Context: Global software development is the emerging trend in today’s world as it provides the software companies with certain advantages like access to skill and cheap labor, low development cost etc. There are also many challenges and risks involved in globally distributed software project as compare to co-located projects like communication, coordination and control etc. due to geographical separation. There is also a recent interest in applying agile methods in offshore projects in order to minimize certain offshore challenges. Agile methods in collocated environment demands high communication, coordination and collaboration between the team members. However implementing agile methods in distributed environment is beneficial and challenging too, because of inherited GSD challenges. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully understand the benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in distributed project before actually initiating the development. Objectives: This research study aims to look at current empirical evidence regarding benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore projects, in order to understand it properly. Furthermore, we have examined that which of the benefits and challenges reported in literature can be seen in practice. This helped us in finding out the similarities and differences between the benefits and challenges that are reported in literature and in practice. Methods: To fulfill our aims and objectives we have first conducted the detailed systematic review analysis of the empirical studies from year 2000-2010. The systematic review approach helped us to collect and summarize the empirical data available regarding the benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore projects. The research studies were identified from the most authentic databases that are scientifically and technically peer reviewed such as Inspec and Compendex, IEEE Xplore, ACM digital library, Springer Link, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge and Willey Inter Science Journal Finder. Furthermore, industrial survey was conducted in order to identify whether the benefits and challenges enlisted in literature can be confirmed by practitioners. This helped us in determining the similarities and differences between benefits and challenges that are reported in empirical literature and industrial survey. Results: From systematic review results, we have found the list of benefits and challenges of most applied agile practices such as daily scrum meetings, sprint planning meetings, sprint review meetings, retrospective meetings, pair programming, short release and on-site customer. The most common benefits related to above identified agile practices are early problem identification, project visibility, increase communication, coordination and collaboration, trust, clarification of work and requirements, early client feedback and customer satisfaction. Similarly the most common challenges associated with above identified agile practices are lack of linguistic skills, culture differences and temporal differences. From survey result, it was found that the majority of benefits and challenges identified through literature review are prevalent in software industries to some extent. We were able to identify the benefits and challenges of agile practices such as daily scrum, sprint planning meetings, sprint review, retrospective meetings and short release. The most common benefits of above identified agile practices highlighted by survey participants are project visibility, early problem identification, increase coordination, opportunity for knowledge sharing and transferring, immediate feedback from client, and opportunity for understanding the task properly. Similarly the most common challenges identified by survey participants are language problems, temporal difference and difficult to explain and understand problems or issues over communication technologies. However, there are certain challenges like trust and culture issues, which have received most attention in the empirical literature, but are not identified by majority of industry respondents. Conclusions: From the information attained so far regarding the benefits and challenges of agile methods in offshore projects, we observed that there is an emerging trend of using agile methods in offshore projects and practitioners actually found it beneficial. The benefits of agile practices does not achieve straightaway there are certain challenging factors of GSD too, which can restrict the implementation or make the methodology not useful such as communication, coordination and collaboration. These challenges are usually occurred due to geographical separation, lack of trust and linguistic skills, culture difference etc. The presented work add contribution in a sense as to the best of our knowledge no systematic review effort has been done in this area with specifically focuses on highlighting the benefits and challenges. From survey results we found that majority of benefits and challenges highlighted by survey participants are to some extent same with what we have already studied in literature. However there are certain important challenges which have received most attention in empirical literature but were less identified by the survey participants like trust issue and culture difference. The benefits and challenges identified through industrial survey do not add much information into our attention. This does not mean that all possible benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore project have been explored. The responses which were received from industry practitioners were quite few to make any kind of arguments. There is a probability that we missed the important benefits and challenges related to particular agile practices during our industrial survey. Therefore we conclude that a much thorough and inclusive answers should be required to identify the benefits and challenges of applying agile methods in offshore projects.

