Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Software development is a relatively young science and involves certain tools, techniques, documentation aids and processes that are applied to deliver a software project. As hardware, software and business needs advanced, so did the processes used in managing software development. It is a dynamic and complex process and each development environment or project has its own unique characteristics. For this reason the methodologies followed during the development process is very often debated. Software development teams have a wide array of methodologies to choose from. The development team usually decides what the key success factors are to deliver a software product, and then examines each one within the framework of a list of potential methodologies. This way the team can compare which methodology would best suit their needs. Factors used to evaluate which methodology to follow, includes the size of the project team, rate of expected changes, the primary goal of the project, how requirements will be managed, communication structures that will be followed, the nature of the relationship with the customer, and the organisational culture in the customer organisation. This research report takes a comparative look at Waterfall methods versus Agile methods.

Background: Exploring the ambidexterity literature in the context of agile software development organizations from the perspective of how the organizational characteristics that result from the application of agile methods affect the achievement of ambidexterity Aim: To gain insight into how agile software development organizations achieve ambidexterity. Methodology: How agile software development organizations achieve ambidexterity was studied through a multiple case study where the total of four case projects in two different organizations were examined. Findings: This study indicated how the characteristics of agile software development organizations have an essential role in how ambidexterity is achieved in these organizations.

Partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master in Commerce (Information Systems) (Course work) At the School of Economic and Business Sciences University of the Witwatersrand, 2017 / Due to the trite nature of the software development environment, traditional software methodologies are no longer relied on to deliver software products in a timeous manner. As a response to this limitation, the agile manifesto was launched. The manifesto consists of values and principles centred around the self-organising team’s ability to achieve higher productivity, that is, to deliver software products quickly and with a high quality. With the self-organising team at the centre of this phenomenon, this interpretive case study seeks to gain greater insight into the processes and reasons behind this outcome. The site selected for this study is the IT divisions of a South African bank that have adopted Agile as a methodology to deliver software products. The data was collected through semi structured interviews, focused groups and documentation. The data was analysed qualitatively using thematic and content analysis. The framework for enhanced performance in agile software development teams was conceptualised. The conceptualisation was informed by the empirical evidence and the interpretation of findings and literature / XL2018

The software artwork creation process is investigated using interviews with the artists, Brogan Bunt, Pierre Proske, Nathaniel Stern, Joshua Goldberg and Pall Thayer. This research asks the questions: How do practising software artist experience their development process? How does this process compare with the Agile software development process? How can conclusions made from a comparison between the Agile process and the discussions held with practising software artists shed light on the areas where the Agile process can assist artists and areas which might be avoided? The creative process was investigated from a cognitive psychological angle. The software development process was investigated from an Agile process point of view. Concepts connected with software as art medium provides the themes that face artists who choose software as medium. This study illuminates aspects of the Agile process that may assist software artists as well as highlight areas of the process that may disrupt the creative process. A process that is iterative, allows different cognitive styles and supports collaboration is recommended. Tools such as source code control and exploratory testing can support artwork documentation and exploration of the medium. The practical component of this research relates to the philosophical themes of the underlying software visibility in software art and a visual interpretation of the software development process.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-75).

