Scrum Development Research Articles

DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF TAXES E-CONFERENCE INFORMATION SYSTEM FACE MATCH MODEL WITH AGILE SDLC METHOD

After the Covid-19 pandemic, offline activities began to take place again on a massive scale. At the Directorate of Information and Communication Technology, the Directorate General of Taxes, face-to-face activities, including meetings, have started to take place again. In meeting activities, problems often occur in the management and management of meetings, such as schedule discrepancies, inadequate participant attendance lists, and less than optimal monitoring of meeting activities. To overcome this problem, an information system is needed to assist the management and administration of meetings as well as monitoring of meetings by Administrative Subdivision staff. The Meeting Management and Monitoring Information System (e-Conference) is a web-based information system that consists of two applications, namely a frontend that uses the ReactJS library and a backend that uses the ExpressJS framework with the Agile Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) method with the Scrum development method. The modules in this system include the login module, meeting dashboard module, meeting room module, consumption module, equipment module, meeting materials module, attendance module and management module. In the attendance module there is a face match feature with TensorFlowjs technology which is used to validate the attendance of meeting participants who are DJP employees.

P102: Supporting Informal Carers to Undertake Regular Physical Activity from Home: a Co-design and Prototype Development Study of a novel app, “CareFit”

Background:Informal carers (unpaid family members and friends), are critical to millions worldwide for the ongoing delivery of health and well-being needs. However, the physical and mental wellbeing of caregivers is often poor including low levels of physical activity, frequently owed to contributing factors such as lack of time, lack of support and motivation. Thus, accessible evidence-based tools to facilitate physical activity for carers are urgently needed.Objective:The aim of this study was to co-design and develop a novel mobile app to educate and support carers in the undertaking of regular physical activity. This is achieved via integration of the transtheoretical model of behaviour change and UK physical activity guidelines across 8 weeks of use.Methods:We co-designed a mobile app, “CareFit,” by directly involving caregivers, health care professionals, and social care professionals in the requirements, capturing, and evaluation phases across a number of Agile Scrum development sprints. Requirements for CareFit were grounded in a combination of behavioural change science and UK government physical activity guidelines.Results:Participants identified different barriers and enablers to physical activity, such as a lack of time, recognition of existing activities, and concerns regarding safely undertaking physical activity. Requirements analysis highlighted the importance of simplicity in design and a need to anchor development around the everyday needs of caregivers (eg, easy-to-use video instructions, reducing text). Our final prototype app integrated guidance for undertaking physical activity at home through educational, physical activity, and communication components.Conclusions:Integrating government guidelines with models of behavioural change into a mobile app to support the physical activity of carers is novel and holds future promise. Integrating core physical activity guidelines into a co-designed smartphone app with functionality such as a weekly planner and educational material for users is feasible acceptable and usable. Here we will document the latest developments on the project including an ongoing national study currently taking place in Scotland to test the prototype with 50 carers.

A Digital Microintervention Supporting Evidence-Based Parenting Skills: Development Study Using the Agile Scrum Methodology.

