Erfolg macht attraktiv – das gilt auch für die Prinzipien und Methoden der agilen Softwareentwicklung. Diese finden momentan eine weite Verbreitung, denn sie geben offenbar gute oder zumindest bessere Antworten auf die Probleme, mit denen die herkömmlichen Projektmethoden nicht zurande kommen (Royce 1970). Agile, manchmal auch »leichtgewichtig« genannte Methoden vermeiden übermäßige Planung und Spezifikation, sie ersetzen sie durch eine schnelle Abfolge von Zyklen aus Aktion-Reflexion und Neuausrichtung. Sie bevorzugen die Kollaboration unter gleichberechtigten Experten, die Kommunikation statt Weisung. Und sie beziehen den Kunden und späteren Nutzer bereits in die Entwicklungsarbeit mit ein, denn der Kunde ist die wichtigste Informationsquelle, er bestimmt, inwiefern das Produkt für ihn nützlich ist. Durch solche Prinzipien ist es möglich, Zeit- und Budgetüberschreitungen besser zu vermeiden, einen produktiven Umgang mit Ungewissheit und wechselnden Situationen zu entwickeln und schonender mit der menschlichen Arbeitskraft umzugehen (Abrahamsson et al. 2003). So hat sich das Konzept der »Agilität« auch auf andere Bereiche übertragen, z.B. auf die Gründung von Unternehmen (»Lean Start Up«, Ries 2011) oder die Gestaltung von Organisationsstrukturen (»Agile Organisation«, Richardson 2005). [... aus dem Text]

Context: Adopting agile practices has proven to be successful for many practitioners both academically and practically in development scenario. But the context of agile practices adoption during software maintenance is partially studied and is mostly focused on benefits. The success factors of agile practices during development cannot be related to maintenance, as maintenance differs in many aspects from development. The context of this research is to study the adoption of different agile practices during software maintenance. Objectives: In this study, an attempt has been made to accomplish the following objectives: Firstly, to identify different agile practices that are adopted in practice during software maintenance. Secondly, identifying advantages and disadvantages of adopting those agile practices during software maintenance. Methods: To accomplish the objectives a case study is conducted at Capgemini, Mumbai, India. Data is collected by conducting two rounds of interviews among five different projects which have adopted agile practices during software maintenance. Close-ended questionnaire and open-ended questionnaires have been used respectively for first and second round interviews. The motivation for selecting different questionnaire is because each round aimed to accomplish different research objectives. Apart from interviews, direct observation of agile practices in each project is done to achieve data triangulation. Finally, a validation survey is conducted among second round interview participants and other practitioners from outside the case study to validate the data collected during second round interviews. Results: A simple literature review identified 30 agile practices adopted during software maintenance. On analyzing first round of interviews 22 practices are identified to be mostly adopted and used during software maintenance. The result of adopting those agile practices are categorized as advantages and disadvantages. In total 12 advantages and 8 disadvantages are identified and validated through second round interviews and validation survey respectively. Finally, a cause-effect relationship is drawn among the identified agile practices and consequences. Conclusions: Adopting agile practices has both positive and negative result. Adopting agile practices during perfective and adaptive type of maintenance has more advantages, but adopting agile practices during corrective type of maintenance may not have that many advantages as compared to other type of maintenance. Hence, one has to consider the type of maintenance work before adopting agile practices during software maintenance.

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Agile project management has become a widely implemented project management approach in Information Systems (IS). Yet, along with its growing popularity, the amount of concerns raised in regard to human related challenges is rapidly increasing. Nevertheless, the extant scholarly literature has neglected to identify the primary origins and reasons of these challenges. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine if these challenges are caused by a lack of Emotional Intelligence (EI) by means of a quantitative approach, which includes two main steps. Firstly, based on a sample of 447 IS-professionals, the psychometric properties of their EI in regard to their personal characteristics is examined. Secondly, based on the findings of the first analysis, the causal inference of EI on these challenges is computed using Propensity Score Matching based on a second sample of 194 agile practitioners. Different dimensions of EI were found to have a low to medium impact on human related challenges occurring in agile teams in regard to anxiety, motivation, mutual trust and communication competence. Hence, these findings offer important new knowledge for IS-scholars, project managers and human resource practitioners, about the vital role of EI for educating, staffing and training of IS-professionals working in agile teams.