Dependencies between requirements are a crucial factor for any software development since they impact many project areas. Nevertheless, their identification remains a challenge. Some methods have been proposed but none of them are really applicable to real projects due to their high cost or low accuracy. DIM is a lightweight method for identifying dependencies proposed on a previous paper. This paper presents an experiment comparing the sets of dependencies found by DIM and a method based on pair-wise comparison. The experiment was executed using a requirement specification for an open source project. These requirements were extracted by reverse engineering. Our results have provided evidence confirming that DIM finds more dependencies and its results (the dependencies identified) do not depend on the profile of the practitioner applying it. Another important result is that DIM requires fewer resources when applied, since it does not rely on pair-wise comparisons and it can be easily automated. / Avda. Espana 101 P6 Bj-E 28341, Madrid, Spain. Telephone number: +34627770492

Context: Agile/lean development has been successful situations where small teams collaborate over long periods of time with project stakeholders. Unclear is how such teams plan and coordinate their work in such situations where inter-dependencies with other projects exist. In large organizations, scattered teams and complex team structure makes it difficult for every stakeholder to have a clear understanding of project information. These factors make it difficult for large‐scale organizations to adopt the agile/lean development paradigm. Objectives: The goal of conducting this study is to find the information visualization techniques that ease or resolve the challenges of agile development in large-scale organizations. The study reports the challenges of agile development and information visualization techniques in literature and reported by industrial experts. Additionally, proposed a guideline that how information visualization technique can be used to ease or resolve related challenge of agile development. Methods: For this particular study, two research methodologies are used; Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and Industrial Survey. Two SLRs are performed for finding 1) challenges of agile development and 2) information visualization techniques in agile development. Data sources like Engineering Village (Inspec/ Compendex), IEEE Explore digital library, ACM digital library, Science Direct, ISI-Web of knowledge; Scopus were used to select primary study. Industrial survey was conducted in order to obtain empirical evidence to our findings. In survey, mainly questions were related to challenges of agile development and information visualization techniques practiced by industrial experts. Results: 84 different challenges of agile development found in literature and by applying grounded theory we found 9 distinct categories of challenges. There were 55 challenges reported by industrial experts in survey which later grouped into 10 distinct challenges. 45 information visualization techniques found in literature and grouped into 21 distinct technologies. There were 47 different information visualization techniques reported by industrial experts. When we grouped these techniques there were 9 distinct technologies found by applying open, axial and selective coding of grounded theory Conclusions: Systematic Literature Review and Industrial Survey confirmed that information visualization techniques can be used to ease or resolve challenges of agile development. Along with other visualization techniques, Data Flow Diagrams, UML, Use Case Diagrams, Burn Down Charts, Scrum Story Board, Kanban Boards and Gantt Chart are highly reported techniques found through systematic literature review and later confirmed by industrial experts. On the other hand, through survey we found that industrial experts mainly rely on informal and customized information visualization techniques to visualize information.

