The use of agile methods continues to increase within software development but the agile processes do not contain the necessary steps to account for the user and realize the usability of the system. It seems it is therefore necessary to integrate the UCD methodology and agile methodology. What this integration should look like is not always apparent as the integration needs to be adapted to the specific context in each organization. Accompanied by a pre-study which identified difficulties with the integration, the current study examines how UCD specialists experience the communication through boundary objects in distributed agile teams. Furthermore the study examines how the understanding of the user is communicated to the developers in the agile teams and the potential of doing so with a design rationale. A case study was therefore performed with interviews of six UCD specialists to try to answers these questions. A content analysis was performed in relation to each research question and identified a number of themes relating to the experiences concerning; (1) communication through boundary objects, (2) how an understanding of the user is communicated, and (3) opinions of using design rationale for this purpose. Some of the conclusions drawn are that boundary objects only aim at communicating the interaction with the system, that they should be viewed as communication aids as they are not stand-alone and making them comprehensive would be even more time consuming. Furthermore, personas are not deemed fitting for communicating the understanding of the user to developers. This should instead be done by allowing developers to participate in user research.

I en allt mer digitaliserad värld där systemutveckling sker i snabbare iterationer, uppstår ökade behov som behöver mötas av IT-konsultbolag i systemutvecklingsprojekt. Agila systemutvecklingsmetoder uppstod vid behov av lättrörliga systemutvecklingsmetoder. En av de mest tillämpade metoderna är Scrum, som är anpassad för små, samlokaliserade projekt. Den agila utvecklingsmetoden Scrum är en erkänd metodik inom systemutveckling som möjliggör noggrann utvärdering, testning och iteration inom utvecklingsprojekt. Populariteten av Scrum-metoden har ökat och det har medfört att organisationer med olika typer av strukturer blivit intresserade av att tillämpa Scrum-metoden på nationell och internationell nivå, vilket utmanar Scrum-metodens gränser och teorier. Meningen med Scrum-metoden var ursprungligen att effektivisera systemutvecklingsprojekt på lokal nivå. Distribueringen av Scrum-metoden utmanar därför gränserna och påverkar Scrum-metodens projekteffektivitet.   Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats i Informatik är att identifiera, beskriva och förklara förhållanden i en nationellt distribuerad Scrum-process som påverkar den inre projekteffektiviteten. Fallstudiemetoden brukades för denna uppsats, vilken har baserats på ett observationstillfälle hos fallföretaget samt intervjuer med fyra olika rollinnehavare inom fallföretaget. De viktigaste slutsatserna från denna uppsats visar att det finns ett antal förhållanden som påverkar det nationellt distribuerade teamets projekteffektivitet. Valet av releasecykelns struktur påverkar den inre projekteffektiviten, liksom valet av ett mer linjärt team. Fokus på specialkompetens och isolering gentemot kommunikation och samarbete kan påverka hur ett nationellt distribuerat team arbetar över kontorsgränserna. Det visar sig att förhållandena som uppstår ursprungligen har sin grund i hur teamets medlemmar enskilt uppfattar situationerna och att ett team med delade åsikter kan skapa liknande situationer. Slutligen kan synkroniseringen mellan det nationellt distribuerade teamets kontor ha en påverkan på förhållandena.

