In the context of Covid-19, significant changes have occurred in the way people work. This qualitative study investigates how individuals working in agile software development have been affected by the transition to remote work as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using thematic analysis and a comparative case study as the methodology, the study focuses on areas such as communication, collaboration, cohesion, performance, and outcomes. A summary of the results from the semi-structured interviews in this study reveals that the transition to remote work has not had a negative impact on the outcomes in agile software development. These findings suggest that despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, agile teams have been able to maintain their high levels of performance and results despite the shift to remote work. These conclusions can assist organizations in developing effective strategies to manage and adapt to changes in the work environment, including the transition to remote work.

The most common approach in system development is agiledevelopment methods that are based on the team membersworking physically close to each other and face-to-facecommunication. Which contributes to increased efficiency andimproved team cohesion and motivation to work for each other.Although agile system development methods are best suited forteams that are co-located, many organizations apply the agileapproach even if they work distributed. Distributed work is anestablished form of work that is used all over the world to createthe opportunity for a flexible way of work where geographicallimitations are reduced. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020several agile development teams were forced into distributedwork, which meant working from home and face-to-facecommunication became more difficult as the team was spread outin different places. As the restrictions ceased after the Covid-19pandemic, people began to return to their workplaces, severalpeople wanted to continue working from home if the opportunityarose. A hybrid form of work is considered to be the new way ofwork, which means a flexible way of working where the workplaceis site-independent and employees can choose whether they wantto work from the office, work from home or other locations.The purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect theagile work process of hybrid teams. To fulfill the purpose aqualitative approach where used and semi-structured interviewswere conducted with five respondents from an IT company incentral Sweden. The identified factors were, Work ethic,Communication, Cohesion, Adaptability, Work environment andWell-being. These impact factors contribute to how the workprocess within hybrid teams works. By taking all the impact factorsinto consideration, the conditions can increase to achieve asuccessful work process in hybrid teams and increase efficiencywithin the team / Agil systemutveckling anses vara det vanligaste arbetssättet inomsystemutveckling. Agil systemutveckling anses kunna bidra tilleffektivare resultat genom att teammedlemmar arbetar fysiskt näravarandra och kommunicerar med varandra ansikte mot ansikte.Trots att agila systemutvecklingsmetoder lämpar sig bäst för teamsom är samlokaliserade är det många organisationer som tillämpardet agila arbetssättet även om de arbetar distribuerat. Distribueratarbete är en etablerad arbetsform som används över hela världenför att skapa möjligheten till ett flexiblare arbetssätt därgeografiska begränsningar minskar. På grund av Covid-19-pandemin som utbröt år 2020 tvingades flera agila utvecklingsteamtill distribuerat arbete, vilket innebar att arbeta hemifrån ochkommunikation ansikte mot ansikte försvårades då teamet blevutspritt på olika platser. Allt eftersom restriktionerna upphördesom Covid-19-pandemin medfört och människor börjat återgå tillsina arbetsplatser är det flera som vill fortsätta arbeta hemifrån ommöjligheten finns. En hybrid arbetsform anses vara det nyaarbetssättet som innebär ett flexibelt arbetssätt där arbetsplatsen ärplatsoberoende och medarbetare får välja om de vill arbeta frånkontoret, hemifrån eller från annan plats.Syftet med denna studie var att identifiera faktorer som påverkarhybrida teams agila arbetsprocess. För att uppfylla syftet användeskvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördesmed fem respondenter från ett IT-företag i mellansverige. Sexpåverkansfaktorer identifierades, Arbetsmoral, Kommunikation,Gemenskap, Anpassningsbarhet, Arbetsmiljö och Välmående.Dessa påverkansfaktorer bidrar till hur arbetsprocessen inomhybrida team fungerar. Genom att ta samtliga påverkansfaktorer ibeaktning kan förutsättningarna öka för att ett hybridteamsarbetsprocess ska fungera samt öka effektiviteten inom teamet.