Högre utbildning lider av brister som kan påverka utbildningskvaliteten. Några av dessa brister kan ses som en konsekvens av undervisningsmodellens karaktär som traditionellt fokuserar på kunskapsöverföring.I detta arbete undersöks om utbildning och framför allt undervisning har några likheter med datavetenskapliga konstruktioner. Med analogier skapas en modell för undervisning utifrån en modell inom mjukvaruutveckling. Analogier används även för att överföra lösningar från mjukvaruutveckling till undervisning för att lösa några av de problem som anses gemensamma mellan ämnesområdena.Resultatet är en flexiblare undervisningsmodell där undervisningsenheter spelar en central roll. Undervisningsenheten möjliggör en upprepningsbar process där lärandemål uppfylls, bedöms och utvärderas kontinuerligt. Modellen skapar också möjlighet till mer aktiva och deltagande studenter samt en bättre återkopplingsstrategi mellan undervisnings- och lärandeprocessen. / Higher education has flaws that may affect the quality of education. Some of these flaws kan be seen as a consequence of the education model’s charateristics which traditionally focuses on knowledge transfer.This essay examines wheter education and in particular teaching has some resemblence with constructs in computer science. With an analogy approach a educational model is created from a model in software development. Analogies are also used to transfer solutions from software development to education to solve some of the problems that can be seen as mutual between the two areas.The result is a more flexible education model in which educational units play a central role. Educational units enables an iterative process in which learning outcomes are met, assessed and evaluated. The model also creates opportunities for more active and participating students and a better feedback strategy between the teaching and learning process.

In recent years the demand for spectrum has been steadily growing. With the limited amount of spectrum available, Spectrum Pooling has gained immense popularity. As a result of various studies, it has been established that most of the licensed spectrum remains underutilized. Spectrum Pooling or spectrum sharing concentrates on making the most of these whitespaces in the licensed spectrum. These unused parts of the spectrum are usually available in chunks. A secondary user looking to utilize these chunks needs a device capable of transmitting over distributed frequencies, while not interfering with the primary user. Such a process is known as Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) and a device capable of it is known as Cognitive Radio. In such a scenario, multicarrier communication that transmits data across the channel in several frequency subcarriers at a lower data rate has gained prominence. Its appeal lies in the fact that it combats frequency selective fading. Two methods for implementing multicarrier modulation are non-contiguous orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (NCOFDM)and filter bank multicarrier modulation (FBMC). This thesis aims to implement a novel FBMC transmitter using software defined radio (SDR) with modulated filters based on a lowpass prototype. FBMCs employ two sets of bandpass filters called analysis and synthesis filters, one at the transmitter and the other at the receiver, in order to filter the collection of subcarriers being transmitted simultaneously in parallel frequencies. The novel aspect of this research is that a wireless transmitter based on non-contiguous FBMC is being used to design spectrally agile waveforms for dynamic spectrum access as opposed to the more popular NC-OFDM. Better spectral containment and bandwidth efficiency, combined with lack of cyclic prefix processing, makes it a viable alternative for NC-OFDM. The main aim of this thesis is to prove that FBMC can be practically implemented for wireless communications. The practicality of the method is tested by transmitting the FBMC signals real time by using the Simulink environment and USRP2 hardware modules.

This exploratory case study used observations and interviews to investigate how the structure of an organization impacts its ability to adopt agile software development methodologies. It also aimed to identify the agile practices that are perceived as helpful or unhelpful by the individuals practicing them. It examined an organization’s attempt to adopt agile methodologies for the first time in a new software product development project. Twelve employees from different teams working on this project participated in the study. . The participants were asked about their perception of the agile process. They were also asked to identify the various teams with which they regularly interact and to provide examples of the helpful and unhelpful patterns of behavior they exhibit. The findings suggest that the structure of the organization was a major limiting factor that affected its ability to adopt agile methodologies. Agile practices rely on the level of flexibility that an organization can demonstrate. However, the organization attempted to adopt agile practices without redefining the project members’ roles, work processes, or departmental affiliations. Participants perceived many aspects of the agile methods negatively, and various symptoms of a misfit between the existing organizational structure and the requirements of agile methods were observed, including poor communication and multiple conflicts between the different project teams, which caused the project to go over time and over budget. Furthermore, it was observed that the teams struggled to follow the agile practices and found various ways to alter and work around them to fit the existing structure, rather than adhering to them and welcoming the new practices. Several potential areas for future research are identified, including: using longitudinal case studies to examine organizations and the relationships between their members before and after adopting agile methodologies, in order to identify and attribute any observed behavioral patterns to the appropriate cause; examining organizations in which the structure was altered to accommodate agile methodologies; and examining how organizations define the roles of highly specialized employees who possess very specific abilities and must be shared across different development projects.

