The emergence of cloud computing is influencing how businesses develop, re-engineer, and implement critical software applications. The cloud requires developers to elevate the importance of compliance with security policies, regulations and internal engineering standards in their software development life cycles. Cloud computing and agile development methodologies are new technologies associated with new approaches in the way computing services are provisioned and development of quality software enhanced. However adoption and use of agile and cloud computing by SMMEs in South Africa is seemingly constrained by a number of technical and non-technical challenges. Using Grounded Theory and case study method this study was aimed at exploring the development of a framework for agile methodologies to promote the adoption and use of cloud computing services by SMMEs in South Africa. Data was collected through survey and in-depth interviews. Open, Axial and Selective coding was used to analyse the data. In tandem with its main objective the study, besides exploring the development of the envisaged framework, also generated and made available valuable propositions and knowledge that SMMEs in South Africa using agile development methodologies can use to work better with cloud computing services in the country without compromising on software quality. The findings of this study and the emerging insights around the development of the framework, which in itself also constitutes an important decision making tool for supporting adoption and use of cloud computing services, are a substantial contribution to knowledge and practice in the ICT field of information systems in South Africa / Information Science / D. Phil. (Information Systems)

Dentre as práticas da Programação Extrema, ou eXtreme Programming (XP), destaca-se a Programação em Par, ou Pair Programming (PP). Nesta prática duas pessoas trabalham de forma colaborativa na mesma tarefa – projeto, algoritmo, código ou teste – e em um único computador. O objetivo geral deste trabalho é investigar a eficácia da Programação em Par versus Programação individual perante tarefas de modelagem e construção de software orientado a objetos. A eficácia da prática é avaliada por meio de atributos relacionados à qualidade de software, são eles: (i) tamanho dos métodos, (ii) complexidade estrutural dos métodos, (iii) acoplamento/dependência entre pacotes e, por fim, (iv) falta de coesão dos métodos por classe. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa experimental envolvendo atividades práticas e aplicação de questionários junto a alunos voluntários de três instituições de ensino superior da cidade de Curitiba. A partir dessa pesquisa, conclui-se que Programação em Par mostrou-se mais eficaz perante tarefas de modelagem e construção de software que a programação individual, isso considerando tamanho e complexidade dos métodos. E mais, os alunos perceberam mais benefícios do que desafios (ou desvantagens) quando se adota a PP para realizar tais tarefas. / Among eXtreme Programming (XP) practices, Pair Programming(PP) stands out from the rest. It consists of two individuals cooperating, working in the same task - design, algorithm, code or test - in the same computer. The general objective of this study is to scrutinize the efficacy of Pair Programming versus individual programming relating to modeling tasks and object oriented software development. The efficacy of the process is evaluated through the following software quality related attributes: (i) method size, (ii) structural complexity of the methods, (iii) linkage/dependency among packages and finally (iv) lack of cohesion of the methods by class. Therefore, an experimental research was performed, involving practical activities and surveys answered by volunteer students from three different higher education institutions in Curitiba. This research showed that pair programming is more efficient when working with modeling tasks and software development than individual programming, taking into account size and complexity of methods. Furthermore, more pros than cons were found by students when pair programming was chosen to accomplish such tasks.

