Scrum Practices Research Articles

Adopting Agile With Scrum by Outsourced Project Teams: A Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Attempts to adopt agile practices are challenged by outsourcing and distributed ways of working popularized in the world today. This paper focuses on outsourcing vendors and empirically examines the progress of agile and Scrum adoption in such environments through the case of information technology companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Qualitative content analysis was employed to analyze data obtained from 142 professionals from 43 companies, whose clients are located around the globe. The empirical results reveal a fairly good level of agile awareness in the tested community, but also confirm the findings of earlier research that obstacles to implementing Scrum in outsourced projects exist, emphasizing issues originating from distant Product Owners, diminished Scrum Master role, and customer influence. Team self-organization is recognized as the best adopted Scrum practice, while the product backlog definition, Scrum events, and the process managed through excessive meetings are among those that still require significant improvements.

Integrating lean production and agile project management: a planning and control model for multi-project environments in construction

The Last Planner System (LPS) and Scrum are established planning and control methods that have produced positive results in managing complex projects. They are based on two different but overlapping theoretical frameworks: Lean Production and Agile Project Management. However, there is a lack of academic studies on how to combine those methods and whether their theoretical underpinnings are compatible. Furthermore, previous studies about those methods have not addressed the context of multiple projects developed simultaneously, and the connections between project management from the perspective of client organisations and production management from the perspective of suppliers. This research work proposes a planning and control model for this context. Using Design Science Research (DSR), an empirical study was carried out at a department store company in Brazil. The practical contributions of this study are related to adapting and combining LPS and Scrum elements to the context investigated. The model includes innovative practices, such as integrated look-ahead planning meetings between the project and the production management levels and using Scrum practices to remove certain constraints. This study also sheds light on the commonalities and differences between LPS and Scrum based on how they support the application of important production principles in construction.

Enhancing agile product development with scrum methodologies: A detailed exploration of implementation practices and benefits

This study conducts a systematic literature review to examine the implementation, challenges, and ongoing evolution of Scrum methodologies within Agile product development frameworks. Aimed at understanding how Scrum can be effectively tailored to meet the needs of diverse organizational contexts, especially in scenarios involving remote and distributed teams, the research also seeks to uncover the trajectory of Agile practices' continuous evolution. Employing a rigorous methodology, the review analyzed peer-reviewed articles and conference papers from key academic databases, including IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Scopus, published between 2013 and 2024. The selection was based on relevance to Scrum practices, empirical evidence, and theoretical contributions to the field of Agile development. Key insights from the study underscore the critical role of Scrum in enhancing collaboration, flexibility, and responsiveness in product development processes. Challenges identified include the necessity of overcoming organizational resistance and the importance of customizing Scrum practices to align with specific project and team dynamics. Notably, the research highlights Scrum's adaptability in supporting distributed teams through strategic communication and trust-building measures. Furthermore, the study points to the integration of Scrum with DevOps and its application beyond software development as indicators of its evolutionary potential within Agile methodologies. Finally, the study offers strategic recommendations for organizations adopting Scrum, emphasizing cultural adaptation, continuous training, and practice customization. It also suggests avenues for future research, particularly in exploring Scrum's integration with emerging technologies and broader industry applications, contributing valuable insights into enhancing Agile product development efficacy through Scrum methodologies. Keywords: Scrum Methodologies, Agile Product Development, Distributed Teams, Continuous Evolution.

E-Balikas: English to Ilocano Language Mobile Translator Application

The tourism sector relies primarily on communication. Both industry practitioners and tourists must be able to communicate using a medium that both parties can understand. The purpose of this study is to create a mobile application that provides an English to Ilocano language guide for tourists visiting Ilocos Norte. The e-Balikas mobile application delivers interactive Ilocano translations for popular English words such as essential expressions, directions and places, and emergency and safety needs. The descriptive-developmental approach was used in the study, which also embraced the concepts and practices of SCRUM as a framework for building the application. Usability testing was also carried out utilizing the USE tool to assess the application's usability and acceptability among identified tourists to Ilocos Norte via random sampling. The application enables responders to search and translate frequently used terms and phrases related to essential expressions, directions and places, and emergency and safety needs. Additional features include a visual of the word or phrase, along with the pronunciation, and audio playing to allow the user to hear the actual native speaker pronunciation. The respondents agreed that the objectives are met in terms of user friendliness, functionality, and portability. With an average mean of 4.53, it is assumed that the majority of respondents were "Very Satisfied" with the application. The e-Balikas application meets the respondents' needs for English to Ilocano translations and also improves the English to Ilocano language guides, and they were grateful for the benefit of information technology. Furthermore, the application performs as intended, with a high level of dependability and security. It is also adaptable enough to be readily installed and set on a wide range of devices and it adheres to established portability criteria.