In the business world today, system development increasingly uses agile methods. For future system developers to get the most value from their education, universities have now started to use the same methods. This place demands on usability and user-friendliness in the project tools that the students use. To investigate how these project tools are experienced by students and how they support agile project methods, a qualitative action research was conducted. Five students with completed project work in an agile distributed system development course participated in a semi-structured interview. A content analysis was performed using Technology Acceptance Model 3 (TAM3). The results show that the students experienced shortcomings in certain areas in terms of both usability and ease of use. The study also shows that teachers have a direct impact on which project tools are used. Therefore, the project tools used should be carefully examined in terms of usability and ease of use before they are introduced to students. The study shows the importance of building up a habit and experience of the tools early in the education in order to increase students' perceived usability and ease of use. / Systemutveckling i näringslivet använder sig i dag i allt högre utsträckning av agila metoder. För att blivande systemutvecklare ska få de bästa förutsättningarna så har nu högskolor och universitet börjat använda samma metoder. Detta ställer krav på användbarhet och användarvänlighet i projektverktygen som studenterna nyttjar. För att undersöka hur dessa projektverktyg upplevs av studenter och hur de stöttar agilt arbete så genomfördes en kvalitativ aktionsforskning. Fem studenter som avklarat ett projektarbete i en distribuerad systemutvecklingskurs där ett agilt arbetssätt användes deltog i semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Med stöd av Technology Acceptance Model 3 (TAM3) gjordes en innehållsanalys. Resultatet visar på att studenterna upplevde brister inom vissa områden vid både användbarhet och användarvänlighet. Studien visar även på att lärare har en direkt påverkan på vilka projektverktyg som används. Lärare bör därför noggrant undersöka projektverktygen som används i hänseende till användbarhet och användarvänlighet innan de introduceras till studenter. Studien visar att det är viktigt att bygga upp en vana och erfarenhet av verktygen tidigt i utbildningen för att öka studenters upplevda användbarhet och användarvänlighet.

Att involvera UX (”User Experience”) i ett tidigt skede i en agil systemutvecklingsprocess avdigitala produkter och tjänster har visat sig vara en framgångsfaktor för företag. Företag inseri allt högre grad affärsvärdet av att involvera användare. För att vara konkurrenskraftig krävsdet av företag att de lyssnar på sina användares behov. Genom att lyssna till sina användaresbehov och involvera dessa i design-och utvecklingsprocessen av digitala produkter kan ettföretag få lojalare användare. Bättre UX-design är ett resultat av organisationen som helhet,och kan inte endast uppnås av skickliga UX-designers. Användaren interagerar med företagpå fler digitala gränssnitt än förr i dagens digitala värld, vilket kräver komplex UX-designoch tvärfunktionellt samarbete. Ett vanligt förekommande hinder för användarcentrering isystemutveckling av digitala produkter är bristen på en användarcentrerad företagskultur. Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats i informatik är att identifiera och beskriva faktorer sombidrar till, eller motverkar, en mer användarcentrerad företagskultur under ensystemutvecklingsprocess av digitala produkter ur ett relationsperspektiv mellan ledningenoch agila team. I denna studie har fallstudiemetoden använts med en abduktiv ansats. En litteraturstudie hargenomförts. Under litteraturstudien skapades en litteraturbaserad analysmodell som itereradesunder studiens gång. Analysmodellen låg till grund för de fem semistrukturerade intervjuernamed olika rollinnehavare som genomfördes. Studiens tre mest centrala slutsatser är att användarperspektivet ses som centralt ochanvändare involveras i utvecklingen, men det finns faktorer som säljfokus och silobeteendesom motverkar en mer användarcentrerad företagskultur. Studiens andra slutsats är att UX ihögre grad anses betydelsefullt, men faktorer såsom brist på samsyn för UX och agilaarbetssätt samt acceptansen för tvärfunktionella designprocesser motverkar en meranvändarcentrerad företagskultur. Studiens tredje slutsats är att företagskulturen påfallföretaget förefaller sig vara i förändring där den traditionella organisationen möter en ihögre grad agil organisation.

