Walking Through the Method Zoo: Does Higher Education Really Meet Software Industry Demands?

Kuhrmann, Marco; Nakatumba‐Nabende, Joyce; Pfeiffer, Rolf-Helge; Tell, Paolo; Klünder, Jil; Conte, Tayana; MacDonell, Stephen G.; Hebig, Regina

doi:10.1109/icse-seet.2019.00009

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…What are the implications for software process improvement (SPI) programs if, regardless of the “showroom method” providing the umbrella, the practices are the stable key components of organizing and conducting the actual project work? What are the implications for educators if companies require students trained in latest methods, 49 but key is a solid understanding of the “old stuff,” which is still the core of modern software engineering practice?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards the statistical construction of hybrid development methods

Tell

Klünder

Küpper

et al. 2020

J Software Evolu Process

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Hardly any software development process is used as prescribed by authors or standards. Regardless of company size or industry sector, a majority of project teams and companies use hybrid development methods (short: hybrid methods) that combine different development methods and practices. Even though such hybrid methods are highly individualized, a common understanding of how to systematically construct synergetic practices is missing. In this article, we make a first step towards a statistical construction procedure for hybrid methods. Grounded in 1467 data points from a large-scale practitioner survey, we study the question: What are hybrid methods made of and how can they be systematically constructed? Our findings show that only eight methods and few practices build the core of modern software development. Using an 85% agreement level in the participants' selections, we provide examples illustrating how hybrid methods can be characterized by the practices they are made of. Furthermore, using this characterization, we develop an initial construction procedure, which allows for defining a method frame and enriching it incrementally to devise a hybrid method using ranked sets of practice. K E Y W O R D S hybrid methods, software development, software process, survey research 1 | INTRODUCTION Today, companies often use highly individualized processes to run projects, often by integrating agile methods in their processes. For instance, Dikert et al 1 found choosing and customizing an agile model to be an important success factor and that agility in general changed the way software is developed. Dingsøyr et al 2 reflect on a decade of agile methodologies, and there is no denial that agile methods have become an important asset in many companies' process portfolios. 3-6 However, agile methods are not implemented as prescribed by authors or standards, 7,8 and in 2011, West et al 9 coined the term "Water-Scrum-Fall" to describe a pattern that they claimed most companies implement for their software projects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards the statistical construction of hybrid development methods

Tell

Klünder

Küpper

et al. 2020

J Software Evolu Process

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“…The HELENA survey asked questions on how software organizations develop their software and what processes are used [7]. All published studies [37][38][39][40][41][42][43] share the same general theme and use the same data sample, although they have different scope, variables, and designs. Our study is concerned with hybrid approaches in the context of GSD.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plan-Driven Approaches Are Alive and Kicking in Agile Global Software Development

Marinho

Noll

Richardson

et al. 2019

2019 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM)

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Background: Agile methods are no longer restricted to small projects and co-located teams. The last decade has seen the spread of agile into large scale, distributed and regulated domains. Many case studies show successful agile adoption in GSD, however, taken as a whole, it remains unclear how widespread this trend is, and what form the agile adoption takes in a global software development (GSD) setting. Aims: Our objective is to gain a deeper understanding of how organisations adopt agile development methods in distributed settings. Specifically we aim to plot the current development process landscape in GSD. Method: We analyse industrial survey data from 33 different countries collected as part of the HELENA project that explored the wider use of hybrid development approaches in software development. We extract and analyse the results of 263 surveys completed by participants involved in globally distributed projects. Results: In our sample, 72% of globally distributed projects implement a mix of both agile and traditional approaches (termed 'hybrid'). 25% of GSD organisations are predominantly agile, with only very few (5%) opting for traditional approaches. GSD projects that used only agile methods tended to be very large. Conclusions: Globally Distributed Software Development (and project size) is not a barrier to adopting agile practices. Yet, to facilitate project coordination and general project management, many adopt traditional approaches, resulting in a hybrid approach that follows defined rules.

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“…The figure breaks down Figure and shows how often the different agile methods have been mentioned in the papers analyzed in the systematic review. Figure shows that Scrum and XP are in the spotlight of researchers and practitioners alike . However, not every mention of a method or practice in a publication automatically implies that the method or practice is discussed as an SPI approach as it became obvious when applying the paper categorization (Section , Figure ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How has SPI changed in times of agile development? Results from a multi‐method study

Küpper

Pfahl

Jürisoo

et al. 2019

J Software Evolu Process

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The emergence of agile methods and practices has not only changed the development processes but might also have affected how companies conduct software process improvement (SPI).Through a set of complementary studies, we aim to understand how SPI has changed in times of agile software development. Specifically, we aim (a) to identify and characterize the set of publications that connect elements of agility to SPI, (b) to explore to which extent agile methods/practices have been used in the context of SPI, and (c) to understand whether the topics addressed in the literature are relevant and useful for industry professionals. To study these questions, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the literature identified in a previous mapping study, an interview study, and an analysis of the responses given by industry professionals to SPI-related questions stemming from an independently conducted survey study. Regarding the first question, we identified 55 publications that focus on both SPI and agility of which 48 present and discuss how agile methods/practices are used to steer SPI initiatives. Regarding the second question, we found that the two most frequently mentioned agile methods in the context of SPI are Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP), while the most frequently mentioned agile practices are integrate often, test-first, daily meeting, pair programming, retrospective, on-site customer, and product backlog. Regarding the third question, we found that a majority of the interviewed and surveyed industry professionals see SPI as a continuous activity. They agree with the agile SPI literature that agile methods/practices play an important role in SPI activities but that the importance given to specific agile methods/practices does not always coincide with the frequency with which these methods/practices are mentioned in the literature. KEYWORDSagile methods, software process improvement, SPI, systematic review INTRODUCTIONSoftware has become the key driver in many industry sectors, and software development processes face increasing demands for flexibility, customer-and value-orientation, short time-to-market cycles, and high quality. As a consequence, companies are challenged with finding appropriate software development methods that, on the one hand, allow for flexible project operation and, on the other hand, allow for creating high-quality products. To define, adapt, evaluate, and improve their software processes, companies implement software process improvement (SPI) initiatives. According to Humphrey 1 and Münch et al, 2 SPI comprises a variety of tasks, ie, scoping, assessment, design and realization, and continuous improvement. Furthermore, SPI is considered relevant to companies 3 regardless of their size and industry sector.SPI has been around for decades, 4 and numerous approaches to conduct SPI have been proposed. 5,6 The different SPI approaches range from formal/prescriptive/de-facto (commercial) standards, such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) or ISO/IEC 15504, which are often critic...

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Walking Through the Method Zoo: Does Higher Education Really Meet Software Industry Demands?

Cited by 19 publications

References 21 publications

Towards the statistical construction of hybrid development methods

Towards the statistical construction of hybrid development methods

Plan-Driven Approaches Are Alive and Kicking in Agile Global Software Development

How has SPI changed in times of agile development? Results from a multi‐method study

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