Behaviour-driven development and metrics framework for enhanced agile practices in scrum teams

ContextAgile methodologies highlight collaborative efforts among software engineering groups for iterative, high-quality product delivery within short timeframes. However, Scrum teams face persistent challenges in achieving these objectives, stemming from difficulties in seamless collaboration and effective communication among various roles, such as developers and testers. To address these issues, Scrum teams are increasingly adopting Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD), a testing technique fostering collaboration and shared understanding through test scenarios. ObjectivesThis research investigates the adoption of BDD practices in Scrum teams and the formulation of a metrics framework tailored for optimizing Scrum practices and product quality. MethodsEmploying action research, this study extends over two and half years, actively engaging Scrum team members and stakeholders to encompass their collaborative contributions, insights, and perspectives. It commences with defining a metrics framework through exploration within agile teams to measure and evaluate Scrum team performance. Subsequently, the focus shifts to implementing BDD practices systematically, employing training sessions, workshops, and iterative refinements. ResultsThe results of the study emphasize the substantial role of Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) in improving collaboration, communication, and the comprehension of requirements within the Scrum team. Concurrently, the tailored metrics framework bolsters quality assurance practices, enhancing software quality and customer satisfaction. BDD adoption expedites automation and product delivery, while the metrics framework enables informed decision-making. ConclusionsCombining BDD practices with a custom metrics framework offers a holistic strategy for addressing Scrum challenges. Enhanced collaboration, communication, and requirements comprehension, resulting from BDD, synergize with the metrics framework to elevate Scrum teams' performance, software quality, and customer value. This research underlines the importance of adopting BDD as a testing methodology to achieve these improvements in Scrum teams.

Effective Communication in Globally Distributed Scrum: A Model and Practical Guidance

A trend in information systems development is for globally distributed teams to use agile methods and frameworks such as Scrum. In globally distributed (GD) software development, a known challenge is effective team communication. Researchers, however, cannot evaluate effective communication in GD teams using Scrum unless they know what effective communication means in that context. This qualitative study contributes a theoretical model of effective communication in GD Scrum teams and practical guidance for practitioners. Ten industry professionals working in GD Scrum teams were interviewed to capture their understanding of effective communication. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the interviews and form a basis for the model and the practical guidance. This novel model consists of communication transparency, communication quality, and communication discipline, which together lead to the alignment of team understanding (i.e., a team-level shared mental model). This theoretical model lays the ground for future research into the effect of Scrum practices on communication in GD contexts, and the effect of communication on team and project success. For practitioners, this study contributes 11 practical actions that professionals recommend for improving and sustaining effective communication.

Development of a Project-Based Learning Monitoring Application for Programming Courses

In higher education programming courses, students often perform individual practical activities using their own devices, resulting in varying conditions and difficulty in ensuring proper application of the taught concepts. Limited access to equipment further hampers student progress. To address these challenges, implementing the Scrum framework in programming courses is proposed. Scrum offers problem-solving approaches emphasizing collaboration, self-organization, and cross-functional teams for effective teamwork and optimal solutions. However, existing project management tools like Trello and Notion, although free, have limitations when applied to Scrum. Trello lacks multi-sprint support, while Notion's complex customization features complicate usability. To overcome these limitations, this research aims to develop an application specifically tailored to Scrum practices. The objective is to design and create a comprehensive application that serves as both a learning platform and a project management tool. By leveraging this application, students will be able to enhance their learning experience and perform better project management, ensuring effective collaboration and communication among team members. The proposed application will address the limitations of existing tools and provide a seamless Scrum implementation within the programming course. Ultimately, the research seeks to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of programming education by empowering students with a robust and user-friendly platform that aligns with the Scrum framework.

