Very little research in software engineering has focused on the model of a programmer working alone. These so-called cowboys are disdained for not working in teams to build software. In reality many cowboys work by themselves due to the circumstances of their work environment, not because they are unable or unwilling to work with well with others. These solo programmers could benefit from a methodology to assist them in consistently developing reliable software on time and within budget while satisfying the customer's needs. Cowboy was designed to help fill this void. This agile-based system incorporates the benefits of agile methodologies into a lightweight, customer-centered approach to software development for the lone developer. This thesis describes Cowboy and its successful application in developing a prototype for a web application.

Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka hur agila aktiviteter kan bidra till att motivera deltagare i ett agilt utvecklarteam. För att besvara studiens syfte genomfördes en fallstudie under nio veckor där ett utvecklarteam på företaget Tradera observerades. Utöver observationerna gjordes även intervjuer med en majoritet av teamets medlemmar. Genom att kombinera den klassiska motivationsteorin Job Characteristics Modell med scrumteori utvecklades en konceptuell analysmodell. Den konceptuella analysmodellen operationaliserar egenskaper hos de agila aktiviteterna som enligt teorin ger upphov till hög arbetsmotivation. Genom intervjuerna operationaliseras begreppet motivation – där en intervjuteknik som använts i tidigare studier för att mäta motivation anammats. Resultatet av studien visar att de agila aktiviteterna planeringsmöte, demonstration och återblicksmöte i det studerade utvecklarteamet på Tradera innehar egenskaper som skapar förutsättning för hög arbetsmotivation. I en teoretisk men inte empirisk mening stöds sambandet mellan egenskaperna och hög arbetsmotivation. Där berättelser från teammedlemmar om episoder av hög motivation kopplat till de agila aktiviteterna ger en indikation på att egenskaperna hos aktiviteterna gett upphov till psykologiska tillstånd som resulterat i en hög arbetsmotivation. / The purpose of this paper is to examine how agile activities can act as motivators for members of an agile development team. In order to serve this purpose a field study of nine weeks was carried out during which an agile development team at Tradera were observed. In addition to the field study interviews where conducted with a majority of the team members. A classical motivational theory in the form of Job Characteristics Model (JCT) and theory about scrum was used to form a conceptual analysis model. The model operationalizes characteristics of the agile activities, which according to JCT creates high work motivation. The concept of motivation was operationalized through the use of an interview technique that has been used in numerous previous studies in order to measure motivation and other non-tangible factors. The study shows that the agile activities planning session, demonstration and retrospective used by the development team at Tradera has inherent characteristics that creates a setting in which high work motivation has the possibility of being prevalent. In a theoretical, but not empirical, way the results of the study supports a connection between the presence of the characteristics in the agile activities and high motivation. Where stories from team members of episodes of high motivation during the agile activities gives an indication of the activities.

The thesis focuses on optimisation of project management methodology and tools in a small company, engaged in development of enterprise software. The company is facing major challenges, resulting in frequent failure to comply with projects deadlines and costs. The introductory theoretical part presents some possible approaches to solving these problems. These are based primarily on the most popular methodologies and research of various authors. There are three objectives in the practical part. The first one is to analyse the current state of project management area in the company. To fulfil this objective, several analytical methods were used, alongside with the measurement of the maturity of processes using CMMI models. The output of this part is used for identification of major problems related to project management. The second objective is to choose the most suitable methodology for project management optimization. The next part focuses on selection of supporting software tool. The third objective is to present a proposal of changes to the current corporate project management methodology, processes and tools, based on the identification of major problems. The final part presents the schedule of implementation of the proposed changes.

There is an increasing needto design and implement technological solutions to span scientific advances, facilitate people’s life and increase the efficiency of daily tasks. This bringsinto the picture professionals with sufficient technical skills to bring to life these technological solutions. Considering the outreach and size of said solutions, technical knowledge is not enough to succeed, but softskills such as communication and teamwork. Engineering and technology professionals need to function effectively in teams to accomplish a common goal. Therefore, this study characterizes the strategies that teams use in order to accomplish their goals through successful team interactions.In addition, this study explores how these strategies vary during asemester-longproject and how these variations mayaffectteam interactions and different performance indicators

