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344 papers
Agile - denoting "the quality of being agile, readiness for motion, nimbleness, activity, dexterity in motion" - software development methods are attempting to offer an answer to the eager business community asking for lighter weight along with faster and nimbler software development processes. This is especially the case with the rapidly growing and volatile Internet software industry as well as for the emerging mobile application environment. The new agile methods have evoked substantial amount of literature and debates. However, academic research on the subject is still scarce, as most of existing publications are written by practitioners or consultants. The aim of this publication is to begin filling this gap by systematically reviewing the existing literature on agile software development methodologies. This publication has three purposes. First, it proposes a definition and a classification of agile software development approaches. Second, it analyses ten software development methods that can be characterized as being "agile" against the defined criterion. Third, it compares these methods and highlights their similarities and differences. Based on this analysis, future research needs are identified and discussed.
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[Context] Advancement in technologies, popularity of small-batch manufacturing and the recent trend of investing in hardware startups are among the factors leading to the rise of hardware startups nowadays. It is essential for hardware startups, companies that involve both software and hardware development, to be not only agile to develop their business but also efficient to develop the right products. [Objective] We investigate how hardware startups achieve agility when developing their products in early stages. [Methods] A qualitative research is conducted with data from 20 hardware startups. [Result] Preliminary results show that agile development is known to hardware entrepreneurs, however it is limitedly adopted. We also found four categories of tactics: (1) strategy, (2) personnel, (3) artifact and (4) resource that enable hardware startups agile in their early stage business and product development. [Conclusions] Agile methodologies should be adopted with the consideration of specific features of hardware development, such as up-front design and vendor dependencies.
Software Engineering practitioners work using highly diverse methods and practices, and general theories in software engineering are lacking. One attempt at creating a common ground in the area of software engineering methodologies has been the Essence Theory of Software Engineering, which can be considered a method-agnostic project management tool for software engineering. Essence supports the use of any development practices and provides a framework for building a suitable method for any software engineering context. However, Essence presently suffers from low practitioner adoption that is partially considered to be caused by a lack of proper tooling. In this paper, we present Essencery, a tool for essentializing software engineering methods and practices using the Essence graphical syntax. Essencery aims to facilitate adoption of Essence among potential future users. We present an empirical evaluation of the tool by means of a qualitative, quasi-formal experiment and, based on the experiment, confirm that the tool is easy to use and useful for its intended purpose.
Software Engineering as an industry is highly diverse in terms of development methods and practices. Practitioners employ a myriad of methods and tend to further tailor them by e.g. omitting some practices or rules. This diversity in development methods poses a challenge for software engineering education, creating a gap between education and industry. General theories such as the Essence Theory of Software Engineering can help bridge this gap by presenting software engineering students with higher-level frameworks upon which to build an understanding of software engineering methods and practical project work. In this paper, we study Essence in an educational setting to evaluate its usefulness for software engineering students while also investigating barriers to its adoption in this context. To this end, we observe 102 student teams utilize Essence in practical software engineering projects during a semester long, project-based course.
[Background] An increasing number of commercial firms are participating in Open Source Software (OSS) projects to reduce their development cost and increase technical innovativeness. When collaborating with other firms whose sought values are conflicts of interests, firms may behave uncooperatively leading to harmful impacts on the common goal. [Aim] This study explores how software firms both collaborate and compete in OSS projects. [Method] We adopted a mixed research method on three OSS projects. [Result] We found that commercial firms participating in community-initiated OSS projects collaborate in various ways across the organizational boundaries. While most of firms contribute little, a small number of firms that are very active and account for large proportions of contributions. We proposed a conceptual model to explain for coopetition among software firms in OSS projects. The model shows two aspects of coopetition can be managed at the same time based on firm gatekeepers. [Conclusion] Firms need to operationalize their coopetition strategies to maximize value gained from participating in OSS projects.
Metrics can be used by businesses to make more objective decisions based on data. Software startups in particular are characterized by the uncertain or even chaotic nature of the contexts in which they operate. Using data in the form of metrics can help software startups to make the right decisions amidst uncertainty and limited resources. However, whereas conventional business metrics and software metrics have been studied in the past, metrics in the spe-cific context of software startup are not widely covered within academic literature. To promote research in this area and to create a starting point for it, we have conducted a multi-vocal literature review focusing on practitioner literature in order to compile a list of metrics used by software startups. Said list is intended to serve as a basis for further research in the area, as the metrics in it are based on suggestions made by practitioners and not empirically verified.
Data Management
Health & Bioscience
A new algorithm learns to anticipate the unprecedented scenarios that critical infrastructure and global supply chains are least prepared for.
Generative AI
We’re on a journey to advance and democratize artificial intelligence through open source and open science.
A new method for surgically removing training examples from a model reveals that as datasets grow, the link between what a model learns and what it produces dissolves.