Abstract Management of product development activities has become increasingly important, as cycle times of product development have shortened. Smaller product development projects are often conducted rapidly at companies based on customer or sales requests to answer the need for faster cycle times. However, this is often done without fully realizing the impact of the new projects on the larger project portfolio or organizational effectiveness. The main objective of this dissertation is to increase knowledge on the use of agile development methods in small, rapid product development projects, and on the implementation of a rapid product development model. The dissertation is formulated as a qualitative, inductive study based on the research results of four original publications and a summary combining the results. The results of the dissertation show that it is beneficial to separate a rapid product development process for certain types of customer- or sales-initiated projects. A new rapid development model with principles and guidelines is introduced to help organizations facilitate this separation. The implementation of the model can be supported with agile development practices, of which self-managing teams are studied in more detail. There is significant overlap between case companies’ perceived success factors for rapid development and self-management. The results imply that a functional rapid development model can be utilized as a strategic asset at companies. The results also provide empirical evidence that agile development practices can be utilized in product development. In addition to providing empirical evidence in scientific discussion about combining product development and agile software development practices, the results can be used to create better definitions of product development processes in general. / Tiivistelmä Tuotekehityksen johtamisesta ja hallinnasta on tullut entistä haastavampaa ja tärkeämpää, kun tuotekehitysprojektien läpimenoajat ovat lyhentyneet. Yritykset tekevät kasvamassa määrin lyhyitä tuotekehitysprojekteja asiakaspyyntöjen tai myynnin aloitteesta vastatakseen markkinoiden vaatimuksiin nopeasta kehityksestä. Tällaisten nopeiden tuotekehitysprojektien käynnistäminen ja toteutus tehdään usein ymmärtämättä yksittäisen projektin vaikutusta koko projektiportfolioon tai organisaation tehokkuuteen. Tämän väitöskirjan päätavoitteena on tutkia ohjelmistokehityksestä tunnettujen ketterien kehitysmenetelmien käyttöä nopeissa tuotekehitysprojekteissa ja uudenlaisen nopean tuotekehityksen mallin käyttöönotossa. Tutkimus on tehty laadullisena ja induktiivisena tutkimuksena perustuen neljään itsenäiseen tutkimusartikkeliin ja näiden tulokset kokoavaan kokoelmaosaan. Tutkimus osoittaa, että yrityksille on hyödyllistä erottaa erillinen prosessi tietyntyyppisille nopeille tuotekehitysprojekteille. Tutkimuksen tuloksena esitellään malli, joka tukee tätä erottamista periaatteiden ja ohjeiden avulla. Tätä mallia pystytään tukemaan ketterillä kehitysmenetelmillä, joihin liittyen on erityisesti tutkittu itseohjautuvia kehitystiimejä. Case-yritysten havainnoimilla nopean tuotekehityksen menestystekijöillä ja itseohjautuvien tiimien ominaisuuksilla on havaittavissa suurta päällekkäisyyttä. Tulokset osoittavat, että hyvin käytetty ja määritetty nopean tuotekehityksen malli voi olla strateginen kilpailuetu yrityksille. Tulokset lisäävät myös empiiristä tietoa ketterien menetelmien käytöstä tuotekehityksessä ja hyödyntävät siten ajankohtaista tieteellistä keskustelua. Tuloksia voidaan myös hyödyntää muiden tuotekehitysprosessien käyttötarkoituksen tarkempaan määrittämiseen.

Dojo de Programação é uma atividade dinâmica e colaborativa inspirada em artes marciais onde é possível praticar programação, especialmente técnicas relacionadas a métodos ágeis. Os métodos de ensino atuais tratam todos os alunos da mesma forma. Cada pessoa tem uma história, experiências, habilidades, conhecimentos. Raramente as particularidades de cada indivíduo são respeitadas. Buscamos verificar qual a influência do Dojo de Programação como atividade de ensino a fim de promover a interação entre os alunos. O Dojo de Programação oferece os recursos necessários para ensino acadêmico de programação de computadores? Para responder a questão foram realizados questionários com leigos e participantes ativos de Dojo de Programação, participantes espontâneos de grupos de Dojo de Programação e participantes compulsórios de alunos que participaram de Dojo de Programação em aula de disciplina regular de especialização na Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná. Foram realizadas entrevistas com especialistas organizadores de encontros de Dojo de Programação. Pontos positivos, como a participação dos alunos e negativos, como o fato de não ser uma atividade adequada para apresentação de assuntos teóricos, foram ponderados. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a atividade pode ser utilizada de forma complementar em disciplinas de programação de computadores a fim de aumentar a participação dos alunos e permitir ao professor conhecer as dificuldades e facilidades de cada aluno individualmente. / Coding Dojo is a dynamic and collaborative activity inspired by martial arts where you can practice programming, especially techniques related to agile methods. The existing teaching methods treat all students the same way. Each person has a story, experiences, skills, knowledge. Rarely the particularities of each individual are respected. The purpose of this research is to verify the influence of the Coding Dojo in teaching agile practices. The Coding Dojo offers the required resources to academic teaching computer programming? To answer the question surveys were conducted with novice and active participants of Coding Dojo, also spontaneous participants in groups of Coding Dojo and students who attended compulsorily in a Coding Dojo during a class of a regular discipline of one specialization course in Federal Technological University of Paraná. Interviews were conducted with experts organizers of meetings of Coding Dojo. Strengths, such as student participation and weaknesses, as not being a suitable practice for presenting theoretical contents were considered. The obtained results suggest that the activity can be used complementary in computer programming disciplines to increase student participation and allow the teacher to know the difficulties and facilities of each student individually.