Agilt är ett arbetssätt som innefattar en ökad grad av flexibilitet och anpassningsförmåga för organisationer, som ska uppnås genom bemyndigade anställda. Tidigare forskning inom agilt har fokuserat på arbetssättets fördelar och till viss del även svårigheterna med dess implementering. Trots det agila arbetssättets nära koppling till organisationskultur anser vi att dessa två fält inte i någon större utsträckning har getts en kvalitativ och djupare analys tillsammans, där fokus läggs på attityden till arbetssättet som organisationsmodell utanför IT-sektorn. Detta har undersökts via sju semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer som innehar chefs- eller ledarroller inom olika organisationer, varpå resultaten från dessa har analyserats utifrån studiens syfte och jämförts med tidigare forskning. Respondenterna tycks uppvisa positiv inställning till det agila arbetssättet och en medvetenhet om organisationskulturens vikt vid organisationsförändringar. Slutligen görs en avslutande diskussion och slutsats där argumentet ges att den vaghet och otydlighet som tenderar att omgärda såväl det agila arbetssättet som organisationskulturer kan vara en väsentlig anledning till att det agila arbetssättet inte implementeras i större utsträckning. / Agile is a work method that involves a higher degree of flexibility and adaptability for organizations, which is to be met by empowered employees. Previous research regarding agile has focused on its benefits and to a certain degree also the difficulties in its implementation, but despite the agiles’ close connections to organizational culture according to our literature review that these two fields have to a wider extent not been given a qualitative and deeper analysis together, where focus is given to how agile is viewed as an organizational model outside the IT sector. This has been researched through seven semi-structured interviews with individuals with managerial roles within different organizations, where after the results have been analyzed from the standpoint of the study’s purpose and compared to earlier research. The respondents seem to display a positive attitude toward the agile and an awareness of the importance of organizational culture in organizational change. Then a final discussion and conclusion is made where the argument is put forth that the vagueness and ambiguity which tend to surround the agile as well as organizational culture could be an essential reason to why agile is not implemented to a wider extent.

Under en senare tid har det uppkommit en ökad press på politiskt styrda organisationer däribland kommuner att bli mer flexibla och hitta nya arbetssätt. Med en förhöjd projektifiering och ökad effektivitet som en strävan av detta, har det skapat organisatoriska spänningar i kommunala projekt. Här har det agila arbetssättet i projekt växt fram och ses som en potentiell lösning och ett nytt arbetssätt i projekt för en kommunal verksamhet. Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur projekt bedrivs i en kommunal verksamhet och med frågeställningarna hur förhåller sig det agila arbetssättet i projekt på en kommunalnivå och hur förhåller sig projekt till den politiska styrningen. För att kunna besvara dessa har det utförts semistrukturerade intervjuer med projektledare från olika kommuner, med totalt sex respondenter. Det insamlade materialet har sedan kodats genom en tematisk analys. Det konstateras att projekt som bedrivs i kommunal regi behöver förhålla sig till bland annat politisk styrning, lagar och ramverk. Resultat belyser även att det sker förändringar under projektens gång i kommunala projekt, vilket är en belastning. Resultatet indikerar också på att ett agilt arbetssätt skulle kunna förbättra med snabbare hantering av förändringar i projekt. Det agila arbetssättet skulle dessutom fungera i mindre kommuner eftersom resultatet indikerar på att projekten som bedrivs i mindre kommuner inte är av samma omfattning, budget och tidsram vilket passar det agila arbetssättet. / More recently, there has been increased pressure on politically controlled organizations, including municipalities, to become more flexible and find new ways of working. With increased projectification and an increased efficiency as an endeavour for this, it has created organizational tensions in municipal projects. Here, the agile working method in projects has emerged and is seen as a potential solution and a new way of working in projects for a municipal activity. The purpose of this study has been to investigate how projects are conducted in a municipal activity and with the issues, how does the agile working method relate to projects at a municipal level and how does the project relate to political governance. In order to be able to answer these, semi-structured interviews were conducted with project managers from different municipalities, with a total of six respondents. The collected material has then been coded through a thematic analysis. It is stated that projects carried out in the municipal area need to relate to, among other things, political governance, laws and frameworks. Results also illustrate that there are changes during the course of the projects in municipal projects, which is a burden. The result also indicates that an agile way of working could improve with faster handling of changes in projects. The agile way of working would also work in smaller municipalities because the result indicates that the projects conducted in smaller municipalities are not of the same scope, budget and timeframe, which suits the agile working method.

