Software Development Organizations Research Articles

A Systematic Literature Review for Investigating DevOps Metrics to Implement in Software Development Organizations

ABSTRACTDevOps is a collaborative software development process where practitioners work as a team to continuously develop, deploy, and deliver software. DevOps practices still need to be mature, and practitioners face numerous challenges while considering DevOps as a software development process. The mainstream research community has helped simplify the DevOps adoption process and eliminate complexities by developing DevOps maturity models. However, the current maturity frameworks cannot measure every component of DevOps and do not mention metrics as parameters for measuring different DevOps practices or features. Therefore, this study aims to identify metrics for measuring practices and activities responsible for DevOps implementation. The systematic literature review (SLR) method was used to determine the metrics needed to measure DevOps practices. Using SLR, we have identified 32 metrics from 57 articles. The metrics identified in this study can be used to measure the impact of the practices adopted for DevOps implementation within software development organizations. Furthermore, we divided the identified metrics into Dev and Ops categories and five significant categories based on the DevOps lifecycle. The classification of metrics in our study into diverse regions provides a conceptual framework and understanding of DevOps measures.

DevOps Adoption Guidelines, Challenges and Benefits: A Systematic Literature Review

The DevOps methodology in software engineering is currently trending and many software development organisations are adopting it to stay competitive. However, these organisations face difficulties in adopting DevOps due to a lack of common standard guidelines and methodology. We argued that guidelines across multiple platforms are needed to succeed in DevOps implementation. This paper aims to identify the benefits, challenges, and guidelines associated with DevOps adoption using a systematic literature review. The search spanned over ten digital libraries such as ACM Digital Library, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, SAGE Journals, Wiley Online Library, and so on. The review also included keyword searches in relevant studies i.e DevOps guidelines, DevOps and guidelines, DevOps benefits, DevOps and benefits, DevOps challenges, DevOps and challenges. Papers written in English and published from 2011 through July 2020 were considered. 33 studies passed the two-step quality assessment. Finally, the data were extracted and analysed based on the themes and research questions, revealing the benefits and challenges of DevOps adoption guidelines. The findings show that improved software delivery speed increases code quality and application quality with frequent releases. It also shows that there was no transparent scientific approach to determining the DevOps capabilities regarding the process, practice, tools, and implementations, cost implications, and insufficient knowledge of the automation process. Finally, the reviewed studies indicated that software quality increases whenever DevOps best practices are adopted. DevOps is about continuous software delivery. Previous studies have not considered the guidelines for scientifically adopting DevOps for organisations that want to migrate. The present review identified the DevOps adoption guideline model represented in a cyclic format that indicates an infinite process representing continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment, with an understanding of benefits and challenges.

Forecasting software indicators: an industry-academia collaboration

ContextNowadays software-development organizations are urged to exploit their data for empowering their decision-making processes. Such data may be used to monitor the status of meaningful software indicators (e.g., software quality, productivity and on-time delivery) that are relevant for their decision-making processes. Forecasting the values of such indicators may provide evidence of a potentially high risk or opportunity that could help to anticipate actions accordingly. Most of the existing forecasting proposals in software engineering use open-source data rather than data from industrial projects. Therefore, there is a lack of evidence on how these proposals fit the particular needs of a software-development organization and how they can be automated into the organization’s infrastructure.ObjectiveTo enable software indicators´ forecasting in a software-development organization (Modeliosoft).MethodWe designed an industry-academia collaboration based on Action Design Research (ADR) to address Modeliosoft’s forecasting challenges.ResultsA tool-supported method called FOSI (Forecasting Of Software Indicators) for enabling forecasting in Modeliosoft. We obtained positive results regarding its suitability and technical feasibility in a pilot project of the organization. In addition, we provide details and reflections on the potential usefulness of the method for addressing similar field problems.ConclusionsThe procedures and results detailed in this paper are valuable to: 1) address Modeliosoft’s forecasting challenges 2) inspire other software-development organizations on how to deal with similar problems and even reuse some procedures and software support tools resulted from this work, 3) promote the win-win benefits of industry-academia collaborations.

