Agile Development Methodology for Embedded Systems: A Platform-Based Design Approach

In recent years, discrete control systems play an important role in the development and advancement of modern civilization and technology. Practically every aspect of our life is affected by some type of control systems. This kind of system maybe classified as an embedded real-time system and requires rigorous methodologies to develop the software that is under stringent hardware constraints. Therefore, the proposed development methodology adapts agile principles and patterns in order to build embedded control systems focusing on the issues related to the system's constraints and safety. Strong unit testing is the foundation of the proposed methodology for ensuring timeliness and correctness. Moreover, platform-based design approach is used to balance costs and time-to-market in view of performance and functionality constraints. We conclude that the proposed methodology reduces significantly the design time and cost as well as leads to better software modularity and reliability.

The Internet economy has altered the rules of software engineering. Traditional development methodologies are too cumbersome to meet the rapidly changing requirements and short product cycles demanded by business. To meet these changing requirements, software developers have developed agile software development methodologies (SDMs) utilizing iterative development, prototyping, and templates. This research project investigated agile SDM implementation using an online survey sent to practitioners worldwide. This survey data were used to identify factors related to agile SDM implementation. Factors that included training, management involvement, access to external resources, and corporate size were found to impact implementation of an agile software development methodology. Factors such as using models, having an implementation plan, collocating the development team, and developing software for Internet or intranet use did not impact the implementation of an agile software development methodology. Several of the factors that impact the implementation of an agile development methodology are under the control of management. Organizations considering the implementation of an agile methodology may wish to manipulate some of these factors to increase the opportunities for success of their methodology.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to reflect upon the feasibility of agile methodologies, Scrum in particular, to supplement the procedural design and implementation of performance measurement systems (PMS).Design/methodology/approachThe study is an interventionist case study that applied agile methodologies in the PMS development. Researchers actively participated in the PMS development, e.g. researchers designed some of the performance measurement prototypes in order to facilitate the agile development.FindingsThe study outlines an agile approach suitable for PMS development. The paper answers the topical needs for adaptability and agility in management accounting, by applying agile methodologies into PMS development. PMS development does not take place only as a project or process that systematically progresses from the measure selection to measure implementation. Instead, as the requirements for the PMS change during the development project, management may reject some measures and new measures emerge as the understanding about changing situations increase. Agile methodologies are a methodological way to respond to the inevitable change and to enhance management accounting adaptability.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the PMS literature by proposing that agile development methodologies can advance organizational features that increase management accounting adaptability. As a result, the study proposes a new approach for PMS development to supplement existing ones. Agile methodologies are especially suitable for extending the PMS in new, yet relatively immature areas of performance measurement. The new approach applies Scrum principles in PMS development. By drawing from the theories of performance measurement (system) development and enabling PMS, the paper furthers academic understanding about agile development of accounting information systems.Practical implicationsCompanies can use the proposed approach in PMS development, particularly after the initial system implementation in redesigning the system. The approach may increase the PMS impact in organizations and prevent PMS implementation failures.Originality/valueThe paper identifies the potential of using agile methodologies to enhance PMS adaptability and provides preliminary evidence of the potential of such approach in supplementing processual PMS development frameworks.

A discrete control system, with stringent hardware constraints, is effectively an embedded real-time system and hence requires a rigorous methodology to develop the software involved. The development methodology proposed in this paper adapts agile principles and patterns to support the building of embedded control systems, focusing on the issues relating to a system's constraints and safety. Strong unit testing, to ensure correctness, including the satisfaction of timing constraints, is the foundation of the proposed methodology. A platform-based design approach is used to balance costs and time-to-market in relation to performance and functionality constraints. It is concluded that the proposed methodology significantly reduces design time and costs, as well as leading to better software modularity and reliability.