Conduct disorder increases risks of educational dropout, future mental illness, and incarceration if untreated. First-line treatment of conduct disorder involves evidence-based parenting skills programs. Time-outs, a frequent tool in these programs, can be effective at improving behavior, and recent apps have been developed to aid this process. However, these apps promote the use of time-outs in inconsistent or developmentally inappropriate ways, potentially worsening behavior problems. Digital microinterventions like these apps could guide parents through high-quality time-outs in the moment, but current time-out apps lack features promoting adherence to the evidence-based best practice. Agile scrum is a respected approach in the software development industry. We aimed to explore the feasibility of using the agile scrum approach to build a digital microintervention to help parents deliver an evidence-based time-out. The agile scrum methodology was used. Four sprints were conducted. Figma software was used for app design and wireframing. Insights from 42 expert stakeholders were used during 3 sprint reviews. We consulted experts who were identified from councils around the Midlands region of the United Kingdom and charities through personal contacts and a snowballing approach. Over 4 development sprints from August 2022 to March 2023, the app was iteratively designed and refined based on consultation with a diverse group of 42 experts who shared their knowledge about the content of common parenting programs and the challenges parents commonly face. Modifications made throughout the process resulted in significant app enhancements, including tailored timer algorithms and enhanced readability, as well as an onboarding zone, mindfulness module, and pictorial information to increase inclusivity. By the end of the fourth sprint, the app was deemed ready for home use by stakeholders, demonstrating the effectiveness of our agile scrum development approach. We developed an app to support parents to use the evidence-based time-out technique. We recommend the agile scrum approach to create mobile health apps. Our experience highlights the valuable role that frontline health and social care professionals, particularly those working with vulnerable families, can play as experts in scrum reviews. There is a need for research to both evaluate the impact of digital microinterventions on child behavioral change and also create digital microinterventions that cater to non-English speakers and individuals who participate in parenting programs in settings outside the United Kingdom.

Agile & Scrum Development by JRCS Digital Innovation LAB

Agile & Scrum Development by JRCS Digital Innovation LAB

Resistant and remediating design

Little is known about designers’ experience in fast-paced sprint work. This article draws on case work research within consulting and in-house design teams that sheds light on this important topic. The findings indicated differences in digital designers’ practices and occupational experiences. Designers reported stress in working in extreme agile delivery teams and struggles in maintaining design integrity in scrum development. Resilience strategies that habituate designers in work contexts were also identified from the research. These stratagems combined remediating methods together with principled practitioner resistance. In the final inquiry, fifty-seven participants from in-house and consulting design teams were surveyed. The results indicated significant differences between the cohorts including higher levels of job satisfaction for consultants. This group also applied the remediating practices and positive resistance strategies to a greater extent than their in-house peers. These differences suggest that the occupational context of design is a fundamental influence on real world practice.

استخدام المنهجيات الحديثة لتطوير النظم في إدارة المعرفة والمعلوماتية الصحية

The importance of developing health care software emerged as a necessary process to transform the paper health care system into a computer-based information system to ensure the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of health service provision, reduce medical errors and ensure patient safety. The importance of developing health care software also emerged due to the high degree of complexity of health care services, and the accuracy required to ensure that there are no errors. Healthcare software needs to comply with laws and regulations during its development, be more secure and stable than other software, and be high-performance without crashes. In reality, this is often not the common case, as you are going to release a poor-quality product and constantly improve it - you want your product to be trusted and used from day one. Agile software development is an iterative process that creates a usable software product from the early stages, enabling rapid, high-quality development that will respond quickly to changing requirements. The Waterfall model may be a good software development model in the case of large-scale software projects. However, there are many tradeoffs between the two software development approaches, Agile or Waterfall. This paper covers common software development methodologies and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of each of them, and how we can modify them according to the requirements of healthcare information systems. During this research, a hybrid software development methodology (Hybrid Scrum-Fall Model) was proposed to develop the health care system. The proposed model combines the agile Scrum development methodology with the Waterfall model to deliver quality software solutions that deliver greater value to the end user.

Applying Scrum Development on Safety Critical Systems

Scaled agile approaches are increasingly being used by automotive businesses to cope with the complexity of their organizations and products. The development of automotive systems necessitates the use of safe procedures. SafeScrum® is a real example of how agile approaches may be used in the creation of high-reliability systems on a small scale. A framework like SAFe or LeSS does not facilitate the creation of safety-critical systems in large-scale contexts from the start. User stories are a wonderful approach to convey flexible demands, the lifecycle is iterative, and testing is the initial stage in the development process. Scrum plus extra XP approaches may be used to build high-reliability software and certification by the IEC 61508 standard is required for the software. This adds a slew of new needs to the workflow. Scrum's quality assurance measures proved to be inadequate in a recent industry situation. Our study's overarching goal is to provide light on the Scrum development process so that it may be improved for use with life-or-death systems. Our study of the business world was a mixed-methods affair. The findings demonstrated that although Scrum is helpful in ensuring the security of each release, it is less nimble in other respects. The difficulties of prioritization, communication, time constraints, and preparing for and accepting new safety standards were all discussed. In addition, we have had some helpful feedback from the business world, but the generality issue arising from this particular setting has yet to be addressed.