O gerenciamento de processos de negócios (Business Process Management - BPM) é uma abordagem de gestão cada vez mais utilizada pelas organizações para a operacionalização da estratégia devido a sua capacidade de geração de benefícios; contudo, há crescentes e elevados os índices de insucesso as iniciativas de promoção de BPM. Isso vem ocorrendo principalmente porque BPM vem tendo foco nos processos de negócios internos e não tem conseguido se ajustar com rapidez e flexibilidade para lidar com a dinâmica do ambiente de negócios. A agilidade é um elemento que ajuda a lidar com esses aspecto; tal como aconteceu com a manufatura e com o gerenciamento de projetos (que evoluíram para manufatura ágil e gerenciamento ágil de projetos, respectivamente) BPM vem tendo elevada demanda por agilidade, e um BPM Ágil se apresenta como uma evolução de BPM com elevado poder de contribuição para o tema. BPM Ágil traz o cliente para atuar de maneira ativa no processo e impõe uma flexibilidade para interação da operação com a dinâmica ambiental de maneira mais assertiva. Um gerenciamento é realizado por meio de Práticas (conjunto formado por técnicas, ferramentas e ações), de maneira que o presente estudo tem como principal objetivo propor Práticas para a promoção da BPM Ágil nas organizações. Para o alcance de novas iniciativas empíricas e avanços na teoria, este estudo se propõe a construir um novo conceito de BPM Ágil, uma nova definição e estabelecer as suas práticas. É fundamental que os processos de negócios alcancem seus objetivos produzindo respostas com rapidez e flexibilidade para mudanças, de modo que BPM Ágil deve aumentar a exploração e o aproveitamento de oportunidades. A proposição de Práticas para o BPM Ágil presente nesta tese é uma contribuição inicial que deve ajudar a desbravar um novo campo de estudos por meio de uma abordagem científica. Para tanto, foram utilizadas 7 abordagens metodológicas distintas para a elaboração deste estudo: revisão sistemática de literatura, análise indutiva, consulta a especialistas, análise de juízes, survey, painel de especialistas e mais dois estudos de caso. Como principal resultado tem-se 78 Práticas, sendo 23 técnicas, 13 ferramentas e 42 ações para a promoção do BPM Ágil / Business Process Management (BPM) is a management approach increasingly used by organizations to operationalize the strategy because of their ability to generate benefits; however, there are increasing and high failure rates for BPM promotion initiatives. This has been mainly because BPM has been focusing on internal business processes and has not been able to adjust quickly and flexibly to deal with the dynamics of the business environment. Agility is an element that helps deal with these aspects; as occurred with manufacturing and project management (which evolved to agile manufacturing and agile project management, respectively). BPM has been in high demand for agility, and an Agile BPM is an evolution of BPM with a high power of contribution for the theme. Agile BPM brings the client to act in an active way in the process and imposes a flexibility to interact the operation with the environmental dynamics more assertively. A management is carried out through Practices (a group formed by techniques, tools and actions), so that the main purpose of this study is to propose Practices for the promotion of Agile BPM in organizations. For the achievement of new empirical initiatives and advances in theory, this study proposes to build a new concept of Agile BPM, a new definition and establish its practices. It is critical that business processes reach their goals by producing responses with speed and flexibility for change, so that Agile BPM must increase exploration and se\'ize opportunities. The proposal of Practices for Agile BPM in this thesis is an initial contribution that should help to open up a new field of studies through a scientific approach. In order to do so, 7 different methodological approaches were used for the elaboration of this study: systematic literature review, inductive analysis, expert consultation, judges analysis, survey, panel of experts and two other case studies. As a main result there are 78 Practices, being 23 techniques, 13 tools and 42 actions for the promotion of Agile BPM

Background: In various industries, market power is concentrated on a few major companies, which makes competition increasingly challenging for small and medium-sized enterprises. Those SMEs are furthermore impacted by the characteristics of their industry and need to change constantly and adapt to maintain competitive in this challenging market environment. The IT sector is characterized by a high degree of digitalization, quickly changing customer needs, and short lifecycles. Thus, many IT firms apply agile working methods, increase working in teams, and use different digital tools and applications. In many cases, those adjustments also impact the organizational structure of the firm and require a change in management. Purpose: In the context of a medium-sized IT firm, this study aims to evaluate the effects of digitalization on management innovation in project teams. Method: To gain a deep understanding of the researched topic, we chose a qualitative interview-based study. We collected the data for this single-case study in semi-structured interviews and applied purposeful sampling (theory based). For the data analysis, we used content analysis (open code; grouping; categorization). Conclusion: We developed a framework describing the influence of digitalization on management innovation in six dimensions, which emerged in the study. Those dimensions are project teams, virtual teams, communication & collaboration, trust, technology, as well as leadership & management. Digitalization strongly influences management innovations in all six identified fields. Digitalization, management innovation, and the respective field are interdependent. In our case, we found that digitalization acts as an enabler or simplifier for management innovation in all six dimensions.