The Agile development methodology is soaring in popularity in the business world. Companies are turning to Agile to develop products quickly and to achieve digital transformation of their organization. Because of this push, companies need employees who understand Agile. Therefore, higher education is obligated to provide an understanding of Agile to students as they enter the workplace. Providing Agile experience to students who are new to programming is difficult because they are so worried about the coding aspects of the assignment, they cannot take time to think about the methodology they are using. The coding crowds out the time needed to get an understanding of how Agile actually works. One remedy for this is to use a low or no-code development platform. With this type of platform students spend less time learning to create apps, freeing them to experience the rituals and roles of Agile. This study examines using the Agile methodology along with the Microsoft Power Apps platform to provide an Agile experience to students. Two course sections were surveyed to learn if students perceived that they acquired a better understanding of Agile and to learn their perceptions of a no-code platform experience. The students completed surveys to ascertain their comfort with the Agile methodology and whether the no-code environment increased their comfort level. The results showed students perceived the no-code platform increased their comfort with using the Agile methodology. The implication is that no-code platforms can be used broadly to help students to gain experience with Agile.

The emergence of software offshore outsourcing phenomena hits every country positively and one of the offshore client/vendor attractng factor is CMM certification. CMM is a well recognized and globally accepted standard in software development to process control, quality improvement, and measurement of software firm's capability. Therefore, Pakistani software firms (SMEs) are striving to achieve the CMM certifications to earn profit from offshore clients. In fact, CMM certification is not easy to adopt for all level of firms. Pakistan software industry is at its initial stage, so it is not recommendable to jump for CMM by software firms (SMEs) directly. The present research paper suggests that these software firms (SMEs) should go for adaptation of agile development methodology for excellent performance on the foot steps of CMM. In this way, software firms (SMEs) can leads toward CMM after agile maturity. The authors used the eXtreme Programming (XP) as an example that proves Agile Development Methodology can well fit the CMM framework and software development firms (SMEs) can achieve their objectives to participate in offshore outsourcing phenonmena.

The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study is to identify the possible correlation between software changes and the likelihood that software releases developed using an agile methodology like DevOps will introduce vulnerabilities into the software application when integrated. There are several scholarly articles that provide details on how Agile development methodologies like scrum and DevOps rely on automated testing for security. The majority of literature on the subject recommend manual security and penetration testing, but there is currently no objective measure to determine when this manual testing should take place. In Agile scrum and in DevOps, manual security testing is usually conducted after a large feature is completed and integrated into production. If a correlation can be found between aspects of software changes and their propensity to introduce vulnerabilities into a software application, then that data can be used to build an objective process for measuring when manual security testing should be performed in Agile development.

The role of the Contract Data Requirements List [CDRL] in the DoD acquisition process is to provide the authoritative list of required artifacts for a given procurement. It forms an appendix to the acquisition contract, and includes delivery information and a schedule for each, typically mapped to milestone events such as the Preliminary Design Review [PDR] or the Critical Design Review [CDR] in the DoD Acquisition Waterfall Lifecycle. A number of CDRLs were proposed for the Joint Mission Planning Systems [JMPS] Framework, including a number of artifacts specific to the architecture and design of the application. Alignment with the DoD Acquisition Waterfall Lifecycle milestone events posed significant challenges to the program, given the contractor's proposed Agile development methodology. Many of these architectural and design documents carried a delivery-schedule expectation that placed them in conflict with the best practices and anticipated benefits of Agile, including the principle of “design only as much as is necessary to build features”. Using the Enterprise Architect tool, the contractor was able to produce a “living design” used daily by the development team, including architects, designers, developers, integrators, and testers. The tool provided capabilities that facilitated templates for various CDRLs, including the Systems Architecture Description [SAD], the Software Design Description [SDD], and the Interface Design Description [IDD], allowing on-demand generation of snapshots of the architecture and detailed design as it evolved, providing the appropriate level of documentation of the as-built system. The result better addressed the contractual intent of the CDRLs, to provide subsequent platform developers an accurate and up-to-date understanding of the architecture and design of the JMPS Framework, while better preserving the integrity of the development of the Enterprise Architecture within the selected Zachman Framework, and in the context of the contractor's Agile methodology.

Software industry is a growing sector in economy and in the present financial crisis, software firms are facing problems in providing necessary support for research and development activities. The objective of this paper is to find alternatives to the use of IT (information technology) solution of software firm development. Agile development methodologies are very promising in the software industry. Agile development techniques are such a way of developing environment such that it is very practical and viable in understanding the flow of business environment changes constantly. Agile development processes optimize the opportunity provided by cloud computing by doing software releases iteratively and getting user feedback more frequently. The research methodology depends on Cloud Computing as an alternative to IT provision, management and security. It also took into account the best practices for Cloud Computing usage within software firms and software developers experience in IT. The strategy includes five stages, with emphasis on the evaluation of data and processes/functions/applications from several major software firms based on some key criteria, while creating a correspondence between these aspects and the models/services/applications that exist on the Cloud market. The outcome of using Cloud solutions in software firms by improving knowledge is impressive.