A socio-technical perspective on software vulnerabilities: A causal analysis

Context:Software development organizations are composed of people working together towards a common goal. These people are connected in networks. The effectiveness of these networks seems like it would be an essential consideration for the effectiveness of the organization as a whole, but does network effectiveness actually matter? Objective:In this paper, we seek to understand whether causal relationships exist between the maintenance effort spent on files implicated in software vulnerabilities and suboptimal social behaviors – social smells – within that project’s developer community. Methods:To gain insight into this question, we chose to study OpenSSL and over 100 of its published vulnerabilities. We performed a socio-technical analysis on OpenSSL to understand whether social smells could be causally linked to the effort to maintain files implicated in vulnerabilities. Results:Our results indicate that this is the case: Social smells are, in fact, causally linked to the maintenance effort surrounding files implicated in software vulnerabilities. Conclusion:This result has significant implications for the management of software projects. These insights may motivate and help to guide project managers and architects to also focus on team communications, and not merely on technical quality measures such as bug rates or feature velocity. Social interactions among a project’s team members matter, and smells can be measured and monitored.

Metaheuristic-based cost-effective predictive modeling for DevOps project success

Over the decade, DevOps practices have gained popularity within software development organizations for managing the dynamic behavior of system development. Implementing DevOps introduces risks and challenges that increase the difficulties in software development activities, which consequently leads to project failures. This study presents a probability-based predictive model to estimate the success or failure of DevOps projects based on the 13 most significant features identified from literature and data gathered from the DevOps practitioners using a survey questionnaire. The Naïve Bayes Classifier and Logistic Regression (LR) models allied with Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) have been used to measure the efficiency with the cost of implementing DevOps practices. The results of the study highlighted that NBC with GWO increased the success probability from 0.4954 to 0.9971, with the cost rising from 0.2577 to 0.5000. Similarly, LR with GWO also presented an increase in success probability from 0.2880 to 0.9839, along with an increase in cost from 0.2423 to 0.3558. In conclusion, the developed prediction model based on identified features could help DevOps software development practitioners to implement DevOps projects cost-effectively and successfully.

Enhancing agile project success: a comprehensive study of risk management approaches among Malaysian practitioners

AbstractRisk management (RM) plays a role in project management in the software development field. As information technology (IT) systems become more essential across industries and IT projects continue to face failure rates effective project management becomes crucial. However, the utilization of methodologies in risk management is not widely considered, specifically in Malaysia. This study aims to investigate how software practitioners in Malaysia have implemented risk management and discover strategies that can enhance risk management for agile contexts. The main focus of this study is the limited integration of methodologies into risk management practices, which has created a gap within the software risk domain. Successful risk management is essential for the achievement of software projects, and the findings from this study can offer insights for software development organizations to make informed decisions and improve project outcomes. By utilizing a quantitative approach and adapted questionnaires, this comprehensive study collected data from 60 practitioners and conducted descriptive analysis to identify key risk elements that have significant potential to affect project performance. The findings highlight these risk elements that can significantly impact project success. Agile methodologies, with their emphasis on collaboration, communication within teams, and engagement with stakeholders, including top management, are instrumental in aligning project objectives, identifying potential risks, and resolving issues promptly. This study provides empirical insights into the risk management practices of agile practitioners in Malaysia, which can equip software development organizations with valuable knowledge for informed decision‐making. By enhancing project outcomes and guiding future strategic actions, the findings of this study can contribute to the improvement of agile risk management in the software development industry, particularly in the Malaysian context.

Breaking Down Barriers: The Moderating Role of Organizational Support in Facilitating Knowledge Sharing Among Software Developers

Effective knowledge sharing among software developers is crucial for maximizing software development output throughout the software development lifecycle. Building upon Triandis’ Facilitating condition, this study explores the moderating impact of two factors, namely Organizational support and Technological support, on the relationship between knowledge sharing intentions (KSI) and knowledge sharing behavior (KSB). Specifically, the study investigates the impact of KSB on individuals’ job performance in global software development organizations. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 302 Malaysian participants working on global software development projects. The collected data was analyzed using Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) through SmartPLS. The results reveal that only organizational support, among Triandis’ Facilitating conditions, moderates the relationship between KSI and KSB. Moreover, the study finds that KSB mediates the relationship between knowledge sharing intentions and job performance. The findings of this study provide practical and theoretical implications for software developers.

