Agile Project Management Tools Research Articles

Causal Knowledge Modelling for Agile Development of Enterprise Application Systems

Experience shows that Agile project management tools such as Atlassian Jira capture the state of EAS projects by relying solely on expert judgement that is not supported by any knowledge model. Therefore, the assessment of project content against strategic objectives and business domain features are not supported by any tool. This is one of the reasons why Agile project management still does not provide sufficient EAS project delivery results. In order to address this problem, the Enterprise Application Software (EAS) development using Agile project management is summarized in a conceptual model. The model highlights the knowledge used and indicates its nature (empirical or causal digitized). The modified Agile management process we have developed and described in previous works is based on causal knowledge models that supports EAS development and Agile management processes. The purpose of this article is to specify knowledge repository to ensure the Agile management solutions of an EAS project are aligned with strategic goals and business domain causality. It is worth noticing that strategic goals have been identified and specified as capabilities using some enterprise architecture framework (NAF, MODAF, ArchiMate, etc.). The novelty of the proposed method is incorporating the business domain causal knowledge modelling approach into the Agile project management process. The causal knowledge unit is considered as a Management Transaction (MT), which includes closed loop dependence of its components. The modified Agile activity hierarchy (theme, initiative, epic, user story) defines the required content of their mutual interactions. An important new results obtained are the conceptual model of causal knowledge base (KB) and specification of enhanced Agile management tool components: project management database and project state assesment knowledge base. Causal KB includes specification of causal knowledge unit (MT metamodel) and specifications of traditional and causal Agile hierarchy meta-models. These conceptual models define the causal knowledge components necessary to evaluate the state of Agile activities in the EAS development project using intelligent Agile project management tool.

Scrum: A Systematic Literature Review

This study presents a Systematic Literature Review on an agile project management tool. The study offers a brief comparison between traditional and agile project management methodologies. Their respective concepts and characteristics are laid out to highlight and explain their main differences. The agile methods include quantitative and qualitative data, showing Scrum framework characteristics. This study highlights the importance of project management in function of its emergence as a response to problems encountered during improperly conducted projects. Furthermore, this study provides relevant information for professionals in the Industrial Engineering area and computer science. The results allowed us to conclude that Scrum is an agile framework for empirical-based project development; it was developed in the 1990s by Jeff Sutherland. It is a flexible and adaptable methodology. Scrum research peaked in 2020, and continues to be studied, mainly in the field of computer science. Finally, Brazil is well-positioned in third place for works published.

Rapid Digital Transformation Using Agile Methodologies for Software Development Projects

Now a day’s all organizations are moving towards digitalization. These consequences of the use of digital technologies made organizations seek for best and fast digital solutions. All software developer companies are also trying to draw consumer's attention by offering prompt services. In this regard, the critical issue in information technology and other areas of computation is how software can be created easily and rapidly for complex businesses. In this context, the main aim of the research is to show the agile methodology role in the rapid digital transformation. In this paper, we have surveyed different agile methodologies and tools for rapid software development and introduced an agile management tool having a backlog. We identified the key practices of agile methods and after a survey, it is suggested that the agile approach can help to achieve a balance between the applications generated by developers on customer demand. This paper illuminates and translates agile methodologies into agile project management tools for simple and rapid application development. Empirical research based on a case study is provided for better understanding and showing the importance of agility in software development

AGILE APPLICATION IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

The construction industry is dynamic in nature because it involves a wide number of stakeholders, such as consumers, manufacturers, consultants, regulators and others. Construction projects suffer from many challenges and complex performance issues, such as low coordination, job delays, changes in goals. Study on the contrast of conventional and modern methodologies for project management in construction projects. Introduction of Agile project management approach as modern project management methodology and its framework effects on construction project performance. With the use of Agile software development tools comparison of individuals experts and team solutions will be analyzed and evaluate optimum solutions and their comparison with traditional project management tools. In traditional project management, validation of the results has been done through survey of the experienced experts. However, as agile software development tools Jira and Trello software would be used for managing project. Analysis of the research will compare traditional and agile project management tools and suggest the project management team an optimum solution of any problem occur at construction project.