Teamwork dynamics in the context of large-size software development courses

BackgroundEffectively facilitating teamwork experiences, particularly in the context of large-size courses, is difficult to implement. This study seeks to address the challenges of implementing effective teamwork experiences in large courses. This study integrated teamwork pedagogy to facilitate a semester-long project in the context of a large-size class comprising 118 students organized into 26 teams. The data for this study were collected from two online teamwork sessions when teams collaborated and self-recorded during the in-class time. The video recordings were qualitatively analyzed to identify patterns in team dynamics processes through visualizations. The study aims to provide insights into the different ways team members engaged in team dynamics processes during different phases of the semester.ResultsFindings suggest that members of teams were mostly active and passive during meetings and less constructive and interactive in their engagement. Team members mainly engaged in communication, team orientation, and feedback behaviors. Over time, team members' interactions with one another remained about the same, with feedback behaviors tending to diminish and coordination behaviors staying about the same or slightly increasing over time.ConclusionThe implications of this study extend to both practice and theory. Practically, combining cooperative learning and scrum practices enabled a blend of collaborative and cooperative work, which suggests providing teams with tools and structures to coordinate teamwork processes and promote interaction among team members. From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to the understanding of temporal aspects of teamwork dynamics by examining how team interactions evolve during working sessions at different points in time. Overall, this research provides valuable insights for educators, practitioners, and researchers aiming to enhance teamwork experiences in large courses, particularly in software development disciplines.

Strengthening Sustainability in Agile Education: Using Client-Sponsored Projects to Cultivate Agile Talents

The success of agile in software development (SD) has sparked the application of agile in non-SD domains such as business management to improve operational efficiency and innovation. Despite the rising industry demands for agile talents in the non-SD domains, agile education falls short of client-sponsored projects, calling into question the sustainability of agile education. This study makes up for the gap and illustrates an eight-month endeavor where scrum practices and values were imbued in a client-sponsored project. The analysis of qualitative and quantitative data gathered throughout the eight-month project illustrates a large disparity among students in their scrum application, reveals top challenges faced by students in their scrum application, and suggests the impact of the scrum application on the quality of student work. The findings of the study set a solid foundation based on which future agile education could be enhanced to strengthen the sustainability of agile education to meet industries’ rising demands for agile talents in non-SD domains.

Agility-based knowledge management method for small and medium-sized enterprises

ABSTRACT Knowledge is a vital asset for organisations. It requires organisations to consider Knowledge Management (KM) activities in their processes. Nowadays, KM is relatively well applied in large organisations, but various constraints are faced by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). This article aims to define an agility-based KM method for the SME context. A lot of research has been performed in the direction of facilitating knowledge sharing in agile projects, while our research aims to present an original and concrete KM method for SMEs by integrating agility principles. We point out that (i) the KM combined with Agile Scrum practices could adapt to SMEs’ specificities, and (ii) SMEs present several positive specificities for the agile-based KM implementation. An application of the method is built in collaboration with Axsens-bte, a SME company specialising in consultancy and training in the supply chain and industrial methods.

Measuring Maturity Level of Scrum Practices in Software Development Using Scrum Maturity Model

Measuring Maturity Level of Scrum Practices in Software Development Using Scrum Maturity Model

МЕТОДОЛОГІЯ SCRUM, ЯК ІНСТРУМЕНТ МЕХАНІЗМУ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ ГНУЧКОГО ПІДХОДУ ДО ЗМІН В ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ВИПРОБУВАЛЬНОЇ ЛАБОРАТОРІЇ ЛЕГКОЇ ПРОМИСЛОВОСТІ