Dojo de Programação é uma atividade dinâmica e colaborativa inspirada em artes marciais onde é possível praticar programação, especialmente técnicas relacionadas a métodos ágeis. Os métodos de ensino atuais tratam todos os alunos da mesma forma. Cada pessoa tem uma história, experiências, habilidades, conhecimentos. Raramente as particularidades de cada indivíduo são respeitadas. Buscamos verificar qual a influência do Dojo de Programação como atividade de ensino a fim de promover a interação entre os alunos. O Dojo de Programação oferece os recursos necessários para ensino acadêmico de programação de computadores? Para responder a questão foram realizados questionários com leigos e participantes ativos de Dojo de Programação, participantes espontâneos de grupos de Dojo de Programação e participantes compulsórios de alunos que participaram de Dojo de Programação em aula de disciplina regular de especialização na Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná. Foram realizadas entrevistas com especialistas organizadores de encontros de Dojo de Programação. Pontos positivos, como a participação dos alunos e negativos, como o fato de não ser uma atividade adequada para apresentação de assuntos teóricos, foram ponderados. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a atividade pode ser utilizada de forma complementar em disciplinas de programação de computadores a fim de aumentar a participação dos alunos e permitir ao professor conhecer as dificuldades e facilidades de cada aluno individualmente. / Coding Dojo is a dynamic and collaborative activity inspired by martial arts where you can practice programming, especially techniques related to agile methods. The existing teaching methods treat all students the same way. Each person has a story, experiences, skills, knowledge. Rarely the particularities of each individual are respected. The purpose of this research is to verify the influence of the Coding Dojo in teaching agile practices. The Coding Dojo offers the required resources to academic teaching computer programming? To answer the question surveys were conducted with novice and active participants of Coding Dojo, also spontaneous participants in groups of Coding Dojo and students who attended compulsorily in a Coding Dojo during a class of a regular discipline of one specialization course in Federal Technological University of Paraná. Interviews were conducted with experts organizers of meetings of Coding Dojo. Strengths, such as student participation and weaknesses, as not being a suitable practice for presenting theoretical contents were considered. The obtained results suggest that the activity can be used complementary in computer programming disciplines to increase student participation and allow the teacher to know the difficulties and facilities of each student individually.

Abstract Modern software development must adapt to demanding schedules while keeping the software at a high level of quality. Agile software development has been adopted in recent years to meet such a need. Test-driven development (TDD) is one practice that has arisen within the agile software development movement that leverages unit tests to develop software in incremental cycles. TDD supporters claim that the practice increases the productivity of the practitioners who employ it, as well as the internal and external quality of the software they develop. In order to validate or refute such claims, the software engineering research community has studied TDD for the last decade; the results of the empirical studies on the effects of TDD have been mostly inconclusive. This dissertation has studied two factors that may impact the manifestation of the claimed effects of TDD on software’s external quality and developers’ productivity: the developers’ conformance to the process (i.e., their