Kravhantering inom systemutveckling utgör basen för vad som ska utvecklas. Agila systemutvecklingsmetoder blir vanligare för varje dag som går. Det har dock ofta visat sig finnas utmaningar med hur man anpassar just kravhanteringen till de agila metoderna. Verksamheter har olika förutsättningar för att arbeta agilt. Lantmäteriet i Gävle uttryckte ett behov att undersöka varför den agila praxis man hade inte följdes av alla utvecklingsteam i samband med kravhanteringen. Syftet med denna uppsats var därför att undersöka varför vissa utvecklingteam i en verksamhet arbetade agilt med sin kravhantering medan vissa inte gjorde det. För att undersöka detta utförde jag en fallstudie där jag med hjälp av enkäter och intervjuer samlade in data från både utvecklare och personer på verksamhetssidan som var inblandade i kravhanteringen. Resultaten visade att orsakerna till att en agil kravhantering fungerade så olika var flera. Genom att använda en tematisk analys kunde jag urskilja några framträdande orsaker. Kommunikation och flexibilitet samt kunskap och förståelse för olika perspektiv var teman som utgjorde positiva faktorer. De teman som istället utgjorde negativa faktorer var bland andra otydliga roller, brist på direktiv, en övertro till metoder och processer, osynk mellan verksamhet och IT, prioriteringsproblem, förvaltningsplaner, attityder och IT-arkitektur. / Requirements engineering within software development is the foundation of what needs to be developed. Agile methods in software development become more common every day. It has however often been shown that there are certain challenges with how to adopt the requirements engineering to the agile methodology. Businesses have different preconditions for agile methods. Lantmäteriet in Gävle had a need to examine why not all the developing teams followed agile methods within the requirements engineering process. The purpose with this thesis was thus to examine why some developing teams in an organization worked in an agile manner with the requirements engineering, and some did not. To do this I performed a case study where I collected data through questionnaires and interviews from both developers and people from the business side. The results showed that the reasons for these differences were multiple. Communication and flexibility, and knowledge and understanding for different perspectives were the positive factors. The themes that hindered an agile way of working were, among others, unclear roles, lack of direction, too much reliance on methods and processes, discrepancy between business and IT, prioritizing issues, management plans, attitudes and IT architecture.

This thesis deals with project management and with different ways in which can be cur-rently approached. Beside the conventional, classical approach based on processes, modern approaches based on the theory of constraints and agile principles are discussed. Based on analysis, the main objective of the thesis is firstly to find weaknesses in the classical project management and strong key elements of modern approaches and after that to make suggestions to enhance the classical approach with the selected strong elements of modern approaches.

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2017-06-06T20:11:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Roberto de Souza Goes.pdf: 1689251 bytes, checksum: 72e570131062ac24f1964e0d4ff56a3b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-06T20:11:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roberto de Souza Goes.pdf: 1689251 bytes, checksum: 72e570131062ac24f1964e0d4ff56a3b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-28 / Design Thinking and agile methods, when used in an innovative and dynamic environment, aiming the creating products and solutions to support business and to increase satisfaction, bringing solutions to the current problems and that also generate future business for the company. This study was carried out with the objective of verifying how the companies that adopted the Design Thinking and the agile methods did to integrate it, from the creation of the solution of the initiatives to be development-using software. Design Thinking is able to aid in the generation of new ideas centered on the human, through research and prototyping techniques, in a fast and multidisciplinary way. Agile methods are widely used and studied as a method of software development. This study was carried out through a multiple case study with data collection for a qualitative research, in companies or in technology departments, where this technology is used as the main tool to manage and generate business. On this research was found three different types of integration between the models, sequentially. The first with a queue between the final solution definition stage and the beginning of software development, the second, without a queue between the final solution definition stage and the beginning of software development, the third model is the use of Design Thinking and agile methods together and simultaneously, as a single process. These different integration models aim to meet the projects needs regarding to complexity and size, as well as the uncertainties in which companies are subject throughout project life cycle. / O Design Thinking e os métodos ágeis, são utilizados em um ambiente inovador e dinâmico, com o objetivo de criar produtos e soluções que gerem maior satisfação para o negócio, de modo que traga soluções para os problemas atuais e que também gerem futuros negócios para a empresa. Este estudo foi realizado com o objetivo de verificar como as empresas que adotaram o Design Thinking e os métodos ágeis fizeram para integrá-los, desde a criação da solução das iniciativas até o seu desenvolvimento através de software. O Design Thinking é capaz de auxiliar na geração novas ideias centradas no humano, por meio de técnicas de pesquisa e prototipação, de maneira rápida e multidisciplinar. Os métodos ágeis são utilizados de maneira amplamente divulgada e estudada como método de desenvolvimento de software. Esta pesquisa foi realizada por meio de estudo de caso múltiplo do tipo incorporado, com coleta de dados por meio de pesquisa qualitativa, em empresas ou departamentos na área de tecnologia, nas quais essa tecnologia é utilizada como principal ferramenta para gerir e gerar negócios. No estudo foram encontrados três tipos diferentes de integração entre os modelos, de modo sequencial, sendo que o primeiro possuía fila entre a etapa final de definição da solução e o início do desenvolvimento do software; o segundo não possui essa característica, o terceiro modelo era a aplicação do Design Thinking e dos métodos ágeis de modo conjunto e simultâneo, isso como um único processo. Estes modos diferentes de integração visavam atender as características dos projetos com relação à complexidade e porte, além das incertezas em que as empresas estiveram sujeitas durante o curso do projeto.

