Agile procurement to support agile software development

Contemporary software is increasingly developed using an agile development approach, yet the supplier is generally selected as a result of a waterfall-style competitive tendering and contracting process. The procurement activity may be incompatible with an agile elaboration of requirements and development of functionality, and lead to sub-optimal outcomes. This paper examines the interaction of the procurement and software development lifecycles, explores potential causes of project or system failures and suggests some improvements based on a successful 10 year project between ADI Limited and the Australian Department of Defence.

Agile practices have recently gained popularity among large number of companies as a mechanism for reducing cost and increasing ability to handle change in dynamic market conditions. Based on the principles of the Agile manifesto [1, 2], researchers and practitioners have proposed several software development approaches such as Extreme Programming, Scrum and Feature-Driven Development. These and other agile approaches have had significant impact on industrial software development practices. However, there is also a significant concern and perplexity about the role and importance of the issues related to a system’s software architecture, which is considered one of the most important initial design artefacts. It is argued that software architecture is an effective tool to cut development cost and time and to increase the quality of a system. Many practitioners of Agile approaches appear to view software architecture in the context of the plan-driven development paradigm [3]. For them, upfront design and evaluation of software architecture requires too much work, which may have very little value to the customers of a system. Hence, they perceive architectural work as part of high ceremony processes, which usually require large amount of documentation. We maintain that these two seemingly opposing views to software engineering can be integrated but it requires that experts from both fields work together to overcome evident challenges in bridging these two paradigms together. Indeed, software architecture researchers and practitioners appear to believe that sound architectural practices cannot be followed using Agile approaches. However, these two extreme views of Agile and architecture appear to neglect that many agile experts emphasises the importance of paying attention to good design and architecture early in the development process [4, 5]. Recently, there is growing recognition of the importance of paying more attention to architectural aspects in agile approaches [3, 6, 7]. We argue that there is a vital need for devising a research agenda for identifying and dealing with architecture-centric challenges in agile software development. Such research agenda should make it possible to guide the future research on integrating architecture-centric methods in agile approaches and give advice to the software industry on dealing with architecture related challenges. Some of the questions to stimulate discussion in the workshop are: What is the role of software architecture in Agile software development? What are the key architecture-centric challenges and potential solutions in Agile software development projects? What is the strength of the evidence that attention to architectural issues can be counterproductive in Agile development or vice versa? What are the prerequisites for integrating Architecture-Centric methods in agile development and potential implications of such integration?

New methods and best practices are being used to enhance the software lifecycle because of the recent expansion of the software industry. Agile development approaches have also been widely used, and they have positively affected people's lives and the operations of enterprises. Although agility makes working with developers easier, it does not offer enough chances to collaborate with users. In early Agile formulations, User Experience (UX) was not recognized as a distinct part of software development. The tricky part is figuring out where to integrate them and how to merge them so that the two parts interact. Combining user experience with Agile approaches is the subject of this research's proposed systematic literature review (SLR). This research found ten relevant studies highlighting the growing interest and research in merging these two critical areas of software engineering. In conclusion, this research found some papers or studies integrating user experience into Agile methodologies. Many techniques are used, and all studies have different approaches to integrate them.

Software Testing from an Agile and Traditional view

Bridging knowledge boundaries among project team members is essential to prevent delays or complete failure of software development projects. Prior researchers have reported that software prototypes can be used to help bridge knowledge boundaries between team members in traditional software development settings, yet their use in an agile development setting remains unexplored. Agile development centers the interactions between team members on emerging representations of the prototype whose properties are prone to change over time. Therefore, we conducted an in‐depth study of an agile development project to enhance our understanding on how software prototypes are used as boundary objects in a distributed team setting. Our analyses of team member interactions during 46 virtual meetings that took place over a period of 6 months revealed four different prototype use practices (exemplifying, contrasting, relating, framing) that were effective in bridging syntactic, semantic, or pragmatic knowledge boundaries. We also provide empirically grounded evidence of how variations in object properties can afford different use practices, how the use practices take advantage of these properties, and how object properties are reshaped through these use practices as different types of knowledge boundaries are bridged. These findings bear important implications for research on prototypes as boundary objects in software development in particular and boundary object use in general.