ability to follow TDD) and their skills. The research was performed in four phases. In the first phase, the literature was reviewed to identify a set of factors that have been considered to affect TDD. In the second phase, two experiments were executed within academia. A total of 77 students at the University of Oulu, took part in the studies. These experiments investigated the quality of the software, as well as the subject’s productivity with respect to their programming and testing skills. A follow-up study, using data collected during the second experiment, explored the relation between the quality, productivity and the subjects’ process conformance. In the third phase, four industrial experiments, involving 30 professional, were performed. Process conformance and skills were investigated in relation to the TDD’s effects on external quality and productivity. The fourth phase synthesized the evidence gathered in the two previous phases. The results show that TDD is not associated with improvements in external quality, or developers’ productivity. Further, improvements in both external quality and productivity are associated with skills, rather than with the process, at least in the case of professional developers. Hence, process conformance has a negligible impact. The productivity of novice developers, on the other hand, can benefit from the test-first approach promoted by TDD. / Tiivistelmä Modernin ohjelmistokehityksen täytyy mukautua haastaviin aikatauluihin säilyttäen ohjelmistojen korkea laatu. Ketterä ohjelmistokehitys on viime vuosina omaksuttu tähän tarpeeseen ja suuntauksessa on saanut alkunsa testivetoisen kehityksen käytäntö, joka hyödyntää yksikkötestausta ohjelmiston inkrementaalisessa, syklisessä kehityksessä. Testivetoisen kehityksen puolestapuhujat väittävät tämän käytännön lisäävän ohjelmistokehittäjien tuottavuutta sekä ohjelmiston sisäistä ja ulkoista laatua. Ohjelmistotuotannon tutkimusyhteisö on tutkinut testivetoista kehitystä viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana vahvistaakseen tai kumotakseen nämä väitteet. Empiiriset tutkimukset testivetoisen kehityksen vaikutuksista ohjelmistotuotantoon ovat suurelta osin tuloksettomia. Tämä väitöstyö tutkii kahta tekijää, jotka voivat vaikuttaa testivetoisen kehityksen väitettyjen vaikutusten ilmentymiseen ohjelmiston ulkoisena laatuna ja ohjelmistokehittäjien tuottavuutena: ohjelmistokehittäjien taitoja ja prosessin mukaista toimintaa. Tutkimus toteutettiin neljässä vaiheessa. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa tehtiin kirjallisuuskatsaus, jolla selvitettiin tekijöitä, joiden on katsottu vaikuttavan testivetoiseen kehitykseen. Toisessa vaiheessa tehtiin Oulun yliopistolla kaksi koetta, joihin osallistui kaikkiaan 77 opiskelijaa. Kokeissa tutkittiin ohjelmiston laadun ja osallistujien tuottavuuden suhdetta heidän ohjelmointi- ja testaustaitoihinsa. Toisen kokeen aikana kerättyä aineistoa hyödynnettiin jatkotutkimuksessa, jossa tarkasteltiin laadun, tuottavuuden ja prosessin mukaisen toiminnan suhdetta. Kolmannessa vaiheessa tehtiin neljä koetta, joihin osallistui 30 ohjelmistoalan ammattilaista. Prosessin mukaista toimintaa ja taitoja tutkittiin suhteessa testivetoisen kehityksen vaikutuksiin ohjelmiston ulkoiseen laatuun ja tuottavuuteen. Neljännessä vaiheessa syntetisoitiin kahden edellisen vaiheen löydökset. Tulokset osoittavat, ettei testivetoinen kehitys liity ulkoisen laadun parantumiseen eikä ohjelmistokehittäjien tuottavuuteen. Parannukset laadussa ja tuottavuudessa liittyvät ennemmin taitoihin kuin prosessiin, ainakin ohjelmistokehityksen ammattilaisten kohdalla. Näin ollen prosessin mukaisella toiminnalla on vähäpätöinen vaikutus. Toisaalta testivetoisen kehityksen suosiman test-first-menettelytavan hyödyntäminen voi edistää aloittelevien ohjelmistokehittäjien tuottavuutta.