Teaching agile operation and leadership through linked university courses

Agile software development methods, especially Scrum, are commonly used in software development companies. For this reason, our goal was that our undergraduate students gain experience as Scrum development team members and our master's students as agile leaders. To this end, we had redesigned and linked an undergraduate and a master's course, and launched the new course in the spring of 2021. The success of our approach was confirmed by a questionnaire survey of 86 undergraduate and 27 master's students. A/B testing was also performed. Our approach is a novelty compared to solutions where the Scrum Master is a course member, an instructor, or a university employee. In addition to being resource-efficient, it also offers master's students an unparalleled opportunity to develop agile leadership skills.
 Subject Classification: 97U50

Collaborative experience between scientific software projects using Agile Scrum development

AbstractDeveloping sustainable software for the scientific community requires expertise in software engineering and domain science. This can be challenging due to the unique needs of scientific software, the insufficient resources for software engineering practices in the scientific community, and the complexity of developing for evolving scientific contexts. While open‐source software can partially address these concerns, it can introduce complicating dependencies and delay development. These issues can be reduced if scientists and software developers collaborate. We present a case study wherein scientists from the SuperNova Early Warning System collaborated with software developers from the Scalable Cyberinfrastructure for Multi‐Messenger Astrophysics project. The collaboration addressed the difficulties of open‐source software development, but presented additional risks to each team. For the scientists, there was a concern of relying on external systems and lacking control in the development process. For the developers, there was a risk in supporting a user‐group while maintaining core development. These issues were mitigated by creating a second Agile Scrum framework in parallel with the developers' ongoing Agile Scrum process. This Agile collaboration promoted communication, ensured that the scientists had an active role in development, and allowed the developers to evaluate and implement the scientists' software requirements. The collaboration provided benefits for each group: the scientists actuated their development by using an existing platform, and the developers utilized the scientists' use‐case to improve their systems. This case study suggests that scientists and software developers can avoid scientific computing issues by collaborating and that Agile Scrum methods can address emergent concerns.

A novel approach for visualization, monitoring, and control techniques for Scrum metric planning using the analytic hierarchy process

AbstractAlthough Scrum is one of the most preferred agile development frameworks that guide the development process, measuring sprint productivity is still challenging. In fact, it is hard to provide a continuous measurement during consecutive Scrum sprints, especially selecting the optimal metrics that fit better for real industrial applications. To bridge this gap, we conducted an industrial case study within the TÜBİTAK SAGE software development group to demonstrate the performance and applicability of a systematic selection process for fitting add‐on components using various scrum metrics tools. Next, we analyzed the combination of software developers' preferences of process metrics concerning their characteristics and their defense industry compatibility. Consequently, we assessed the metrics that might likely integrate into the Scrum development using the analytic hierarchy process. The results indicated that the Actionable Agile Add‐on scored the highest, followed by the Screenful Add‐on. Ultimately, this contemporary study presented a novel approach that has increased individuals' participation in metric planning, implementation, and monitoring, therefore moving towards more achievable software development goals.

Web Service Sistem Informasi Terpadu (SIMIPA) Menggunakan REST API

SIMIPA web service is a service that is used to provide services in the form of information to the Android mobile apps, is the Student module, the Lecturer module, and the Parent module. The service provided uses the REST API as a bridge between the server and the client. The goal is that the REST API can be accessed on the Android mobile apps. The development of web services in this study uses the Scrum development method which has 26 product backlogs with 9 iterations of sprints. Each sprint has several stages, namely sprint planning, daily sprint, sprint review, and sprint retrospective. Web services developed using the PHP programming language and MySQL database. The result of this research is the SIMIPA REST API which can be accessed on the Android front-end. Android accesses the REST API via the GET and POST request methods using a URL that generates a JSON response. Based on several tests, the SIMIPA REST API URL is said to have been successfully developed and can be accessed on Android mobile apps according to the expected response. Data security using the REST API is focused on the POST method using JSON Web Token (JWT).