Managing Scope Creeps in Product Led Software-Based Organizations

Scope creep presents a significant challenge for project managers throughout the project lifecycle. It can lead to budget overruns and schedule delays. This paper explores how project managers, especially those in software development organizations can effectively manage and prevent scope creep during project execution. It delves into the various factors that can contribute to changes in a project's scope and the resulting impacts. Historically, project management has placed more emphasis on cost, time, and performance, with less attention given to scope change management. This paper presents multiple solutions for addressing scope creep. One proposed solution involves establishing a contract to freeze the project's scope during the planning phase. While this approach effectively prevents scope changes, it may not be feasible for many projects. Another suggestion, put forth by T.J. Jach and J.R. Coat in their work "Managing the Change Process on Projects: A Step-by-Step Guide," is to incorporate "escape clauses" into project plans. These clauses involve predetermined procedures and utilize cost- benefit analysis to determine when and if a scope change is necessary. This method offers a structured approach for evaluating the potential impacts of scope changes and can be quite effective. (Jayalath & Somarathna, 2021) Keyword: Scope Creep, Customer Satisfaction, Perception, Expectations, Uncertainty, Security, Software, Expectations

A Conceptual Framework Based on PLS-SEM Approach for Sustainable Customer Relationship Management in Enterprise Software Development: Insights from Developers

Due to its significant relevance in outsourcing, the global software industry, such as enterprise software development organizations, accepted the implementation of global software development (GSD). Customers play a pivotal role in any industry, and effective customer relationship management (CRM) is instrumental in ensuring client satisfaction while developing software projects. However, software organizations operating globally often need more insight into their customers’ perspectives. These challenges give rise to a major combination for the success of the GSD projects. Organizations working globally face the key challenge of the implementation of CRM. The main objective of this paper is to investigate and understand the challenges faced by global software development organizations when implementing customer relationship management (CRM) in their enterprise software projects. This paper aims to assess how these CRM implementation challenges impact the value of enterprise software products in the context of global software development (GSD). To achieve this objective, the study employs the partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach and conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify relevant challenges. Additionally, this paper presents a conceptual framework based on the identified challenges and validates it through surveys and qualitative research with software outsourcing companies in Pakistan. The research provides valuable insights from the perspective of software developers and aims to offer practical guidance for the successful application of CRM in outsourcing.

VERIFYING AND ACCESSING STUDENT PROJECT APPLICATION

This abstract presents a conceptual overview of an application design to verify and accessing the project the student project using which maintain the information about the project present in the system that contains project documentation, report, code and so on. It is difficult to maintain and search all this information manually in an Organization as it takes lot of time to do. The proposed app aims to overcome the manual search to avoid difficulty in searching. Owing to the advancement of technology, this project offers a holistic solution to enhance the validation and approval process for project development by students. By fostering collaborations, improving communication, and facilitating efficient workflows, the app aims to elevate the quality of software development outcomes while reducing project timeline and costs. It is potential to transform how project validation is conducted makes it a valuable tool for modern software development teams and organizations.

A view of agile organizations: bibliometric analysis

Agile organizations represent a transformation in the search for convergence in relation to the dynamic challenges of the environment, market transformations and the growing complexity of social systems. The objective of this study was to develop a descriptive bibliometric study to identify research trends on agile organizations. Web of Science and Scopus databases were used to retrieve scientific production. Bibliometric indicators of production, collaboration, visibility, and impact were analyzed. The analysis of 150 documents, with the total participation of 340 authors, showed a growth rate of 4% per year in the time interval from 1995 to the beginning of 2023. Dominant trends were identified with respect to the research topic, the first referring to the human factor, organizational innovation and organization and management, and the second, agile methods, agile transformations, agile software development and agile organizations.