Context: Agile methodologies are widely recognized in western countries. From past few years, its practices are being successfully adopted in global settings especially in eastern countries. Across the world, teams are following its values and principles. Are all the teams behaving in the same way? Potential difficulties related to culture arise while implementing agile practices. Due to variance in backgrounds and behaviors, social cliques and issues are likely to be formed between the team mates which become a hurdle. Objectives: The study unravels the list of relationships between the agile team behavioral characteristics and Hofstede cultural dimensions. It also explores whether Indian employees working in an agile environment possess the required behavioral characteristics which are useful for the effective functioning of a team. The other objective of this study reveals the influence of the years of experience of the agile employees on behavioral characteristics. Methods: Data collection processes include a literature review and a web survey. First, in the literature review analysis of the empirical studies from year 1999-2011 was done. The review approach helped in collecting and summarizing the data. The studies were identified from the most reliable and authentic databases that are scientifically and technically peer reviewed such as Engineering village, IEEE Xplore, ACM digital library, Springer Link and Google Scholar. A survey was conducted with 33 practitioners from various multinational organizations in India. Statistical analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Hofstede’s cultural dimensions had noticeable influence on agile team behavioral characteristics. Although, all the enabler characteristics were not seen in Indian culture, the results clearly show that some of the cultural dimensions are enabling factors to function well in an agile team and some hinder the team effectiveness. The result from the literature review shows the list of relationships between Hofstede cultural dimensions and agile team behavioral characteristics. All team behavioral characteristics were to a certain extent demonstrated by Indian agile employees, which can be known from the survey results. It is also seen from the survey results that, team behavioral characteristics can be demonstrated more effectively by the experienced agile employees. Conclusion: From this study, we have found the relationships between Hofstede cultural dimensions and agile team behavioral characteristics. List of agile team behavioral characteristics which were followed by Indian agile employees were obtained from the survey. We conclude that Indian agile employees were able to demonstrate all the agile team behavior characteristics required for an effective functioning of a team. One more interesting thing which came into our attention, after analyzing the survey was that years of experience of agile employees do have an effect on the employees which influences the demonstration of team behavior characteristics. It was clear that demonstration of these characteristics were not only dependent on individual’s nature but also on the years of experience in agile environment. The absence of relationships which were not found through literature needs to be focused. Hence we conclude that there is a need for conducting even more in-depth surveys and reviews to investigate the unfound relationships.

Denna rapport är en fallstudie som återspeglar framtagandet av en webbplats åt det norska Diabetesforbundet. Webbplatsen är ett community där personer skapar användarkonton och interagerar med varandra med hjälp av ett antal funktioner som finns att tillgå. Då själva utvecklingen av webbplatsen har varit huvudmålet med examensarbetet fokuserar denna rapport på att förklara den praktiska implementeringen. De tekniker och metoder som använts i det praktiska arbetet såsom kontextuellt utforskande och användbarhet definieras och förklaras för att sedan användas vid argumentation kring designval för webbplatsen. Den utvecklingsmetod som använts i det praktiska arbetet har varit en Agile Software Development-metod som kallas Extreme Programming. Denna metod fokuserar på parprogrammering, kontinuerlig testning och utveckling med många delmål. Slutsatser om bland annat webbstandarder, webbläsarkompatibilitet, användbarhet och säkerhet kommer även att presenteras och all kod följer de standarder som satts upp av W3C för XHTML 1.0 Strict och CSS Level 3. / This thesis takes form of a case study which reflects on the development of a website for Diabetesforbundet, the Norwegian Diabetes Association. The website is a community where people can create accounts and use a number of different functions to interact with each other. The focus of this thesis lies in explaining the practical implementation of the website since this aspect is the main purpose of our degree project. We define and explain the techniques and methods used in the practical work like Contextual Inquiry and usability and thereafter put them to use to explain our design choices on the website. The development methodology we have chosen for the practical aspect of this degree project is Extreme Programming. This software development methodology focuses on pair programming, continual testing and incremental implementation. Conclusions made on web standards, web browser compatibility, usability and security will be presented and all written code follows the standards set by W3C for XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS Level 3.

This master thesis investigates how an Agile User Centered approach can be used when designing and implementing the frontend for a web-based on-demand video streaming platform. Agile and User Experience (UX) are currently two very popular concepts that are frequently discussed in the software development community. Recently there have been a lot of discussions about how to combine Agile development methodologies and UX activities, and it has proven to be a difficult task in practice. This Master Thesis aims at solving this issue by researching methodologies that take both the Agile aspect as well as UX in consideration. Dual-track Scrum, an Agile/User Centered methodology considering UX, was used as development methodology and throughout the development process it was investigated how this methodology, as well as adding UX activities, affected the UX of the streaming platform. The conclusion from this thesis is that even though the combination of Agile and User Centered processes is difficult, it can be achieved with good results. The thesis presents guidelines for how to successfully combine the two processes as well as what the most important UX activities are and how they can be used in an Agile development project. The thesis also concludes that using a frontend framework, development tools and HTML5 video is very useful for developing the frontend for the streaming platform.