The adoption of Software Engineering practices in a Scrum environment

The competition in the software market demands that the time required for any software product to reach the market be reduced if the product is to survive competition from other developers. The pursuit of this goal has led to the adoption of agile software development methodologies. While other agile methodologies provide guidelines as to the software engineering (SE) practices to be used during the development lifecycle, Scrum does not. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to identify the usage and level of importance of software engineering practices in the Scrum development environment; and second, to investigate how Scrum teams adopt an appropriate set of SE techniques and whether a hybrid Scrum/Extreme Programming (XP) methodology is an appropriate approach to take. This research was conducted by examining sample data from five organizations using the Scrum methodology. The sample included a range of industries including communications and embedded systems, financial asset management, software development houses and consulting firms in South Africa. The study employed a mixed method approach. A key finding was that, regardless of the fact that Scrum does not explicitly recommend engineering practices, there was extensive use of these practices by all of the participating organizations. The study also found that the lack of software engineering practices in Scrum does not constitute a barrier to a successful adoption of Scrum, provided the ‘inspect and adapt’ principle inherent in Scrum is properly followed. The study discusses the findings, explains the implications and suggests future research.

ScrumOntoBDD: Agile software development based on scrum, ontologies and behaviour-driven development

When developing a Learning Management System (LMS) using Scrum, we noticed that it was quite often necessary to redefine some system behaviour scenarios, due to ambiguities in the requirement specifications, or due to misinterpretations of stories reported by the Product Owners (POs). The definition of test suites was also cumbersome, resulting in test suites that were incomplete or did not at all comply with the system requirements. Based on this experience and to deal with these problems, in this paper, we propose the ScrumOntoBDD approach to agile software development, which combines Scrum, ontologies and Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD). This approach is centred on the concepts and techniques of Scrum and BDD and focuses on the planning and analysis phases of the software life cycle, since the BDD tools currently provide little support to these phases, while most of the problems during the LMS development were found exactly there. We claim that our approach improves the software development practices in this respect. Furthermore, ScrumOntoBDD employs ontologies in order to reduce ambiguities intrinsic to the use of a natural language as a BDD ubiquitous language. In this paper, we illustrate and systematically evaluate our approach, showing that it is beneficial since it improves the communication between members of an agile development team.

DESIGNING WAREHOUSE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT APPLICATION WEB-BASED ON BATIK SINUWUN SME WITH THE AGILE SCRUM DEVELOPMENT METHOD

In this era, technology develops rapidly. More adequate and modern technology displaced old technology and indicates high competition. This competition requires changes in the management of a particular business in order to keep up with developments and take advantages of the application of technology. Sinuwun Batik is SME engaged in the production of batik clothes and selling batik clothes. The increasing number of requests and various types of SME make Batik Sinuwun overwhelmed in regulating the supply of raw materials for production, because there is no warehouse record. This study aims to design a website-based application that can help Batik Sinuwun SME to manage warehouse inventory.This inventory application is designed using the Agile Scrum Development method. The stages of making the system begin with collecting the required data by eliciting user needs, this data is the basic data in determining the features of application. This application is made based on websites using the PHP framework CodeIgniter and MySQL as data storage. The application system is tested using the Blackbox Testing method and ISO: 9126.The result of this research is a website application to simplify the management of raw materials in and out of the warehouse so that the latest stock of raw materials can be found, but it can also minimize recording errors due to manual calculations.

A Mobile Serious Game About the Pandemic (COVID-19 - Did You Know?): Design and Evaluation Study.