Paskutiniu metu vis daugiau įmonių naudoja Agile metodologiją kuriant programinę įrangą. Darbe aš analizuoju sistemos kūrimo modelius bei Agile metodologiją. Pagrindinis objektas ir yra Agile metodų analizė ir jų pritaikymas kuriant informacines sistemas. Pirmoje dalyje buvo analizuojami sistemos kūrimo metodų analizė. Buvo surašyti privalumai bei trūkumai klasikinių kūrimo metodų bei Agile metodų. Tolimesnei analizei buvo pasirinkta Agile metodologija. Antroje dalyje buvo sukurtas naujas metodas paremtas Agile metodologija, tam, kad pagerinti ir pagreitinti informacinių sistemų kūrimą. Eksperimentas buvo atliktas trečioje dalyje. Jis buvo daromas, kad patikrinti, ar naujasis metodas yra tikrai tinkamas informacinių sistemų kūrimui. Projekto rezultatai. Naujasis metodas vykdomas greičiau ir kainuoja pigiau palyginus su tradiciniais sistemų kūrimo metodais. Metodo esmė yra ta, kad vartotojo reikalavimai gali kisti bet kuriuo metu ir tai nesumaišys projekto planui. / In recent years more and more companies use the Agile methodology to create software. In this paper I analyze the system creation models and Agile methodology. The main object of the paper is the analysis of Agile methods and their application in creating information systems. Analysis of methods, the system creation methods was represented in the first part of the paper. The advantages and disadvantages of traditional creation methods and Agile methods were described in this part of the paper. The Agile methodology was chosen for the further analysis According to Agile methodology a new method was introduced in the second part of the paper. It was represented in order to improve and speed up the creation of information systems. The experiment was made in the third part of the paper. It was carried out in order to check the effectiveness of this new method for creating information systems. The results of the project. It is important to note that this new method is implemented faster and cost less compared to the traditional system creation methods. The main point of this method is that requirements of the user can change at any time but it will not change the cost and duration of the project.

This exploratory case study used observations and interviews to investigate how the structure of an organization impacts its ability to adopt agile software development methodologies. It also aimed to identify the agile practices that are perceived as helpful or unhelpful by the individuals practicing them. It examined an organization’s attempt to adopt agile methodologies for the first time in a new software product development project. Twelve employees from different teams working on this project participated in the study. . The participants were asked about their perception of the agile process. They were also asked to identify the various teams with which they regularly interact and to provide examples of the helpful and unhelpful patterns of behavior they exhibit. The findings suggest that the structure of the organization was a major limiting factor that affected its ability to adopt agile methodologies. Agile practices rely on the level of flexibility that an organization can demonstrate. However, the organization attempted to adopt agile practices without redefining the project members’ roles, work processes, or departmental affiliations. Participants perceived many aspects of the agile methods negatively, and various symptoms of a misfit between the existing organizational structure and the requirements of agile methods were observed, including poor communication and multiple conflicts between the different project teams, which caused the project to go over time and over budget. Furthermore, it was observed that the teams struggled to follow the agile practices and found various ways to alter and work around them to fit the existing structure, rather than adhering to them and welcoming the new practices. Several potential areas for future research are identified, including: using longitudinal case studies to examine organizations and the relationships between their members before and after adopting agile methodologies, in order to identify and attribute any observed behavioral patterns to the appropriate cause; examining organizations in which the structure was altered to accommodate agile methodologies; and examining how organizations define the roles of highly specialized employees who possess very specific abilities and must be shared across different development projects.

Background. Over the years, agile software development has become increasingly popular in the software industry. One of the reasons is that agile development addressed the needs of the organisations better than the traditional models, such as the waterfall model. However, the textbook version of agile development still leaves something to be desired. This could be learnt by observing the implementation of agile methods/frameworks in the industry. The teams often customize agile methods to suit their context-specific needs. When teams in the industry decide to adopt the agile way of working, they are confronted by a choice¾either they have to implement all the agile practices at a time or adopt them over the time. The former choice has shown to come with risks and, therefore, was found that practitioners generally preferred the latter. However, agile practices are not independent, they have dependencies amongst them. A new approach to agile development emerged in the recent years known as Agile Maturity Models (AMMs). AMMs claim to offer a better path to agile adoption. In AMMs, the practices are typically introduced gradually in a particular order. However, these AMMs are multifarious and haven’t been sufficiently evaluated¾especially in the industry practice. Thus, they need to be evaluated in order to understand their relevance in the industry.   Objectives. The goal is to evaluate the relevance of AMMs in the industry. By finding relevant AMMs, they could be used to alleviate the formation of agile teams and contribute toward their smoother functioning. By finding those that aren’t, this research could act as a cautionary to those practitioners who could potentially implement these AMMs and risk failure. The objectives are: identifying the agile practice dependencies in the AMMs; finding the agile practice dependencies in an agile team by conducting a case study in the industry; comparing the dependencies from the case study with those in the AMMs.
   Methods. The agile maturity models were identified and analysed. A case study was conducted on an agile team to identify the dependencies between the agile practices in the industry practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the agile team. Qualitative coding was used to analyse the collected data. The dependencies from the case study were compared with the AMMs to achieve the aim of this research.   Results. It was found that dependencies between individual agile practices in the AMMs were almost never possible to be found. However, practices suggested in each maturity levels were derived. Hence, the dependencies were found in the maturity-level level. From the case study, 20 agile practice dependencies were found. 7/8 AMMs were found to be not relevant. 1 AMM couldn’t be evaluated as it heavily relied on the practitioner’s choices.   Conclusions. The researchers could use the evaluation method presented in this thesis to conduct more such evaluations. By doing so, the dynamics present in the industry teams could be better understood. On their basis, relevant AMMs could be developed in the future. Such AMMs could help practitioners leverage agile development.