Abstract Software engineering is advancing according to market needs. Consequently, software development methods that initially caused controversies such as Agile, and more recently Lean, are increasingly being adopted by the software industry. Particularly, Lean Software Development, which was initially regarded as one of the Agile methods, is acquiring an identity of its own as a means to scale Agile. However, Lean thinking is still open to interpretation in the domain of software development, which differs fundamentally from the manufacturing domain where Lean originally emerged. Specific issues such as the essence of Lean Software Development, the compatibility of Lean and Agile and the best combination of them are not properly understood. This dissertation addresses Lean thinking and its combination with Agile in the field of software development, by providing empirical evidence on how software-intensive organisations use them in practice. The research was performed in four phases. First, the relevant literature was analysed to identify research opportunities. Second, a survey strategy was used to investigate status and trends in the adoption of Agile and Lean. The third phase explored in detail how Agile and Lean are combined in practice, by conducting case studies on two large-scale, industry-leading companies that were transforming their processes from Agile Software Development into Lean Software Development. Finally, in the fourth phase, the results of the previous research phases were synthetized to draw conclusions and outline implications. The results of the study confirmed the interest of practitioners in using a combination of Agile and Lean. Unlike in manufacturing, the borders of Agile and Lean are not clearly defined in the software domain. The results provided evidence of numerous compatibilities between Agile and Lean in software development. Generally, the use of Agile methods at a prescriptive level is guided by Lean principles. However, Lean thinking also brings new practical elements to software development processes, such as Kanban, work-in-progress limits, a ‘pull’ and ‘less waste’-oriented culture and an extended emphasis on transparency and collaborative development. The results showed the fundamental importance of practices that enable quick feedback, fast learning and adaptation. / Tiivistelmä Ohjelmistotuotanto kehittyy markkinoiden tarpeiden mukaisesti. Aiemmin kiisteltyjä ketteriä menetelmiä, ja nykyään myös Lean-menetelmiä sovelletaan yhä useammin ohjelmistoteollisuudessa. Lean-menetelmiin perustuva Lean-ohjelmistokehitys erottuu selkeämmin välineenä laajentaa ketterien menetelmien käyttöä. Lean on yhä monitulkintainen ohjelmistotuotannossa, joka poikkeaa teollisuustuotannosta, josta Lean on peräisin. Lean-ohjelmistokehitystä, Lean- ja ketterien menetelmien yhteensopivuutta ja niiden parasta yhdistelmää ei vielä ymmärretä riittävän hyvin. Tämä väitöskirja käsittelee Lean-menetelmien yhdistämistä ketteriin menetelmiin ohjelmistotuotannossa. Tutkimus esittää kokemusperäistä tietoa, kuinka näitä menetelmiä käytetään ohjelmisto-alan organisaatioissa. Tutkimus oli nelivaiheinen. Aluksi tutkimusmahdollisuudet kartoitettiin tutkimalla aiheeseen liittyvää kirjallisuutta. Seuraavaksi tutkittiin kyselytutkimuksen avulla Lean- ja ketterien menetelmien käyttämisen nykytilaa ja kehitystä. Kolmannessa vaiheessa tapaustutkimuksilla selvitettiin Lean- ja ketterien menetelmien yhdistämistä käytännössä. Tapaustutkimuksia tehtiin kahdessa suuressa yrityksessä, jotka olivat muuttamassa prosessejaan ketteristä menetelmistä kohti Lean-ohjelmistokehitystä. Lopuksi aiemmat tutkimusvaiheet yhdistettiin johtopäätöksiä ja vaikutusten hahmottamista varten. Tutkimuksen tulokset vahvistavat Lean- ja ketterien menetelmien yhdistämisen kiinnostavan ohjelmistotuotannonharjoittajia. Lean- ja ketterien menetelmien rajat eivät ole selkeästi määriteltyjä ohjelmistotuotannossa. Tulokset tukevat käsitystä Lean- ja ketterien menetelmien yhteensopivuudesta. Lean ohjaa yleisellä tasolla ketterien menetelmien käyttöä. Lean tuo kuitenkin myös uusia elementtejä ohjelmistotuotantoon, kuten Kanban-menetelmän, keskeneräisen työn rajoittamisen, kysyntään perustuvan ’pull’-menetelmän ja turhan työn vähentämistä tavoittelevan ’less-waste’-työkulttuurin. Lean-ajattelu myös lisää painotusta läpinäkyvyyteen ja yhteistyöhön.