Mining Dependencies in Large-Scale Agile Software Development Projects: A Quantitative Industry Study

Abstract

Context: Coordination in large-scale software development is critical yet difficult, as it faces the problem of dependency management and resolution. In this work, we focus on managing requirement dependencies that in Agile software development (ASD) come in the form of user stories. Objective: This work studies decisions of large-scale Agile teams regarding identification of dependencies between user stories. Our goal is to explain detection of dependencies through users' behavior in large-scale, distributed projects. Method: We perform empirical evaluation on a large real-world dataset from an Agile software organization, provider of a leading software for Agile project management. We mine the usage data of the Agile Lifecycle Management (ALM) tool to extract large-scale development project data for more than 70 teams running over a five-year period. Results: Our results demonstrate that dependencies among user stories are not frequently observed (the problem affects around 10% of user stories), however, their implications on large-scale ASD are considerable. Dependencies have impact on software releases and increase work coordination complexity for members of different teams. Conclusion: Requirement dependencies undermine Agile teams' autonomy and are difficult to manage at scale. We conclude that leveraging ALM monitoring data to automatically detect dependencies could help Agile teams address work coordination needs and manage risks related to dependencies in a timely manner. CCS CONCEPTS• Information systems → Data mining; • Software and its engineering → Software development process management; Risk management.

A longitudinal explanatory case study of coordination in a very large development programme: the impact of transitioning from a first- to a second-generation large-scale agile development method

“…In globally distributed software development teams, Stray and Moe (2020) found significantly larger team sizes than those of co-located teams, and people working in distributed teams spent somewhat more time in meetings per day. A quantitative analysis of 71 SAFe projects from the company Rally found that dependencies were explicitly declared for about 10% of user stories (Biesialska et al 2021). These dependencies were indicated in a lifecycle management tool by product owners, scrum masters or developers.…”

“…Empirical studies show challenges with coordination breakdowns (Bick et al 2018), lack of awareness and a mismatch between advice in methods and coordination needs over time (Dingsøyr et al 2018c). Dependencies undermine autonomy, which is essential for agile development teams (Biesialska et al 2021).…”