M.Sc. (Computer Science) / The process that involves creating and altering software systems can be defined as the software development lifecycle. People often use methodologies and methods in order to develop these systems with success factors such as people, processes and technology. The lifecycle is comprised of the following stages: • Planning • Requirements definition • Design • Development • Integration and testing • Installation • Acceptance. The underlying issue in such a lifecycle is that project defects are identified late within the lifecycle and therefore, the process of rectifying these problems becomes costly. Ultimately, an ideal product is one with minimal or zero defects which can be achieved with a software project that prevents or detects defects earlier within the cycle. Release management can be described as the process involving decision-­‐making regarding the implementation and releasing of a software product. A conceptual framework exists which stipulates the stages involved in the development process of a software application. Several models exist that describe the SDLC in different approaches. A philosophy is adopted within the RAD model, known as Agile and is beneficial since it minimises future scope creep and scope changes. Development occurs in shorter intervals. Over and above the stages and values in this methodology, the Agile methodology includes incremental changes which are then captured in the scheduled software releases. The purpose of the research presented in this dissertation is to incorporate findings where large companies with global IT projects can adopt the Agile conceptual framework and to testify whether all types of IT projects will benefit from a frequent release approach to the delivery of the project. Three different projects across a large South African financial institution that specialises in corporate organisation banking and core-­‐banking functionality will be studied and presented as case studies. Release management will also be studied from an organisational perspective with the following banking institution in context. Data will be retrieved by carrying out interviews and surveys with appropriate stakeholders, and therefore, analysed to generate a valid conclusion.

Software development methodologies provide guidelines and practices for developing information systems. They have evolved over time from traditional plan-driven methodologies to incremental and iterative software development methodologies. The Agile Manifesto was released in 2001, which provides values and principles for agile software development. Over the last few years, agile software development has become popular because its values and principles focus on addressing the needs of contemporary software development. IT and Business teams need agility to deal with changes that can emerge during software development due to changing business needs. Agile software development practices claim to provide the ability to deal with such changes. Various research studies have identified many factors/variables that are important for agile software development such as team autonomy, communication, and organizational culture. Most of these empirical studies on agile software development focus on just a few variables. The relationships among the variables is still not understood. The dimensions of agility and the relationship between agility and other variables have not been studied quantitatively in the literature. Also, there is no comprehensive framework to explain agile software development. This research study addresses these research gaps. This study analyzed a comprehensive research model that included antecedent variables (team autonomy, team competence), process variables (collaborative decision making, iterative development, communication), delivery capability, agility, and project outcomes (change satisfaction, customer satisfaction). It presents key dimensions of agility and quantitatively analyzes the relationship between agility and other variables. The PLS analysis of one hundred and sixty survey responses show that process variables mediate the relationship between antecedent variables and delivery capability and agility. The findings show that the delivery capability of the teams contributes to agility, antecedents and process variables contribute to agility, and delivery capability for better customer satisfaction. These results will help IS practitioners to understand the variables that are necessary to achieve agility for better project outcomes. Also, these quantitative findings provide better conceptual clarity about the relationship between various key variables related to agile software development.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / The Bull survey of 1998 [1]; conducted by Spike Cavell in the UK was used to identify major causes of IT project failures. The survey showed that failures due to missed deadlines accounted for 75% and the inability to meet project requirements accounted for 37% of the failures. The failures were mainly due to requirement changes during the project. Project requirements are laid out during scope planning phase of project management life cycle and all risks are assumed to be known during the planning phase of the project [2], [3], [13]. The project management process involves a finite number of key life cycle management phases from initiation to closure [2]. The project management body of knowledge (PMBoK) states that every project is managed by the project management triangle the relationship between scope, time and cost [43]. Changes in the project management triangle may cause failure to the project [15]. Projects are considered to be unique endeavours [43]; and using a “one size fits all” approach to find a solution to solve project failure will be impossible [39]. This presents a significant challenge; developing a framework to limit project failures which will widely be applicable to projects. The research study will apply a well-developed concept of agile project management to an organisation that is experiencing high project failure rates to determine if agile principles may be used to reduce project failures. The research will also look at the factors affecting the adoption of agile principles in large organisations. Specifically the research will look at the effects of the environment that the organisation operates in and the effects of the organisational structure. Action research is chosen as the research methodology in order to understand and improve the inefficiencies within the organisation. This gives a practical account for any organisation and adds to the project management body of knowledge.