The testing laboratory of light industry carries out tests of various types of materials for compliance with the requirements of regulatory documents: standards, regulations, technical conditions, etc. According to the goals of customers, tests can be conducted to allow products to enter the market and confirm the possibility of safe use and application of products, as well as to determine the actual quality of products, providing customer confidence, as a result, reduces economic risks. To ensure that the results are recognized by all market participants, the test laboratory must be accredited to comply with international standards. Accreditation is carried out in accordance with DSTU ISO / IEC 17025: 2019 [1]. By implementing a management system in accordance with the standard, the test laboratory demonstrates confirmation of the laboratory's competence and ensures the recognition of test results. At the same time, it demonstrates compliance with the principles and requirements of DSTU ISO 9001: 2015 [2]. There is no specific methodology for the implementation of the requirements of the standard. Each laboratory must determine it at its own discretion. We will try to apply for the implementation and enforcement of the requirements of DSTU ISO / IEC 17025: 2019 [1] SCRUM methodology. When we talk about the SCRUM methodology, we often mean a flexible software development methodology based on SCRUM rules and practices. But recently it is increasingly used in other industries, such as finance and banking, project development and more. Thanks to the strategies and capabilities of the SCRUM methodology, teamwork is built, the desire to achieve a common goal, the quality of processes, professionalism is ensured. Daily DAILY SCRUM where everyone answers three questions: what has been done, what is planned, what are the obstacles; allows you to determine the status of work, identify obstacles, make appropriate decisions to achieve goals. This aspect is directly related to the requirement of DSTU ISO / IEC 17025: 2019 [1] for the activities of the test laboratory and is the basis of process management using the PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act). DSTU ISO 9001: 2015 [2]. To make a test lab a success, a manager needs to be mindful of the opportunities and potential, while taking into account market expectations, to offer services and deadlines that suit all stakeholders.

An adaptive 3D virtual learning environment for training software developers in scrum

ABSTRACT 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.

Application of Scrum Maturity Model: A Case Study in a Telecommunication Company

Digitalization and internet penetration force telecommunication companies to perform a transformation to survive, to face competitions, and to gain opportunities. PT XYZ is a telecommunication company that has introduced a new leaner and agile working method for digital transformation. The organization is undergoing a transformation to implements an agile approach using a scrum framework. There are two divisions that use scrum that currently plagued with time estimation difficulties and inability to create an agile backlog due to the old change request mechanism. Scrum Maturity Assessment (SMM) is used to measure current scrum practice maturity. The data is retrieved using a questionnaire that was given to two Scrum Master from two divisions which have been implementing Scrum. There are 83 questions derived from SMM assessment questions. SMM assessment indicated the scrum practice is Level 1 (Initial). There are 31.76% of scrum practices in IT division and 36.25% of scrum practices in CS division need to be improved to achieve Level 5 Optimizing. In order to achieve Level 5, we proposed 38 steps and six recommendations which will guide the scrum practice improvement process.

A gamification solution for improving Scrum adoption

Despite the wide adoption of agile methodologies, software development teams still struggle to meet requirements, partially due to practitioners’ lack of motivation to apply agile techniques in practice. We propose a gamification software tool to make Scrum techniques more fun and engaging for practitioners. This paper presents the results of the first iteration of a larger research effort that follows the Design Science Research methodology, in which a prototype was developed as a Jira Software app and evaluated with a real-world Scrum team. The results suggest that gamification can positively impact practitioners’ motivation by changing the atmosphere within the team, even if it does not contribute to the improvement of Scrum practices adoption. The metrics corresponding to Scrum techniques slightly increased after using the app, but this result probably cannot be attributed to practitioners’ improved motivation. Quantitative analysis and interviews with the team members showed that the gamified experience should be more challenging. We conclude that gamification’s potential can be better achieved if more and better studies are conducted based on mixed methods, even if the conditions are not ideal. The app has been improved based on the feedback received, and currently is being evaluated with other Scrum teams.

Knowledge management in the software industry:how Scrum activities support a knowledge management cycle

Knowledge is the primary asset of the software industry which increases the complexity of the software development activities. Knowledge Management (KM) is an important practice that offers processes namely KM cycles and addressed to knowledge capture, creation, storage, dissemination, sharing, and use. Thereby, understanding different means to consolidate individual’s knowledge within the software industry is relevant to software development practitioners and researchers. Therefore, this article discusses how Scrum activities support KM cycle to convert the individual’s knowledge into common knowledge within software development teams. Our analysis points out that KM cycle combined with Scrum practices is a potential tool to disseminate individual knowledge across software development team members.