Companies are adapting their traditional development processes, aiming for project-specific designs that are referred to as “Agile Product Development” - flexible, adaptive and accelerated processes. Implementing these principles supports developers to react to challenges such as shortened innovation cycles. For successful implementation and use of these new principles, support functions such as procurement have to be adapted to the demands of flexible, agile and accelerated processes. Complexity of tasks and impact on corporate success of procurement increased significantly in the last decades resulting in specialized stand-alone procurement departments. Being optimized for traditional development methods such as stage-gate, these departments will be challenged by agile developers demanding for highly flexible, hardly predictable procurement activities. Therefore, the authors present a scientifically derived catalog of requirements for procurement in agile product and technology development projects, e.g. shortened lead times and vague technical specification of products to be procured. Based on this catalog, options for the configuration of procurement in agile development projects, such as the organizational merging of development and procurement, are discussed. Adapting the procurement according to the requirements derived in this paper will help companies to successfully conduct procurement activities in regard to the needs of agile new product development.

The multidisciplinary requirements of current computational modeling problems preclude the development of scientific software that is maintained and used by selected scientists. The multidisciplinary nature of these efforts requires the development of large scale software projects established with a wide developer and user base in mind. This article describes some of the software-engineering practices adopted in a scientific-software application for a laser-induced incandescence community model. The project uses an Agile and Test-Driven Development approach to implement the infrastructure for the development of a collaborative model that is to be extended, modified, and used by different researchers. We discuss some of the software-engineering practices that can be exploited through the life of a project, starting with its inception when only a hand full of developers are contributing to the project and the mechanism we have put in place in order to allow the natural expansion of the model.

Today, the most vital step is software testing, especially in product quality. Agile software development is exceedingly difficult and has contentious issues in literature and business. Since most Agile techniques place more emphasis on development than software testing activities, different people have varying opinions about how software testing fits into these methodologies. Agile places a high emphasis on frequent deliveries and tight client connections. However, software testing is complex because agile does not incorporate many destructive testing techniques typically required for a product of higher-quality. The study reveals industry-wide Agile testing procedures and the main problems that arise when Agile development is used. Additionally covered are the differences between manual and automated testing, best automation practices, and ways to lead different testing teams in an agile testing environment. This study covers every facet of the Agile software testing process. Agile development has shown that testing is not a distinct stage but rather a crucial component of software development along with the coding. The agile team employs an overall strategy to produce software products of the highest quality. As part of an agile team, testers collect customer samples of the desired behaviour and collaborate with the developer's team to help the coders translate these examples into executable specifications. Coding and testing are done iteratively and incrementally, developing every item until it is valuable enough to release in production. It addresses several testing modalities. The classification provided by its quadrants aids teams in determining and organizing the necessary tests. To increase quality assurance, this article will examine various and improved Agile Testing Processes and methodologies. Additionally, the topic of Agile development's software testing method is covered. Agile development processes can be improved and more advantageous by incorporating testing procedures.

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.

This scientific article explores the theoretical aspects of team management in the context of different management methodologies and compares the effectiveness of Agile and Waterfall project management methodologies. The study reveals that Agile methodologies are highly effective and provide significant cost savings but are still not widely used in Ukraine. Also, this article compares such methodologies as Scrum, Kanban, Lean, PRINCE2, SIX SIGMA, and Hybrid. The choice of methodology should depend on specific project conditions, such as team size and project complexity. The study presents new insights into the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to team management. The study finds that teams using the Agile methodology achieve better results on average than teams using the Waterfall methodology. It also shows that using Agile methodologies is more common in small teams than in large ones. As project complexity increases, traditional methods such as Waterfall become more common. Therefore, the article provides a valuable contribution to the field of project management and can be helpful for project managers who are looking for an optimal approach to managing their teams. Purpose of the article. The purpose of this article is to investigate the theoretical aspects of team management in the context of different management methodologies and to compare the effectiveness of these methodologies in Ukraine and other countries. In addition, the paper aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about the benefits of using agile methodologies in project management and to highlight the need for further research in this area. Design/methodology/approach. This article is based on a comprehensive literature review of recent research and publications on team management and project management methodology. Research sources used include scientific journals, conference proceedings, books and online resources. The focus is on comparing and contrasting different approaches to team management across methodologies including Agile, Waterfall and Lean. The study also includes an analysis of empirical data collected during surveys conducted in Ukraine and other countries to determine the most effective team management practices for projects of various sizes and complexities. The research design used in this study is primarily qualitative as the focus is on exploring the theoretical aspects of team management through different management methodologies. However, research also includes a quantitative element, as the analysis of survey data involves the use of statistical methods to identify relationships between variables. Limitations of the study include the sample size of the survey participants and the geographical coverage of the study, which is mainly focused on Ukraine and other European countries. Особистий фінансовий консалтинг: світовий досвід та перспективи розвитку в Україні 141 Findings. The results of this study indicate that Agile methodologies are becoming increasingly popular in software development teams around the world. The study also found that the use of Agile methodologies is more prevalent in smaller teams compared to larger teams. This trend may be due to the fact that smaller teams are more flexible and can adapt more easily to the iterative and collaborative nature of Agile methods. However, the data also suggests that as the complexity of a project increases, the use of Agile methods becomes less prevalent, with more traditional methods such as Waterfall being used instead. In terms of team management, the study found that the use of Agile methodologies can lead to higher levels of team collaboration and communication, which can ultimately lead to more efficient and effective project outcomes. However, it is important to note that effective team management requires more than just the use of a particular methodology, and other factors such as leadership, communication skills, and team dynamics also play a crucial role. Overall, the findings suggest that Agile methodologies can be a powerful tool for software development teams, particularly in smaller teams and less complex projects, but that effective implementation and management are key to achieving success. Originality/value. The originality and value of this study lie in the comprehensive analysis and comparison of different management methodologies in the context of team management. The study presents new insights into the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to team management and provides practical recommendations for organizations in Ukraine and other countries. Furthermore, the study contributes to the existing body of literature on team management by providing empirical evidence on the effectiveness of different management methodologies. The study also highlights the importance of considering the size and complexity of the project when choosing a management methodology. Overall, the findings of this study can provide valuable guidance for managers and organizations in selecting the most suitable team management methodology for their specific needs and circumstances. Practical implications. The results of this study have practical implications for project managers and team leaders who are responsible for managing teams in different countries with different project sizes and complexities. Research shows that using a specific methodology does not guarantee success in team management and that an individualized approach based on the specific needs of the team and project is more effective. Overall, the practical implications of this study can help project managers improve their team management skills and increase the likelihood of project success.