In this thesis we investigate the usage of several agile software development methods as well as the usage of certain agile core practices. By conducting a web survey, we examine what makes these practices beneficial and what tends to make them rather less suitable for certain situations. Based on the results, we finally set up some recommendations for practitioners to reflect upon and improve their own software development process. Concerning these recommendations as well as the list of the investigated practices, we hope (and are almost sure) that there are some practices or ideas contained which are worth at least thinking about. The main findings of this thesis are: - Agile software development methods have already entered the professional market but they are still no cure-all. In many cases they also produce only middle-quality software. Nevertheless, there is – even if only little – evidence that at least XP projects meet the requirements of the customer better than traditional, non-agile methods. - For a successful software development project it is important that it has a suitable requirements engineering process, that the produced software is tested sufficiently (using automated regression testing among other types of testing), that there is a good communication between the customer and the developer side, that the risks of the project are considered, that the pros and cons of practices are considered and that processes are improved continuously. - Besides, it is important to consider the whole context when implementing a certain practice. For some contexts, certain practices do not fit for their purpose and this has to be realized. However, certain shortcomings of a specific practice might be reduced or even eliminated if implemented in combination with other practices.

User experience (UX) design is becoming increasingly crucial for developing successful software today. It can determine whether or not users stay engaged with a product or service and it can also affect the time spent completing tasks which can make a large difference to employees when they try to get their job done. It is therefore important that organizations have their users in mind when developing software and that there is a maturity for UX and user-centered work. Since there are organizations where UX is not highly valued and where the maturity for UX is low it is interesting to find out what can be done to increase the UX work within these organizations, which was the aim of this thesis. The problem was addressed by studying a specific organization that expressed difficulty getting UX work to fit in their working routines, partly due to the fact that they were also working with agile software development. The organization’s maturity for UX was evaluated using Nielsen’s UX maturity model which is a model that describes eight different stages of UX maturity. Data was collected through a survey where questions were based on the UX maturity model and was then followed up with five semi-structured interviews. The results showed that the highest level of maturity yet reached within the organization was stage four, where there is a budget and plan for UX in some projects and where some teams have defined UX roles. A lower level of maturity could also be identified for some teams. Based on these findings, actions for how the organization can increase their UX maturity were discussed. These actions were concluded to be: plan for UX, find a way to show UX results, meet with real users, have UX professionals lead the way and structure UX work to fit with agile processes. / Användarupplevelsen (UX) är ytterst viktig vid utvecklingen av framgångrika produkter. En bra användarupplevelse kan vara avgörande för om användaren väljer att fortsätta använda en produkt eller tjänst. Den kan också ha en påverkan på tiden som det tar för en användare att slutföra en uppgift vilket kan göra stor skillnad för effektiviteten hos t.ex. anställda. Det är därför av vikt att system utvecklas med användaren i fokus och att det finns en mognad för UX och användar-centrerat arbete inom organisationer. Eftersom att det finns organisationer där användarupplevelsen inte värderas högt och där UX-mognaden är låg så är det intressant att ta reda på vad som kan göras för att denna UX-mognad ska öka. Målet med den här masteruppsatsen var att ta reda på just det. I det här arbetet studerades en specifik organisation som upplevde svårigheter med att få användar-centrerat arbete att passa ihop med deras övriga arbetsrutiner, bl.a. agil utveckling. Organisationens UX-mognad utvärderades med hjälp utav Nielsens UX-mognads modell som är en modell som beskriver åtta steg av UX-mognad. Data samlades in genom en enkät som var baserad på den här mognadsmodellen samt fem stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultaten visade att den högsta mognadsgraden som hittills hade uppnåtts inom organisationen var steg fyra, där det finns UX-budget och planering för UX i vissa projekt och där vissa team har utnämnda UX-roller. En lägre mognadsgrad kunde även identifieras för vissa team. Baserat på resultaten diskuterades fem stycken handlingar fram som kan bidra till en ökad UX-mognad för organisationen. Dessa handlingar var: planera för UX, hitta sätt att visa UX-resultat, träffa riktiga användare, låt de med UX-kompetens visa vägen samt strukturera UX-arbetet så att det passar med agila arbetsprocesser.