Denna studie adresserar problemområdet återfall i akut hjärtinfarkt genom utvecklingen avet unikt beslutsstöd. Det huvudsakliga syftet med beslutsstödet, Act4Heart, är att fungerabeslutsstödjande för personer som drabbas av ett återfall. I denna studie undersöks det hurett beslutsstöd i form av en mobilapplikation bör designas för att på ett effektivt sätt kunnastödja patienters beslutsfattande i en återfallsprocess. Beslutsstödet är framtaget ur ettkognitionsvetenskapligt perspektiv och innefattar övertalande design, användarinvolvering,användbarhet och människa-dator interaktion. Genom övertalande principer ämnarbeslutsstödet forma önskvärt beteende hos patienter i återfallssituationer.Utvecklingsprocessen har utgått från att ett interdisciplinärt team har arbetat med agilametoder. För att upprätthålla en god användarupplevelse av systemet haranvändbarhetstestning utförts både i utvecklingsprocessen och på den slutgiltiga produkten.Även en informationsevaluering har utförts genom en Delphi-studie för att förstärka detmedicinska innehållets kvalité. / This study shows the development process and results of an interactive decision support for patients who are at risk of suffering from a recurrence in myocardial infarction.  The decision support has taken the form of a mobile application that aim to help patients in their decision making. The design is derived from persuasive design with the goal to influence patients in seeking the correct type of care at the desired time. The key objective is to reduce prehospital delay and increase the use of ambulances. The system has also been tested regarding usability to ensure end-user harmonization. The software development process proceeded with the agile method Scrum. Members of an interdisciplinary team have been involved in the development to ensure its quality, doctors, scientists, nurses and various experts. / Act4Heart

Trots att business-to- business (B2B) är tydligt överrepresenterat inom dagens globala e-handel präglas e-handelsportaler designade för detta ändamål av avsevärt sämre användbarhet och användarupplevelse än de inom andra områden av e-handel. Syftet med denna studie är således att klargöra problemområden gällande användbarhet som kan identifieras i e-handelsportaler avsedda för B2B. Vidare syftar forskningen till att praktiskt redovisa hur systemutvecklingsmetoder, ramverk och designprinciper kan appliceras för att åtgärda identifierade problemområden. För att genomföra studien utfördes intervjuer med en grupp informanter med erfarenhet av e-handelsportaler inom B2B. Utöver detta analyserades en existerande e-handelsportal för B2B som sedan vidareutvecklades utifrån vald teori och tidigare forskning. Resultatet av studien presenterar en uppsättning identifierade problemområden, ett praktiskt exempel på en förbättrad e-handelsportal samt hur en specifik systemutvecklingsmetod, ett ramverk och en uppsättning designprinciper kan tillämpas för att lyfta användbarhet och användarupplevelse. / Despite the fact that business-to- business (B2B) is clearly over-represented in today's global e-commerce, the portals designed for this purpose are characterized by greatly inferior usability and user experience compared to those in other areas of e-commerce. Thus, the purpose of this study is to clarify areas of concern regarding the usability that can be identified in the e-commerce portals intended for B2B. Further the research aims to practically show how system development methodologies, frameworks and design principles can be applied to address the identified problem areas. To conduct the study, interviews were held with a group of informants with experience in e-commerce portals in B2B. In addition, an existing e-commerce portal for B2B was analyzed and re-designed based on the chosen theory and previous research. The results of the study present a set of identified problem areas, a practical example of an improved e-commerce portal as well as how a specific system development approach, framework and set of design principles can be implemented to elevate the usability and user experience.