BackgroundNo treatment for COVID-19 is yet available; therefore, providing access to information about SARS-CoV-2, the transmission route of the virus, and ways to prevent the spread of infection is a critical sanitary measure worldwide. Serious games have advantages in the dissemination of reliable information during the pandemic; they can provide qualified content while offering interactivity to the user, and they have great reach over the internet.ObjectiveThis study aimed to develop a serious game with the purpose of providing science-based information on the prevention of COVID-19 and personal care during the pandemic while assessing players’ knowledge about COVID-19–related topics.MethodsThe study was conducted with the interdisciplinary collaboration of specialists in health sciences, computing, and design at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The health recommendations were grouped into six thematic blocks, presented in a quiz format. The software languages were based on the progressive web app development methodology with the Ionic framework, JavaScript, HTML5, cascading style sheets, and TypeScript (Angular). Open data reports of how users interact with the serious game were obtained using the Google Analytics application programming interface. The visual identity, logo, infographics, and icons were carefully developed by considering a selection of colors, typography, sounds, and images that are suitable for young audiences. Cards with cartoon characters were introduced at the end of each thematic topic to interact with the player, reinforcing their correct answers or alerting them to the need to learn more about the disease. The players’ performance was assessed by the rate of incorrect and correct answers and analyzed by linear correlation coefficient over 7 weeks. The agile SCRUM development methodology enabled quick and daily interactions of developers through a webchat and sequential team meetings.ResultsThe game “COVID-19–Did You Know?” was made available for free on a public university website on April 1, 2020. The game had been accessed 17,571 times as of September 2020. Dissemination actions such as reports on social media and television showed a temporal correspondence with the access number. The players’ error rate in the topic “Mask” showed a negative trend (r=–.83; P=.01) over the weeks of follow-up. The other topics showed no significant trend over the weeks.ConclusionsThe gamification strategy for health education content on the theme of COVID-19 reached a young audience, which is considered to be a priority in the strategy of orientation toward social distancing. Specific educational reinforcement measures were proposed and implemented based on the players’ performance. The improvement in the users’ performance on the topic about the use of masks may reflect an increase in information about or adherence to mask use over time.

Integrating Scrum development process with UX design flow

Nowadays, Agile software development practices are being widely adapted all over the world. Scrum is one of the most known Agile models, it satisfies the business needs and put the main focus on the product. One common challenge for the development of customer-facing products is having a good user experience. This paper presents integrating Scrum development process with user experience design flow. In this study, papers relating to the topic of user experience (UX) process integration with Agile development process, how to measure it and how to improve it, from the year 2010 onwards are reviewed. This is to identify how organizations can integrate UX design flow and Scrum development and get the benefits of both. The conducted review identifies a number of limitations in the existing integrations efforts. A proposed process model to resolve these limitations is presented. Along with our experience in implementing it on an ongoing software development project. The results of applying this process, its impact on the project outcomes quality and the employees’ satisfaction with the process are discussed. The goal of this study is to aid organizations in integrating UX design into their development process.

Integrating Scrum development process with UX design flow

Integrating Scrum development process with UX design flow

The Role of a Web Portal to Facilitate Higher Learning Institutions Students’ Field Attachment in Tanzania

One of the approaches applied by Higher Learning Institutions to equip students with the practical skills is through field attachment in relevant companies based on field of studies. There are so many challenges in the process of coordination and allocation of students to relevant companies including expenses in terms of time and resources due to prolonged process involved. A web-based portal was developed to address the challenges for Tanzanian context. The development approach based on Scrum framework was employed to allow users involvement. To ensure information completeness, mixed-methods approach including key informant interviews, observations and requirements workshop were applied for portal’s requirements elicitation. The requirements determined from users were further used to guide initial interface designs which were then converted to clickable wireframe pages using pencil software. The prototype was sent to real users via email for testing and improvement suggestions before real portal development. Scrum development approach was employed where increments development progress were frequently inspected to detect undesirable variances. The portal was finally validated and tested for usability and indicated to have improved field attachment process and open doors for more collaboration between Higher Learning Institutions and companies. This study provides insight on the approach used to come up with the solution regarding current challenges. Moreover, the contribution that the research based solution has brought to the students’ field practices process is identified.