Abstract Continuous software engineering (CSE) has instigated academic debate regarding the rapid, parallel cycles of releasing software and customer experimentation. This approach, originating from Web 2.0 and the software-as-a-service domain, is widely recognised among software-intensive companies today. Earlier studies have indicated some challenges in the use of CSE, especially in the context of business-to-business and product-oriented, embedded systems development. Consequently, research must address more explicit definitions and theoretical models for analysing the prerequisites and organisational capabilities related to the use of CSE. This dissertation investigates various approaches to conducting empirical evaluations related to CSE. The study aims to improve existing models of CSE and to empirically validate them in the context of software companies. The study also aims to accumulate knowledge regarding the use of CSE, as well as its impacts. The case study method is applied for the collection and analysis of empirical data. Twenty-seven interviews are conducted at five companies. In addition, a systematic literature review is used to synthesise the empirical research on agile release engineering practices. Design science research is used to portray the model design and the evaluation process of this dissertation. Three approaches for evaluating CSE are constructed: (1) LESAT for software focuses on enterprise transformation using an organisational self-assessment approach, (2) STH+ extends the “Stairway to Heaven” model and evaluates company practices with respect to evolutionary steps towards continuous experimentation-driven development, and (3) CRUSOE defines 7 key areas and 14 diagnostic questions related to the product-intensive software development ecosystem, strategy, architecture, and organisation, as well as their continuous interdependencies. This dissertation states the relevance of CSE in the context of product-intensive software development. However, more adaptations are anticipated in practices that involve business and product development stakeholders, as well as company external stakeholders. / Tiivistelmä Jatkuva ohjelmistotuotanto on herättänyt keskustelua nopeasta, samanaikaisesta ohjelmistojulkaisemisesta ja asiakaskokeiluista. Toimintatapa on peräisin Web 2.0 ja software-as-a-service yhteydestä, mutta se tunnetaan nykyään yleisesti ohjelmistoja kehittävissä yrityksissä. Aiemmat tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet haasteita jatkuvan ohjelmistotuotannon käytössä. Erityisesti haasteita on havaittu yritykseltä yritykselle liiketoiminnassa ja tuotepainotteisten sulautettujen järjestelmien yhteydessä. Näin ollen on havaittu tarve tutkimuksen avulla kehittää täsmällisempiä määritelmiä ja teoreettisia malleja, joilla voidaan analysoida jatkuvan ohjelmistotuotannon käyttöön liittyviä edellytyksiä ja organisaatioiden kyvykkyyksiä. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkitaan malleja, joilla voidaan empiirisesti arvioida jatkuvaa ohjelmistotuotantoa. Tutkimuksella pyritään parantamaan nykyisiä malleja ja arvioimaan niiden käyttöä ohjelmistoyrityksissä. Lisäksi tutkimuksella pyritään kasvattamaan tietoa jatkuvasta ohjelmistotuotannosta ja sen vaikutuksista. Tiedon keräämiseen ja analysointiin käytettiin tapaustutkimus menetelmää. Kaksikymmentäseitsemän haastattelua tehtiin viidessä yrityksessä. Lisäksi tehtiin ketterään ohjelmistojulkaisuun keskittyvä systemaattinen kirjallisuuskatsaus. Väitöskirjassa käytetään Design Science Research menetelmää kuvaamaan tutkimuksen eri vaiheita, joissa malleja suunniteltiin ja arvioitiin. Tutkimuksessa rakennettiin kolme tapaa jatkuvan ohjelmistotuotannon arvioimista varten: (1) LESAT for Software keskittyy organisaation muutoskyvykkyyden arviointiin käyttäen itsearviointimenetelmää, (2) STH+, laajentaa ”Stairway to Heaven” mallia ja arvioi yrityksen käytäntöjä eri evoluutioaskelmilla matkalla kohti kokeilupainotteista tuotekehitystä, (3) CRUSOE määrittelee seitsemän pääaluetta ja 14 kysymystä liittyen tuotekehityksen ekosysteemiin, strategiaan, arkkitehtuuriin, organisointiin sekä näiden välisiin jatkuviin riippuvuuksiin. Väitöskirja osoittaa jatkuvan ohjelmistokehityksen olevan merkityksellinen myös tuotepainotteisessa ohjelmistokehityksessä. Nähtävissä kuitenkin on, että useita nykykäytäntöjä on tarvetta muokata. Erityisesti muokkaustarvetta on tuotekehityksen ja liiketoiminnan sidosryhmiin ja yrityksen ulkoisiin sidosryhmiin liittyvissä käytännöissä.

This thesis is focused on Best Practices of agile methodologies, their application to the most common problems of project management and their integration into PRINCE2. The thesis will be focused mainly on the application of individual agile practices, not on the whole methodologies. This thesis will be divided into two main parts. In the first part PRINCE2 methodology basics, chosen agile methodology practices and Best Practices itself will be introduced. In the second part the most common problems of project management will be defined. Then every Best Practice will be applied to the defined problems and various aspects of PRINCE2. In the end the most usable Best Practices based on the results of research will be evaluated.

The master's thesis describes the designing and developing mobile application for remote management of Kentico CMS/EMS system via REST interface. The thesis emphasized agile approaches to development, especially Test-Driven Development and automated testing.