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether a combination of agile system development methodologies (ASDMs) and project management methodologies (PMMs) can be used to develop a hybrid APMM that will have the ability to deliver information technology (IT) projects successfully in a constantly changing business and project environment. To achieve this objective, a literature review was conducted on the relatively well–established ASDMs by firstly defining a SDM and an ASDM. Each ASDM and its effectiveness are described, after which ASDMs in general are evaluated by considering their area of application, advantages and disadvantages. A comparison is then done of the seven different ASDMs using the four elements of an SDM (Huisman & Iivari, 2006:32) to emphasise some of the main similarities and differences amongst the different ASDMs. The seven ASDMs investigated in this study are Dynamic System Development Methodology, Scrum, Extreme Programming, Feature Driven Development, Crystal ASDMs ? Crystal Clear and Crystal Orange in particular, Adaptive Software Development and Lean Development. A literature review was also conducted on two structured and relatively well–established PMMs, PMBOK and PRINCE2, and a relatively new PMM called Agile Project Management. Each PMM is evaluated by considering their area of application, advantages, disadvantages and integration with other methodologies, after which a comparison is made of the different PMMs. The research was conducted by following a mixed methods research plan, which included the mixed methods research paradigm (combination of the interpretive research paradigm and the positivistic research paradigm), research methods (design science, case study and survey), quantitative and qualitative data–collection techniques (interviews and questionnaires), and dataanalysis techniques (cross–case and statistical). The reasons that projects fail and critical project success factors were studied and summarised to form the critical project success criteria, which were used to create the agile project success criteria. The ASDM best practice and PMM best practice frameworks were created by identifying whether a certain ASDM or PMM would satisfy a specific agile project success factor (APSF) of the agile project success criteria. The findings of each APSF in the respective frameworks were used as a foundation to develop a hybrid APMM (ver. 0) that would address the agile project success criteria. The hybrid APMM (ver. 0) was developed interpretively using design science (research approach) and constructivism by combining the strengths, addressing the weaknesses and bridging the gaps identified in the frameworks. The hybrid APMM (ver. 0) was then evaluated and improved by conducting an interpretive case study, which entailed interviewing participants from large and small organisations. Once the qualitative data collected had been analysed using cross–case analysis, the findings were incorporated in order to create an improved hybrid APMM (ver. 1). The hybrid APMM (ver. 1) too was evaluated and improved by conducting a survey, which entailed administering questionnaires to various respondents in order to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of the statistical analysis of the data were also used to improve the hybrid APMM (ver. 1), resulting in the final hybrid APMM (ver. 2). This study demonstrates that a combination of ASDMs and PMMs can be used to develop a hybrid APMM with the ability to deliver IT projects in a constantly changing project and business environment. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether a combination of agile system development methodologies (ASDMs) and project management methodologies (PMMs) can be used to develop a hybrid APMM that will have the ability to deliver information technology (IT) projects successfully in a constantly changing business and project environment. To achieve this objective, a literature review was conducted on the relatively well–established ASDMs by firstly defining a SDM and an ASDM. Each ASDM and its effectiveness are described, after which ASDMs in general are evaluated by considering their area of application, advantages and disadvantages. A comparison is then done of the seven different ASDMs using the four elements of an SDM (Huisman & Iivari, 2006:32) to emphasise some of the main similarities and differences amongst the different ASDMs. The seven ASDMs investigated in this study are Dynamic System Development Methodology, Scrum, Extreme Programming, Feature Driven Development, Crystal ASDMs ? Crystal Clear and Crystal Orange in particular, Adaptive Software Development and Lean Development. A literature review was also conducted on two structured and relatively well–established PMMs, PMBOK and PRINCE2, and a relatively new PMM called Agile Project Management. Each PMM is evaluated by considering their area of application, advantages, disadvantages and integration with other methodologies, after which a comparison is made of the different PMMs. The research was conducted by following a mixed methods research plan, which