Syftet med arbetet är att belysa problematiken med hur företag inom processindustrin med långa ledtider kan bli mer flexibla i sin försörjningskedja. Detta tillsammans med en bred produktportfölj som skapar en utmaning med hög mix av produkter med låga volymer. Studien avser att hitta lösningar för att planera och höja leveranssäkerheten i dessa typer av verksamheter. Utifrån detta formades följande forskningsfrågor: Hur kan leveranssäkerheten mot kunderna höjas? Hur kan organisationer med ett brett produktsortiment och låga volymer öka sin flexibilitet mot marknaden? Hur kan produktionen planeras så att ledtiderna reduceras men flexibiliteten ökar? Metod och forskningsansats: För att besvara frågeställningarna har en litteraturstudie genomförts på området utformning av flexibla försörjningskedjor och hög mix, låg volym (HMLV). En fallstudie har genomförts inom processindustrin som har en brett produktsortiment med låga volymer. Fallstudien har bestått av att granska verksamheten genom en nulägesanalys och se vilka faktorer som påverkar leveranssäkerheten. I studien har datainsamling genomförts där data ur affärssystemen har exporterats och analyseras genom kvantitativa metoder. Resultat: Studien har identifierat ett flertal osäkerheter som påverkar hur prognoser genereras och hur verksamheten planeras hos fallföretaget. Genom osäkerheter både från leverantören av råmaterial och när det kommer till kapacitet finns det många faktorer som påverkar leveranssäkerheten till kund. För att klara osäkerheter i försörjningskedjan bättre har fokus lagts på att skapa ett bättre flöde genom att hitta flaskhalsar och planera utifrån verkligheten. Studien tar upp fördelar och nackdelar med lager och hur ett företag som enbart använder sig av en leverantör kan förhålla sig till variationer i dels sin egen produktion men även hos sin leverantör.   Implikationer: Arbetet uppfyller syftet genom att besvara de frågeställningar som finns och belyser de utmaningarna som tillkommer vid hög mix och låga volymer. Genom att identifiera och lyfta upp flaskhalsarna går det att öka kapaciteten. I en verksamhet med HMLV kan paretoprincipen eller ABC-analys användas för att identifiera de stora produktgrupperna för att sedan implementera leanfilsofi på dessa produkter. För att öka leveranssäkerhet i en verksamhet med stora variationer behövs någon typ av lager i form av säkerhetslager eller supermarket.   Rekommendationer: För att uppnå en högre leveranssäkerhet behövs verktyg som är anpassade för den specifika verksamheten och som tar hänsyn till den komplexitet som råder.  Nyckelord: Försörjningskedja, agil försörjningskedja, kundorderstyrd, produktionsplanering, kapacitet, riskhantering, HMLV, säkerhetslager, supermarket, theory of constraints, flaskhalsar.

A expansão vertiginosa do uso de Sistemas Web como ferramenta de negócio colocou grande pressão sobre o desenvolvimento de software, exigindo entrega deresultado tangível cada vez mais rápido, num ambiente altamente instável e dinâmico. Em resposta a essas necessidades, surgiu uma nova classe de metodologias de desenvolvimento de software, conhecidas como Metodologias Ágeis. Este trabalho apresenta as principais características desta nova classe de metodologias, analisando em detalhes três dos principais Métodos Ágeis existentes. O objetivo primordial deste trabalho é a definição de um Método Ágil especializado para as características dos Sistemas Web, ou usando uma terminologia mais alinhada com a base filosófica que permeia o trabalho, o objetivo é a criação de um Ecossistema de Desenvolvimento Ágil de software, especializado para Sistemas Web / The vertiginous expansion of the use of the Web Systems as business tool imposed great pressure on the software development, demanding delivery of tangible result faster time, in an unstable and highly dynamic environment. In response to these necessities, appeared a new methodology class of software development: Agile Methodologies. This work presents the main characteristics of this new kind of methodologies, analyzing in details three of the main existing Agile Methods. The primordial objective of this work is the definition of a specialized Agile Method for the characteristics of the Web Systems, or using a terminology aligned with the philosophical base of this work, the objective is the creation of an Ecosystem of Agile Software Development, focused on Web Systems