Managing User-Centered Design Activities in Distributed Agile Development

Abstract The integration of user-centered design (UCD) activities into agile information systems development has become more popular recently. Despite the fact that there are many ways the merging of UCD activities into agile development can be carried out, it has been widely recognized that coordinating design activities with development activities is one of the most common problems, especially in distributed environments where designers, developers and users are spread over several sites. The main approach to coordinate UCD activities with distributed agile development is the use of informal methods (e.g. communication through using video conference tools). In addition to the temporal, geographical and socio-cultural barriers associated with this type of methods, a major limitation is a lack of awareness of how UCD activities and development activities affect each other. Furthermore, some agile project management tools are integrated with design platforms but fail to provide the necessary coordination that helps team members understand how the design and development activities affect their daily work. This research aims to support the effective management of integrating UCD activities into distributed agile development by (i) identifying the key activity dependencies between UX design teams and development teams during distributed UCD/agile development and (ii) designing a computer-based system to provide coordination support through managing these activity dependencies. In order to achieve these objectives, two case studies are carried out. Our findings revealed 10 main dependencies between UCD design teams and development teams as shown by six types of activity. In addition, the participatory design approach shows that developing a computer-based system to manage seven of these selected dependencies is achievable.

Lean product development and agile project management in the construction industry

Purpose In recent years, innovative methodologies of product development such as lean product development (LPD) and agile project management (APM) have emerged. Even though previous research studies focused on these subjects, only few of them were focused on traditional industries, as civil construction. The purpose of this paper is to cover a part of this gap by estimating the potential of the application of these two new approaches (LPD and APM) in the construction industry, more specifically on the design stage. Design/methodology/approach For this, a case study has been conducted in order to understand if some of LPD and APM tools and practices had already been used, and also to evaluate the potential application of these new methodologies. Three Brazilian companies have been evaluated, all of them were exclusive executors of the design stage and presented distinct characteristics (size, structure, business model, etc.). Findings The results show that there is currently little adherence to LPD and APM practices within the companies studied. In terms of potential application of these new methodologies, the study has identified evidence regarding technical similarities between the reported cases and others mentioned in literature. However, the interviewees’ reception of these concepts was mostly pessimistic, showing considerable resistance to changes in the current process. Originality/value According to the analysis, the study identified that the main challenge/hampering to the implementation of these tools in the cases studied herein are the functional organizational structures, the customer–supplier relationships and the internal cultural resistance to change.

Agile Project Management Tools: A Brief Comprative View

Abstract Agile methodologies are becoming popular in software development. Managers are required to understand project’s progress and product quality without development documents. During Agile practices of the teams and organizations, Agile project management tools are frequently used. The use of such tools leads to achieving speed and efficiency, affects the quality of the software. The quality of final product is mostly related with to project management. Accordingly, the paper provides brief comparative perspective about the popular project management tools for agile projects. 16 popular Agile project management tools have been presented helping agile developers to plan and manage their tasks in an efficient manner. Taiga, Axosoft, Agielan, Planbox are more appropriate for start-up projects. The most twitted and most appreciated tools are reported as Jira, Trello, and VersionOne. SpiraTeam by Inflectra and Pivotal Tracker are other pricing and popular agile tools, providing flexibility to Agile developers and increase collaboration among team members.

Towards data-driven software engineering skills assessment

Purpose Today’s software engineers often work in teams to develop complex software systems. Therefore, successful software engineering in practice require team members to possess not only sound programming skills such as analysis, design, coding and testing but also soft skills such as communication, collaboration and self-management. However, existing examination-based assessments are often inadequate for quantifying students’ soft skill development. The purpose of this paper is to explore alternative ways for assessing software engineering students’ skills through a data-driven approach. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the exploratory data analysis approach is adopted. Leveraging the proposed online agile project management tool – Human-centred Agile Software Engineering (HASE), a study was conducted involving 21 Scrum teams consisting of over 100 undergraduate software engineering students in multi-week coursework projects in 2014. Findings During this study, students performed close to 170,000 software engineering activities logged by HASE. By analysing the collected activity trajectory data set, the authors demonstrate the potential for this new research direction to enable software engineering educators to have a quantifiable way of understanding their students’ skill development, and take a proactive approach in helping them improve their programming and soft skills. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has yet to be published previous studies using software engineering activity data to assess software engineers’ skills.