included the mixed methods research paradigm (combination of the interpretive research paradigm and the positivistic research paradigm), research methods (design science, case study and survey), quantitative and qualitative data–collection techniques (interviews and questionnaires), and dataanalysis techniques (cross–case and statistical). The reasons that projects fail and critical project success factors were studied and summarised to form the critical project success criteria, which were used to create the agile project success criteria. The ASDM best practice and PMM best practice frameworks were created by identifying whether a certain ASDM or PMM would satisfy a specific agile project success factor (APSF) of the agile project success criteria. The findings of each APSF in the respective frameworks were used as a foundation to develop a hybrid APMM (ver. 0) that would address the agile project success criteria. The hybrid APMM (ver. 0) was developed interpretively using design science (research approach) and constructivism by combining the strengths, addressing the weaknesses and bridging the gaps identified in the frameworks. The hybrid APMM (ver. 0) was then evaluated and improved by conducting an interpretive case study, which entailed interviewing participants from large and small organisations. Once the qualitative data collected had been analysed using cross–case analysis, the findings were incorporated in order to create an improved hybrid APMM (ver. 1). The hybrid APMM (ver. 1) too was evaluated and improved by conducting a survey, which entailed administering questionnaires to various respondents in order to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of the statistical analysis of the data were also used to improve the hybrid APMM (ver. 1), resulting in the final hybrid APMM (ver. 2). This study demonstrates that a combination of ASDMs and PMMs can be used to develop a hybrid APMM with the ability to deliver IT projects in a constantly changing project and business environment. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

90年代的後期，敏捷式系統發展方法開始被倡導。相對於傳統的系統發展方法，敏捷式系統發展方法著重於回饋機制而非事前的計畫、以人為中心而非以流程為中心。這樣的方法希望能助於提高組織對回應市場、客戶的效率，進而提高效益。目前在商場中使用此方法做為開發工具的企業仍是少數，本研究希望透過探討敏捷式系統發展方法論的使用時機來進行教學，進而得知系統開發人員對於接受敏捷式系統發展方法的關鍵因素，並藉此了解該如何在企業中導入此方法。本研究發現除了使用此方法的能力會影響影響使用意圖之外，在內在因素方面也包含了公司結構與團隊因素，外部因素則包含了顧客與成功案例因素，這些都是接受敏捷式系統發展方法的關鍵因素。本研究希望根據以上的分析結果，提出敏捷式系統發展方法導入之建議，提供組織做為參考用。 / Awareness of agile system development methodologies (SDM) has grown among information systems development community in recent years. Many of their advocates consider the agile and the plan-driven SDMs polar opposites. Indeed there are circumstances where agile SDMs are more suitable than plan-driven SDMs. Yet, there have been few studies on understanding developers’ adoption intention. This paper takes an initial attempt to gauge new generation of software developers’ intention to select agile SDMs. To many of these developers, agile SDMs are relatively new if not unheard of, in order to assess their intention to choose such category of methodologies, this research first introduced the methodologies to a group of 21 IS-major graduate students and discussed how and when to use agile SDMs. Then a survey was conducted, which was comprised of two parts of questions: agile SDM self-efficacy and intention to use. PLS analysis results showed that agile SDM self-efficacy influence the intention to use through performance outcome expectation, personal outcome expectation, and affect. Although the relationship between self-efficacy and anxiety was not confirmed, anxiety does affect intention to use. The fact that direct relationships between all four emotive variables and the intention to use are established implies that in order to encourage the use of agile SDMs, the focus should be emotive variables, and that self efficacy may be just one of various ways to promote the favorable emotional states. In addition, these participates were invited to a three-round Delphi test and analytic hierarchy process to retrieved their concerns about accepting or rejecting agile SDMs. Ten key factors were extracted and categorized. Adding up the pros and cons, team dimension is the most important dimension, which explains individual first concerns about how the collaboration when using agile SDMs. Other than team dimension, customer, corporate structure, project, success cases and methodology dimensions were consistent with the literatures. Thus our study provides a critical understanding of the factors that affect new generation of software developers’ intention to select agile SDM.