Agile Methoden sind in der industriellen Anwendung Stand der Technik, wobei Scrum das am häufigsten verwendete Prozess-Framework zur effektiven Entwicklung komplexer Produkte ist. Entworfen wurde Scrum von Ken Schwaber und Jeff Sutherland, die ebenfalls 2001 das agile Manifest mitentwickelten, welches die vier Werte und zwölf Prinzipien für die Arbeit mit agilen Methoden definiert. Scrum zeichnet sich unter anderem durch flache Hierarchien aus. Hierdurch erhalten Mitarbeitende zunehmend Verantwortung und es entsteht aufgrund der vermehrt stattfindenden Kommunikation eine erhöhte Transparenz in allen Prozessen. Diese Eigenschaften bringen viele Vorteile aber auch Herausforderungen mit sich. Einerseits kann hohe Transparenz durch Offenlegung der Arbeit zu Unsicherheit seitens der Mitarbeitenden führen, andererseits sorgt die erhöhte Verantwortung auch für einen größeren Einfluss der einzelnen Team-Mitglieder auf das Ergebnis der Arbeitsprozesse. Die Motivation und Leistungsbereitschaft der Mitarbeitenden sind demzufolge ausschlaggebend für die erfolgreiche Produktentwicklung mit Scrum. Gamification ist ein neuer, vielversprechender Ansatz zur Steigerung der Motivation und wird dabei definiert als „die Verwendung von Spiel-Designelementen in Nicht-Spielkontexten“. Die dieser Veröffentlichung zugrundeliegende Forschung bildet die Grundlage zur Entwicklung von dedizierten Gamification-Strategien mit dem Ziel der Optimierung von Motivation und folglich der Leistung der Mitarbeitenden im Scrum-Entwicklungsprozess.

This thesis is focusing on design of business model for IT company acting in the domain of development and sales of information systems and related services. In the newly emerging business model there is an emphasis on differentiation from competition and to offer such conditions so the uncertainty of customer can be lowered, when the customer feels danger of obtaining inappropriate solution or unsatisfactory cooperation with a supplier. This business model aims to ensure obtaining of new customers.

The increase of globalization of business led to the creation of global virtual software development teams in which communication plays an important role. The lack of recent studies raises the need to investigate communication in the context of agile and the current Covid-19 pandemic. This study identifies in literature three factors present in global virtual software development teams: technology, culture, and trust. It aims to explore how they influence internal communication. A qualitative method is conducted on a case study by combining data collected from semi-structured interviews and observations. The case study is a global virtual software development team which implemented the agile Scrum methodology. The findings provide a deep understanding of the positive and negative influences of the factors on communication, including their interrelations and context. Some of the main findings are: (I) the best set up for collaboration among global team members is the combination of synchronous and asynchronous communication through technological tools, (II) cultural diversity leads to differences in the ways members communicate, (III) trust is the precondition of working collaboratively and communicating effectively, (IV) global team members need to occasionally have in-person interactions to nurture their interpersonal relations, (V) the agile Scrum methodology influences internal communication positively, (VI) each communication factor is influenced by time; thus, the theoretical framework developed for this study is updated with this addition, (VII) the Covid- 19 pandemic affects communication to a certain extent.

