick absorption during software development. In this paper, we elaborate the significance, benefits and increasing adoption of Agile methodologies in context of today's complex and evolving software demands. The main objective of this paper is to conduct an empirical study into the choice among the most popular Agile methodologies, Scrum, Extreme Programming and Kanban. Further, this paper provides for a comparative analysis among various agile software development methodologies. Our survey results reveal higher adoption of Scrum based development in present-day software industry as compared to Extreme Programming and Kanban methodologies.

Defect Management in Agile Software Development

Agile development reduces the risk of developing low quality software in the first place by minimizing defects. In agile software development formal defect management processes help to build quality software. The core purpose of defect management is to make the software more effective and efficient in order to increase its quality. There are several methods for handling defects like defect prevention, defect discovery and resolution which are used by software developers and testers. Refactoring keeps the system clean by identifying and removing quality defects. To gain the full confidence of the customer defect management should be involved at every stage of development. Agile methodologies focus on delivering the software in form of short iterations. Thus each iteration helps to overcome defects and leads better development and end user satisfaction. This study paints the picture of handling the software defects using agile based Software Development Process.

Empirical Study of Cost Management Success Determinants in Agile based Software Development Project: A Rasch Measurement Model Analysis

Ineffective cost management in software development causes project over budget and strongly contributed to project failure. Due to that, it is important to look at the success determinants that help software development community to have better cost management of the project. This paper identifies the success determinants in agile based software development project. The online survey is used in order to collect data from the respondents. The items involve the cost management process in the company in Malaysia. This paper used Rasch Measurement Model to analyze the result. Preliminary findings show a small number of respondents and the respondents are not representing the sampling unit becomes a problem to generalize the result. As a result, this paper provides very low item reliability and person reliability is acceptable. Therefore, more feedback from respondent is needed in order to increase the item and person reliability.