Scrum: An Agile Software Development Process and Metrics

In a traditional software development process such as the Waterfall Model, works best in a stable environment. But, it is not flexible when it comes to change. There is a gap in the interaction between the users and the development team which leads to incomplete and misunderstood specification. Because of this, the end product is sometimes a surprise to users and this gap accelerates incorrect development of the software product. Once requirements are frozen there is no scope of accepting changes. There is a need for a framework which holds the solution for all these situations. With this premise, the agile development methodology came into existence. Scrum, an agile approach supports continuous collaboration among the customer, team members, and other stakeholders. Its time-boxed approach and continuous feedback from the product owner ensures the development of working product with essential features at all the time. This paper explains the agile software development approach, its proclamation and different frameworks of agile approach. Further illustrate most widely used framework: Scrum. This research paper covers the implementation and application of Scrum. It focuses on why Scrum is preferred over the Waterfall Model with the help of some survey results and later a discussion on some Scrum Metrics which will be helpful and accounting for the best Scrum Practices in achieving goals set by the software development team, the product owner and the customers. The outcome of this study shows that Scrum Metrics is critical and highly valuable for successful product development. The quantitative insight that these metrics provide for the Scrum Team, Product Owner and Stakeholders is necessary for achieving strong project dynamics and optimal results.

Scrum Language Use in a Software Engineering Firm: An Exploratory Study

Background: Although agile and Scrum have been important frameworks in software engineering for over a decade, little research has explored how teams use Scrum language within their sprints. Literature review: Most explorations of Scrum communication have been collected through self-reported means. These studies are inherently unable to explore how Scrum teams use Scrum-centric language in their meetings in ways that adhere or run counter to standard Scrum practice. Research questions: 1. In what ways is Scrum reflected in the language used by team members in various sprint meetings? 2. What associations exist between the job title of team members and their use of Scrum language? 3. What does a discourse analysis reveal about the ways in which this team uses language to value and discount Scrum? Research methodology: For three sprints over 10 weeks, I recorded meetings of 27 Scrum team members. I transcribed these meetings, developed a codebook for assigning Scrum language categories, conducted an interrater reliability agreement on the data, completed a correspondence analysis on how Scrum language associates with meeting types and job titles, and conducted a discourse analysis to determine in what ways these teams value and discount Scrum. Results/discussion: Scrum language was found in all recorded meetings across all three sprints, with much language found in the planning meetings. Few associations existed between Scrum language and job title, suggesting that Scrum at this engineering firm is an egalitarian process. In addition, the discourse analysis revealed that this engineering firm valued User Story and Sprint Execution language while discounting Capacity and Story Pointing language. Conclusions: Although this group broadly adheres to Scrum practices about 68% of the time, this study finds that several current standard components of Scrum are routinely discounted. This exploratory study suggests that more research into the in-situ use of Scrum language in engineering workplaces is necessary to better inform engineering professionals about the communicative expectations of Scrum and to better enable engineering communication educators to prepare future engineers for Scrum realities.

Challenges and facilitators practices for knowledge management in large-scale scrum teams

ABSTRACTSharing and managing knowledge is an essential resource for the success of a Scrum team. However, widely known knowledge management practices typically address only team level collaboration, which cannot be easily scaled to multiple Scrum teams. In this sense, this paper conducts an empirical study at one of the largest information technology companies operating in Portugal, in which multiple Scrum teams working locally and in remote offices develops e-commerce solutions for the African market. Several facilitators’ knowledge practices are identified and discussed, and also the main challenges and difficulties of scaling Scrum practices for large-scale teams are addressed.

Adapting the scrum framework for agile project management in science: case study of a distributed research initiative

This article explores the adoption of agile methods for the management of projects in collaborative research initiatives. The use of the scrum framework, a specific set of agile principles and practices for self-organizing cross-functional teams in software development projects, is currently being expanded to other types of organizations and knowledge management processes. The study addresses the extent to which key principles and tools usually used in scrum, due to their potentially positive influence on team dynamics and efficiency, can contribute to the collaborative management and coordination of tasks in research processes. The responses from interviews with 17 researchers, as well as participant observation and analysis of online activity, are examined and presented as a case study on the adoption of scrum practices in a distributed research centre dedicated to the evaluation of public policies. Results indicate that integrating agile methods and principles for interdisciplinary collaboration requires a high degree of flexibility and a “learn by doing” approach.