Enhancing Software Quality through Early-Phase of Software Verification and Validation Techniques

Purpose: The core objectives of this conducted research were threefold: first, to assess whether early-phase verification and validation (V&V)techniques, encompassing software design review, code review, and inspection, significantly contribute to defect prevention throughout the software development process; second, to evaluate the impact of these techniques on the efficiency of software development in terms of time, cost, and resource allocation; and third, to conduct a comprehensive comparative analysis between early-phase verification and validation (V&V)techniques and traditional post-development testing regarding their effectiveness in defect prevention and software quality improvement.
 Methodology: Employing an experimental approach, this study conducted case studies within Tanzanian software development organizations. Data were meticulously gathered through surveys and interviews involving software professionals. Both quantitative and qualitative data were systematically analyzed to ensure data reliability and ethical considerations.
 Findings: The research findings indicate that early-phase verification and validation (V&V) techniques shine as powerful tools for defect prevention, leading to a substantial reduction in defect counts and elevating software quality metrics, such as reliability and user satisfaction. Notably, these techniques demonstrated a favorable impact on software development efficiency by shortening development cycles and curtailing costs. When compared to traditional post-development testing, early-phase verification and validation (V&V) techniques consistently outperformed in the realm of defect prevention and software quality enhancement.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study's outcomes underscore the transformative potential of early-phase verification &validation techniques, urging the software development industry to pivot from defect detection to defect prevention. The insights garnered here offer practical guidance for organizations aiming to streamline their software development processes, economize costs, and deliver top-notch software products that closely align with user expectations. While conducted in a Tanzanian context, these findings reverberate across the global software development landscape, underscoring the universal relevance of early-phase verification and validation (V&V) techniques as pivotal enablers of software quality assurance and operational efficiency.

Robust Scheduling of Multi-Skilled Workforce Allocation: Job Rotation Approach

This paper addresses scheduling challenges in software development organizations, specifically focusing on a novel version of the software project scheduling problem (SPSP). This enhanced model incorporates the dynamics of learning and forgetting phenomena, crucial in maintaining employee competencies, particularly when unexpected events such as absenteeism or shifts in project priorities occur. The paper introduces a new declarative reference model for SPSP, aimed at proactively managing the assignment of versatile programmers to tasks within an portfolio of IT projects, while considering the effects of forgetting. Implemented within a constraints programming environment, this model facilitates decision making in project management for software companies. It serves to find feasible solutions and identify conditions necessary to meet specified expectations. The effectiveness of the proposed SPSP model is demonstrated through numerical examples.

Reducing Challenges in Design Thinking Adoption Using Intrapreneurship and a Learning Environment

Design thinking (DT) is increasingly used to develop solutions that identify users' real needs. However, resistance to adopting DT and a lack of knowledge about the tools and activities of this approach are significant challenges in its implementation. Thus, organizations need to create strategies that minimize these challenges. This paper explores an approach focused on intrapreneurship to motivate employees to develop new business ideas combined with a learning environment for exchanging knowledge as a mechanism to overcome resistance to the adoption of DT. In this sense, the research problem addressed here is the lack of strategies to minimize resistance and the lack of knowledge for adopting DT in software organizations. This work was conducted using action research in a Brazilian software development organization. Initially, a call for proposals for new software-based business ideas was launched at the organization. Then, the DT was applied to develop the proposed ideas. In parallel, a learning environment was created to train employees in DT and its tools. A feedback questionnaire and a retrospective meeting were held with the organization's employees to evaluate the action research. Our results suggest that an intrapreneurship approach and the learning environment proved to be effective within the context studied and managed to reduce resistance to the adoption of DT.
 
 Received: 13 September 2023 / Accepted: 22 December 2023 / Published: 5 January 2024

A Comprehensive Machine Learning Framework for Evaluating Agility of a Software Development Organization

A Comprehensive Machine Learning Framework for Evaluating Agility of a Software Development Organization

A Review: Attrition's Impact on Small and Medium Scale Software Development Organisation

A Review: Attrition's Impact on Small and Medium Scale Software Development Organisation

Process mining software engineering practices: A case study for deployment pipelines