The ain of this thesis is to define and describe specific challenges occuring on the crossroard between project management and knowledge management with the focus on agile software development and agile modeling. Based on the found and verified problem it tries to find a existing solution. After that, it analyses, specifies and designs an own solution. Focusing on covering of three different perspectives makes this thesis unique. After process of design, there are technologies defined. For all used technologies there is described detailed implementation of the application. The third-party technologies are connected in this application.This connection creates the extra added value for the application and user in processes of agile software development and agile modeling.

The goal of the diploma thesis "Upgrade of agile development support tool" is to study agile methodologies and its use in practice. Thesis is focused on the Scrum framework used by The Corporate Technology department of Siemens, s.r.o. in Brno. Furthermore the thesis analyzes and compares the most used software support tools for agile methodologies which also gives an inspiration for the upgrade of support tool used by the department of Siemens. Thesis identifies possible upgrades based on an analysis with the goal to make agile development even more effective. Results were consulted with the representative of the Siemens company and then modules for Code review and Retrospective were chosen to implement. Implementation consists even of some minor upgrades of the tool. Goals of all implemented upgrades were to save time, optimize administrative work and make development even more effective. Benefits and further upgrades are consulted at the end of the thesis.

The established use of IT systems has increased the use of information in modern enterprises.From this information use, the concept of Business Intelligence has developed to enable more efficientand informed decision-making. As the business’ requirements of Business Intelligence reports changesrapidly due to changes of the business’ needs and more analytical organisations, traditional BusinessIntelligence development faces problems of ad-hoc analyses due to the inefficient adaption to changingneeds.This Master Thesis serves the purpose of deepen the understanding of the establishment of an agiledevelopment program of Self-service BI, addressing the concerns of more effectively meeting the changingrequirements of traditional Business Intelligence development. This study explores enablers through aqualitative case study, conducted at a Swedish bank, consisting of four group interviews discussing theestablishment of such program in Organisational, Processes, Technical and External dimensions,respectively. The qualitative case study was then followed by a discussion of governance of such programfor alignment to enablers.The qualitative case study resulted in 15 enablers of an agile development program of Self-Service BI,considering further enablers compared to more general literature of BI success factors, addressing theperspective of both an agile development program and Self-Service BI applications. The discussion ofgovernance of the program then identified eight governance mechanisms, which might align the programto the enablers, for successful establishment and development of applications.The findings of the study can be considered to culminate into a structure of an agile development programof Self-Service BI. The Thesis presents, from the findings, a framework for structuring such program,consisting of three development phases; Ordering process, Agile development, and Maintenance/Supportand Training, and with the discussed governance for steering the development.

Background Using Microsoft Platforms as a base for creating a software solution with a web front-end, the motives and research behind the technology was explored. This study identified functionalities that are split across existing media-related applications where neither has all to develop and evaluate a novel solution with useful features for sorting and indexing media. Aim Produce a solution for the development of an application with available technology, provide research and motives for chosen implementation strategies, and an evaluation of the solution. Method Design and creation was used as a strategy for the purpose of developing and evaluating a software solution. A literature review was used as data collection method, serving as motive and research behind the development of a software solution. An evaluation on accessibility, functionality and performance was chosen to estimate the worth of the proposed solution, and to be compared with Kodi and Squeezebox. Results The proposed solution suffered in performance and accessibility. In terms of functionality, it has the edge by being cloud-hosted,having offline support and supporting multiple media types. Kodi excelled in supporting more media types and formats, with an accessibility score close to Zavorite. Squeezebox excelled in performance. Both Squeezebox and Kodi has the edge in being able to playback media, a feature Zavorite does not offer. Conclusions Zavorite is a prototype evaluated alongside product-ready applications. The areas where Zavorite is lacking compared to Kodi or Squeezebox, such as performance is made up for due to being a PWA. For accessibility, the evaluation showed what should be improved for subsequent prototypes. For functionality, despite the prototype only showcasing two media types, there is the possibility of adding more with an additional row in a database table. Zavorite can be considered a combination of Kodi and Squeezebox, with user experience improvements as a PWA, limited to sorting and indexing media.