From the perspective of the main goal, the real use of agile project methodology was analyzed, and then the levels of knowledge and use of the mentioned methodology were evaluated. Areas for potential improvement were identified and proposals for measures were created to increase the efficiency of future project implementation. Most companies today focus on delivering quality and gaining customer satisfaction and in order to accomplish this, the challenge lies in choosing between traditional development methodologies and agile development methodologies. However, both these approaches have positives and negatives, making the right choice plays a crucial role while starting a new project.

The development of video games is a complex, multidisciplinary process, which involves different areas as well as a greater number of roles than for traditional software. Serious games face process constraints that concern a number of interactive, educational and psychological factors designed to lead to the fulfillment of educational objectives within a specific context. Based on a case study in the city Cali, Colombia, an iterative and incremental process is proposed, focusing on small and medium development for educational serious games and basing itself on two lines of research: agile development methodology and user-centered design (UCD) for children from 7 to 10 years. The agile methodology eXtreme Programming (XP) offers a useful option for the development of serious games as it establishes a continuous communication with all project stakeholders - including the end user - throughout the project, while UCD allows the user profile to be known and identified so that the game will meet the needs and match the capabilities, expectations and motivations of the child.

In the dynamic development context of the information technology sector, especially crucial for Russia at the moment, the adoption of agile project management methodologies becomes a necessary step for companies to effectively respond to changes, enhance product quality, and achieve market success while maintaining competitiveness. Therefore, the aim of this research is to assess the degree of implementation of agile project management methodologies in IT companies in Russia. The study was conducted through online surveys of practicing specialists in the field of managing innovative projects. Specialists were asked a general question about their application of agile methodologies, as well as four questions regarding specific aspects: requirements gathering, planning, communication with clients, and team communication. The article describes which aspects of agile project management methodologies are practiced by surveyed specialists. In conclusion, it is noted that employees tend to use hybrid project management approaches more frequently than pure agile methodologies. Agile principles are more commonly integrated into client communication and team communication, and less so in requirements gathering and planning.

E-Government aims to provide required services to required users at the required time. E-government uses Information and Communication technologies (ICT) to provide essential government services and information exchange with the citizens and other stakeholders through the internet. Existing e-government faces many challenges, from development to implementation. The objective of this paper is to give insights about cloud computing, agile principles and how to use them for E-government. This paper reviews different cloud computing and agile development methodologies with new technologies that have come with new approaches.

In this paper, an application of Agile Devel-opment Methodologies (ADM) to university project ori-ented courses is presented. A multidisciplinary student team applies Waterfall and Agile (Scrum) project man-agement strategies over a period of 10 months to a pro-ject based capstone course. The study primarily focuses on evaluating the two methodologies across five catego-ries – student confidence, student awareness, stakeholder confidence, stakeholder awareness, and project success. Results suggest that overall Agile can be more effective than Waterfall. Due to practices such as daily standups and frequent sprint planning, the student team and stake-holders found they were not only able to stay up to date with the progress of the overall project but also found there was enough time allocated to address the ever-changing nature of requirements brought on by the pro-ject. The lessons learned and recommendations provided in this study are generalized such that they can be applied in other project based courses as well.

Agile software development is often seen as a product development strategy to design and develop new software products. One of the biggest mistakes that most software development teams make is to consider software re-engineering as a part of their maintenance activities rather than an integral part of the product development lifecycle, and therefore, they don’t consider a systematic development approach for re-engineering activities. Even the most popular agile development frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe don’t have any specific guidelines for re-engineering projects. It is also commonly observed that most of the teams that used agile development methodologies faced several challenges and accumulated a huge technical debt due to their short-focused goals and lack of systematic re-engineering plans (Raza and Majeed in Int J Sci Eng Res 3(8):1–5 (2012) [1]). This paper describes the importance of continuous software re-engineering and the usage of agile methodologies to effectively achieve the re-engineering goals.