Context:In mature software development organizations the ci/cd pipeline is the only route to deploy software into production. While the workflow of this process seems straightforward, the reality is different since exceptions and deviations are the norm in actual industry practice. In this context, Process Mining appears as a promising technique to uncover deviations and check compliance with standardized DevOps processes, and highlight bottlenecks and potential improvement areas. Objective:This paper presents a case study designed to assess the potential of using Process Mining techniques to provide visibility into the deployment pipeline. Method:This research uses raw event data extracted from the continuous practices toolchain, which is then used to compute a comprehensive set of DevOps-specific metrics, thus supporting objective monitoring of the quality and efficiency of the deployment workflow. The study focuses on different development units in the Engineering team, each working in a distinct business context but sharing standard practices. Results:We verified that even though there are standards for the deployment pipelines, each team’s workflow denotes local variations with unique points for improvement that are highly coupled to their business unit context. We observed that each team’s pipeline has different temporal profiles that reflect their context and work practices. Additionally, we identified a set of deployment pipeline metrics focusing on process compliance, efficiency, and deployment stability. Conclusion:The main contributions of this paper include (1) the description of an actual application of Process Mining to the deployment pipeline of a highly complex e-commerce platform, (2) how this approach provided an objective understanding of the efficiency and quality of the development workflow, (3) how this process-centric view, combined with domain-specific DevOps metrics, supports continuous practices, and (4) how Developers can analyse their workflows by applying Process Mining while using standard tools like GitLab and PM4Py.

Continuous Learning at the Individual Level: a study in software development organizations

This study aims to understand the occurrence of continuous learning at the individual level in Software Development Organizations – SDOs according to the framework proposed by Tannenbaum (1997). The objectives are to understand and describe the strategies and tools applied by developers during their learning process and if the studied SDOs offer a work environment conducive to continuous learning at the individual level. Thus, qualitative research was conducted with 12 Software Development Professionals in four SDOs applying semi-structured interviews. The subjects interviewed were involved in the software development process. The analyses were performed by the qualitative data analysis software Weft_QDA, which allowed the identification and analysis of speeches related to the theoretical concept of this study. The results show that SDOs offer an environment conducive to continuous learning at the individual level by allowing meaningful learning experiences, motivating constant participation in these experiences and, especially, engaging in complex projects whose results are influenced by the application of acquired knowledge.

Разработка онтологий для автоматизации вычислительных процессов при проектировании трубопроводных систем энергетики

Designing pipeline energy systems (heat, water, oil, gas supply, etc.) is a complex task that requires the use of specialized software to solve it. It is proposed to use ontologies to structure knowledge that is used in the processes of software development automation and organization of the computing process and user interface content. The proposed methodological approach includes the following components: the composition of ontologies, tools for implementing ontologies, and the methods for constructing ontologies (metaontologies, ontologies of specific classes, ontologies of design tasks, software ontologies). It is shown that the use of ontologies allows one to obtain the following results: a single platform for research and development of new methods, algorithms, mathematical models of pipeline systems and their elements; the ability to automate access to data for different types of systems and tasks; and automated software system construction. An example of ontology system application in software development is presented. The architecture of a software system for solving problems of designing pipeline systems of various types and purposes is given.

Adopting DevOps practices: an enhanced unified theory of acceptance and use of technology framework

<div align="center"><span lang="EN-US">DevOps software development approach is widely used in the software engineering discipline. DevOps eliminates the development and operations department barriers. The paper aims to develop a conceptual model for adopting DevOps practices in software development organizations by extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The research also aims to determine the influencing factors of DevOps practices’ acceptance and adoption in software organizations, determine gaps in the software development literature, and introduce a clear picture of current technology acceptance and adoption research in the software industry. A comprehensive literature review clarifies how users accept and adopt new technologies and what leads to adopting DevOps practices in the software industry as the starting point for developing a conceptual framework for adopting DevOps in software organizations. The literature results have formulated the conceptual framework for adopting DevOps practices. The resulting model is expected to improve understanding of software organizations’ acceptance and adoption of DevOps practices. The research hypotheses must be tested to validate the model. Future work will include surveys and expert interviews for model enhancement and validation. This research fulfills the necessity to study how software organizations accept and adopt DevOps practices by enhancing UTAUT.</span></div>