agile information systems, flexible information systems development, distributed information systems development, global software development, software development, special issue

Organizations of all sorts adopt agile software development, but they rarely implement it “by the book.” Instead, agile practices evolve after initial adoption and often drift in different directions as organizations translate agile into their institutional environments. We studied the implementation of agile development in four organizations from much different institutional contexts: a startup technology company, a consulting firm, a government organization, and an industrial manufacturer. We found two core dimensions of their institutional contexts that shape agile translation: dynamism and pluralism. Dynamism refers to how fast requirements and environments change, and pluralism refers to how many diverse stakeholders are involved. These two dimensions influence the direction of agile translation. We show that agile practices evolve through a “ratcheting” process, whereby a sequence of incremental, interdependent changes gradually move teams closer to or further away from canonical agile practices. High pluralism in the institutional context, for example, tends to increase documentation, whereas low dynamism appears to slow iteration cycles. Agile software development is no longer limited to startups or software teams; it is adapted by all sorts of organizations as a way to flexibly innovate. Understanding why agile evolves differently across contexts helps managers move beyond one-size-fits-all prescriptions and set realistic expectations for agile development in their organizations.

Software maintenance is one of the most debated phases in software development process for so many years. Having reputed as the most expensive phase of software development life cycle (SDLC), it utilizes the maximum share of the overall project costs as well as time. Agile software development provides opportunities to assess the direction of a project throughout the development lifecycle. However, it does not ideally map with the existing software maintenance process. One of the highlighted issues is the difficulty for searching of information as well as lack of knowledge to solve the maintenance problems within certain time frame. Thus, the main objective of this study is to improve the governance of software maintenance process in an Agile development team. In doing so, a tool named Axita is developed to assist the software maintenance team for storing of information in central data repository and managing projects in more efficient and timely manner. Based on the literature review as well as mapping between the agile software development and the existing ISO software maintenance process, we also proposed six best practices to better govern the software maintenance process in an Agile development team, to overcome the difficulty of information finding and reduce the time spent to solve the maintenance issues. We believe that our study and findings complement the efforts that have been put forth in improving the way we manage software maintenance thus enhance the efficiency of the software development process. Â

Software development depends on various factors and organizational culture is one of them. Recently agile software development, with its emphasis on agility, has received much attention. Research so far has focused on the constructs that define agility and also identified the reasons that limit teams from exhibiting all the constructs of agile software development. This lead to re-defining agility by using economic, quality, simplicity and the relationship with the environment it operates on. One of the factors that contribute to relationship with environment is organizational culture. Though relationship of organizational culture and software methods is not new, analyzing the relationship further in the new defined definition of agility can provide deep insights into software development. In this paper a qualitative research method of multiple case-studies consisting of 3 releases of one product development team was selected. Data was collected using participant-observation method. Research findings have identified some useful insights that could provide researchers and practitioners to develop software development life-cycle that incorporates existing agile methods and uses diverse set of methods to resolve issues including organizational issues. Thereby the new software development life-cycle would not distinguish between agile and plan-driven development methods and could shape itself in the changing context.

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.