Desarrollo de una aplicación móvil utilizando el framework MEAN Stack e IONIC: Un estudio de caso en una compañía de transporte

La utilización de aplicaciones móviles se ha convertido en un componente relevante transaccional dentro de una organización. Por tal motivo, se desarrolló un sistema móvil informativo para la gestión de rutas dentro de la compañía de transporte pesado Torres Revelo S.A, basado en la metodología ágil de desarrollo SCRUM y el framework MEAN Stack e Ionic basados en JavaScript. En este proyecto, se sometió a una prueba de usabilidad en función a la norma ISO/IEC 25010, tomando como referencias la inteligibilidad, aprendizaje, operabilidad, protección frente a errores de usuario, estética y accesibilidad. Se utilizó un cuestionario de 26 preguntas con el uso del método de Nielsen, aplicando a un total de 73 usuarios en todo el proceso del desarrollo de la aplicación, basado en prototipos. Al tabular los resultados obtenidos, se aplicó la prueba de chi cuadrado para determinar que la aplicación móvil y web es fácil de usar, aprender y permite al usuario realizar la trazabilidad de la ruta más corta. Estos procesos permiten tener una mejor gestión de la información dentro de la compañía.

Information Technology Asymmetry and Gaps Between Higher Education Institutions and Industry

Aim/Purpose: This paper investigates the gaps between industry and academia perceptions of information technology fields, such as computer science, software engineering, and computer engineering, and it identifies areas of asymmetry between curricula and industry expectations. The study mainly focuses on the skills required of IT professionals (graduated students) and on how higher education institutes equip students for industry. Background: Higher education institutes have several IT-related departments. However, it is not clear whether these departments have sufficient content to equip students with industry-related skills. Rapid advances mean that some curriculum topics are redundant before the end of a standard two- or four-year degree programs. Balancing the technical/non-technical skills and adjusting the curricula to better prepare the students for industry is a constant demand for higher education institutions. Several studies have demonstrated that a generic curriculum is inadequate to address current IT industry needs. Methodology: The study involved a comprehensive survey of IT professionals and companies using a Web-based questionnaire sent directly to individual companies, academics, and employers. 64 universities and 38 companies in 24 countries were represented by the 209 participants, of whom 99 were IT professionals, 72 academics, and 38 employers. Contribution: This paper is intended to guide academics in preparing dynamic curricula that can be easily adapted to current industry trends and technological developments, with content directly relevant to student’s careers. In addition, the results may identify the skills that students need to secure employment and the courses that will provide skills in line with current industry trends. Findings: The results indicate a lack of emphasis on personal and non-technical skills in undergraduate education compared to general computer science, software development, and coding courses. Employers’ and software experts’ responses emphasize that soft skills should not be ignored, and that, of these, analytical thinking and teamwork are the two most requested. Rather than a theoretical emphasis, courses should include hands-on projects. Rapid developments and innovations in information technologies demand that spiral and waterfall models are replaced with emerging software development models, such as Agile and Scrum development. Recommendations for Practitioners: A multidisciplinary approach should be taken to the teaching of soft skills, such as communication, ethics, leadership, and customer relations. Establishing multiple learning tracks in IT education would equip students with specialized knowledge and skills in IT. An effective communication channel should be established between students and industry. It is also important to reduce the distance between academics and students and to provide an interactive environment for technical discussions. Enterprise level computing and Framework use provide job market advantages. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers and department heads, particularly those involved in curriculum design and accreditation, could use the results of this exemplary study to identify key topics for attention. Impact on Society: Changes of various degrees are required in the current curricula in many higher education institutions to better meet student needs. Societies and technology are dynamic in nature, and information technology-related curricula in higher education institutions should be equally dynamic. Future Research: Since technology (especially information technology) transforms and advances itself so rapidly, this study should be replicated t to investigate how these changes affect the gap between revised curricula and current industry expectations.