Software security for agile methods, particularly for those designed for individual developers, is still a major concern. With most software products deployed over the Internet, security as a key component of software quality has become a major problem. In addressing this problem, this research proposes a solo software development methodology (SSDM) that uses as minimum resources as possible, at the same time conforming to the best practice for delivering secure and high-quality software products. Agile methods have excelled on delivering timely and quality software. At the same time research also shows that most agile methods do not address the problem of security in the developed software. A metasynthesis of SSDMs conducted in this thesis confirmed the lack practices that promote security in the developed software product. On the other hand, some researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of incorporating existing lightweight security practices into agile methods. This research uses Design Science Research (DSR) to build, demonstrate and evaluate a lightweight SSDM. Using an algorithm adapted for the purpose, the research systematically integrates lightweight security and quality practices to produce an agile secure-solo software development methodology (Secure-SSDM). A multiple-case study in an academic and industry setting is conducted to demonstrate and evaluate the utility of the methodology. This demonstration and evaluation thereof, indicates the applicability of the methodology in building high-quality and secure software products. Theoretical evaluation of the agility of the Secure-SSDM using the four-dimensional analytical tool (4-DAT) shows satisfactory compliance of the methodology with agile principles. The main contributions in this thesis are: the Secure-SSDM, which entails description of the concepts, modelling languages, stages, tasks, tools and techniques; generation of a quality theory on practices that promote quality in a solo software development environment; adaptation of Keramati and Mirian-Hosseinabadi’s algorithm for the purposes of integrating quality and security practices. This research would be of value to researchers as it introduces the security component of software quality into a solo software development environment, probing more research in the area. To software developers the research has provided a lightweight methodology that builds quality and security into the product using minimum resources. / School of Computing / D. Phil. (Computer Science)

Inom projektledning har olika metoder och agila arbetssätt utvecklas. Det har dock funnits frustration över separerande silostrukturer inom mjukvaruutveckling. DevOps har utvecklats som ett sätt att bemöta detta och istället sammankoppla olika funktioner som utveckling och operations. DevOps har effekter på ett team men det finns inget standardiserat tillvägagångssätt för dess implementering. Det behövs därför mer forskning kring implementeringsprocessen av DevOps. Det kan även vara av intresse att undersöka vilka de medföljande effekterna kan vara. Syftet med detta arbete är studera genomförandet av DevOps implementering inom IT-konsultbranschen och på vilket sätt det påverkar ett team. Det här arbetet har bedrivits som en abduktiv studie där en fallstudie genomförts. För att uppfylla arbetets syfte och besvara forskningsfrågorna har litteraturstudier och intervjuer genomförts. Insamlad teori och empiri har diskuterats och analyserats för att formulera slutsatser och rekommendationer.  En formulerad slutsats är att varje enskild implementering av DevOps behöver följa ett eget anpassat genomförande där syfte och innebörd tydliggörs. Faktorer inom kommunikation, automation, ansvar, förändringsvillighet och samarbete har också inverkan på implementeringen och de effekter teamet kan uppleva. Det kan även konkluderas att både fördelar och nackdelar kan påverka teamet men nackdelarna framstår ofta vara begränsade till implementeringens uppstart. Det praktiska bidraget utgörs av rekommendationer för implementeringen såsom att till exempel ha en dedikerad person och utbildning inom DevOps. / Within the field of project management different methods and agile approaches have emerged. However, dividing silo-structures have created frustration within software development. DevOps has surfaced as a way to address this and instead connect different functions such as development and operations. DevOps affects teams but there is no standardized approach for its implementation. Therefore, more research around the implementation process of DevOps is needed. Also, investigating what the accompanying effects could be, is of interest. The purpose of this thesis is to study the implementation of DevOps within the IT consultant industry and what impact it has on a team. This thesis was executed with abductive reasoning where a case study was carried out. To fulfill the purpose and answer the research questions literature review and interviews have been performed. Collected theory and empirical material have been discussed and analyzed in order to formulate conclusions and recommendations.  One formulated conclusion is that each implementation of DevOps needs to follow its own adapted execution where the aim and essence are clarified. Factors regarding communication, automation, responsibility, willingness to change and collaboration also impact the implementation and the effects experienced by the team. It can also be concluded that both benefits and limitations can affect the team yet, the disadvantages often appear to be contained within the start of the implementation. A practical contribution comes from recommendations for the implementation, such as having a dedicated person and education within DevOps among others.