IT-system utvecklas idag ofta i globalt distribuerade organisationer. Detta görs för att möta de krav som ställs från omgivningen samt för att finna specialkompetens. En global organisation kan medföra distribuerat arbete, alltså att utvecklingsgrupper sprids över flera platser. Ett problem med detta kan vara att få alla delar av verksamheten att arbeta mot ett gemensamt mål. Koordination – att hantera beroenden mellan element i komplexa organisationer för att möjliggöra effektivt arbete mot ett gemensamt mål – blir då en viktig aktivitet. Att kommunicera över distans i den takt organisationen kräver är en omöjlighet utan att implementera informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) – digitala verktyg med fokus på kommunikation och spridandet av information. Vi vill i denna uppsats undersöka hur koordination sker i distribuerade IT-projekt, samt vilken roll IKT-stöd har vid koordination av distribuerade IT-projekt. Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap gällande användandet av IKT-stöd för koordination i distribuerade IT- projekt. Vi genomför denna kvalitativa fallstudie hos IFS World Operations AB – en global affärssystemsleverantör. Data har samlats in genom intervjuer med personer i olika roller inom det undersökta it projektet. Vi har ställt de empiriska resultaten i relation till teorier inom områden som koordination, IT-projekt samt IKT. Våra resultat visar att koordination i agila, distribuerade IT-projekt sker på två nivåer; strategisk samt operationell koordination. Dessa syftar att uppnå mål på olika nivåer. Vi har också kunnat dela in koordinationshandlingar i tre typer utvecklade från teori och observationer; ömsesidig anpassning, framväxande standardisering och organisationsförvaltning. Vi kan även sluta oss till att IKT-stöd främst förhåller sig till koordination på tre sätt i ett distribuerat IT-projekt; möjliggörande, medierande samt begränsande. Med stöd av de ovan presenterade resultaten har vi tagit fram faktorer vi funnit påverka möjligheten att koordinera IT-projekt. Dessa är; gruppdynamik, graden av distribution, fasta utvecklingsgrupper, utveckla teknik tillsammans med organisation samt standardiserade kommunikationskanaler. / Information systems are often developed in globally distributed organizations. Many times the reason for being distributed is to meet requirements and demands from the organizations surrounding and to acquire a specialized set of skills. Global organizations may choose to work distributed, which means that development teams are spread out over multiple locations. This can create problems; how do you make all parts of the organization work together towards a common goal? Thus, coordination – The management of interdependent elements in a complex organization so as to enable them to work together effectively toward a specific goal – becomes important. Long distance communication using information and communication technology (ICT) – digital tools with the purpose of endorsing communication and knowledge – is required to coordinate between locations. In this thesis we examine how coordination is performed in distributed IT-projects. We will also address the role that information and communications technology plays in coordination of these projects. The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge in the area of using ICT tools for coordinating distributed IT-projects. This qualitative case study was conducted in cooperation with IFS World Operations AB – a global provider of an Enterprise Resource Planning system. Our empirical data has been collected using five interviews, all with different types of roles from within IT-projects. The data has then been put in relation to theories concerning coordination, IT-projects and ICT. Our findings show coordination in distributed, agile software development projects is working on two levels; strategic and operational coordination. The difference lies with the motivation to complete goals on different levels of the organization. We can also conclude that there are three different kinds of means to carry out coordination; Mutual Adjustment, Emerging standardization and organizational management. Concerning the role of ICT in the coordination of distributed IT-projects we have found it to be threefold; enabling, mediating and limiting. Based on these findings we conclude this study by presenting five factors that influence the ability to coordinate distributed IT-projects. These are: group dynamics, level of distribution, fixed development teams, parallel development of technology and organization and standardized communication channels.