Este trabalho analisa os principais métodos ágeis utilizados em empresas startup, como scrum, extreme programming, kanban e lean, isolando suas práticas e mapeando-as no Kernel do SEMAT para escolher os elementos essenciais da engenharia de software que estão relacionados a cada prática de forma independente. Foram identificadas 34 práticas que foram reduzidas a um conjunto de 26 pelas similaridades. Um questionário foi desenvolvido e aplicado no ambiente de startups de software para a avaliação do grau de utilização de cada determinada prática. Através das respostas obtidas foi possível a identificação de um subconjunto de práticas com utilização acima de 60% onde todos os elementos essenciais da engenharia de software são atendidos, formando um conjunto mínimo de práticas capazes de sustentar este tipo específico de ambiente. / This work analyses the main agile methods used in startup companies such as scrum, extreme programming, kanban and lean, isolating their practices and mapping them on SEMAT Kernel to choose the essential elements of software engineering that are related to each practice independently. 34 practices were identified and reduced to a set of 26 by similarities. A questionnaire was developed and implemented in software startups environment to evaluate the usage degree of each particular practce. Through the responses obtained it was possible to identify a subset adopted by more than 60% of respondents where all the essential elements of software engineering are met, forming a minimum set of practices capable of sustaining this specific type of environment.

O MUX-GSE é um conjunto de equipamentos ópticos, mecânicos e eletrônicos que verifica, através de testes automáticos, uma série de requisitos funcionais e auxilia na montagem e integração da câmera multiespectral dos satélites CBERS-3&4. Estes satélites, fruto de uma parceria entre Brasil e China, são instrumentos de sensoriamento remoto, produzindo imagens da terra para estudos em diversas áreas, principalmente as relacionadas à exploração sustentável dos recursos naturais. A câmera multiespectral é a primeira do gênero projetada e produzida no Brasil e tem grande importância dentro do programa espacial brasileiro. O sucesso da câmera multiespectral está intimamente ligado ao bom funcionamento do MUX-GSE, conseqüentemente, os softwares que controlam estes equipamentos e realizam os testes automáticos precisam de alta confiabilidade. O processo de software é um conjunto estruturado, composto de modelo de desenvolvimento, atividades, métodos, ferramentas e práticas, que pode assegurar a qualidade necessária a um produto de software. A definição deste processo é o primeiro passo para a execução de um projeto complexo. O objetivo deste trabalho é a implementação de um processo que permita a construção dos aplicativos do MUX-GSE em curto espaço de tempo, com uma equipe pequena e com o nível de confiabilidade necessário. A solução proposta, detalhada no texto, é baseada nos métodos ágeis, que definem práticas simples, mas que permitem assimilar mudanças ocorridas em qualquer fase do desenvolvimento. A implementação desta metodologia permitiu a produção dos aplicativos necessários a despeito de uma série de problemas enfrentados e sem atrasos que impactassem o desenvolvimento da câmera multiespectral. Este trabalho mostra que um conjunto de técnicas relativamente simples pode ser mais adequado que aquelas tradicionalmente aplicadas na engenharia de software, mesmo em projetos complexos, cabendo à equipe de desenvolvimento a análise e seleção do melhor método. Mostra ainda que estas técnicas permitem manter ou até superar a confiabilidade obtida através de métodos tradicionais. / The MUX-GSE is a set of optical, mechanical and electronic equipments that verifies, through automatic tests, a series of functional requirements and assists during the assembly and integration phases of the satellites CBERS-3&4\'s multispectral camera. These satellites, fruit of a partnership between Brazil and China, are remote sensing instruments, producing images of the earth for studies in several areas, mainly the ones related to the sustainable exploitation of natural resources. The multispectral camera is the first of its gender fully projected and produced in Brazil and is of great importance for the brazilian space program. The success of the multispectral camera is intimately related to the good operation of the MUX-GSE, therefore, the necessity of reliable software to control these equipments and to accomplish the automatic tests. The software process is a structured set composed of development model, activities, methods, tools and practices, that can assure the necessary quality to a software product. The definition of this process is the first step in the execution of a complex project. The objective of this work is to implement a process that allows the construction of the MUX-GSE\'s software in short term, by a small team and with the required reliability level. The proposed solution, detailed in the text, is based on agile methods, which define simple practices, but that allow to assimilate changes in any development stage. The implementation of this methodology provided means to produce the necessary applications, in spite of several faced problems, without delays that could possibly prejudice the multispectral camera development schedule. This work shows that relatively simples techniques can be more appropriate than those traditionally applied in software engineering, even in complex projects, being the development team on charge of the analysis and decision of the most suitable development method. It also shows that the employed technique can reach, or even surpass, the software reliability achieved through traditional methods.

This research is examining one of the most dominant managerial methods used in development in the video game industry, Agile development. More particularly, the thesis examines a certain attribute of Agile development, that of iteration. The thesis will set to examine how iteration affects several layers of development during the production of a video game and whether it can be replaced by other managerial technics.As a result, the purpose of this thesis is to raise a different viewpoint against the Agile’s iteration. Furthermore, this thesis aims to contribute to the academic research by concentrating on the video game industry, an industry that is often neglected by the academia.The theoretical framework and literature review concentrate on concepts of Agile development, overworking, development cycle in video games, definitions of project success and project failures and creative process in video game development.The thesis deploys qualitative methodology to address and research its data. The collected data belongs to two categories, data stemming from interviews conducted by the thesis’s author and data stemming from journalistic magazines.The results of both type of data are compared and act supplementary to each other, then they are analyzed to answer the research questions asked by this thesis. The results showcase that iteration has negative effects to video game developers in both a macroscale (company’s resources, annual revenue) and in a microscale (overworking, health issues) level. The results also highlight that Agile is an all-time favorite development methodology of developers in the video game industry.In conclusion, the thesis supports the notion that iteration should be suppressed and proposes a number of solutions for that matter. The suggestions are essentially encouragement towards developers: to seek higher interactivity with customers throughout the duration of all the development stages of a video game, to show more trust to established gameplay mechanics and to place more reliance on a franchise’s profit power and benefits. These measures can be used in a preventive manner in order to limit the appearance of iteration and as a result, to limit its’ negative effects.

<p>Osnovni cilj istraživanja predstavlja ispitivanje procesa uvođenja agilnih metoda u preduzeća. Tradicionalne organizacije uvode agilne metode u poslovanje i cilj istraživanja je bio istraživanje situacionih faktora koji utiču na uvođenje agilnih metoda u preduzeće, tranzicija organizacionih uloga u tom procesu, identifikovanje alata i tehnika koji podstiču uvođenje agilnih metoda u agilne timove i definisanje okvira za uvođenje agilnih metoda. Predstavljeni okvir je dobijen kroz istraživanje sprovedeno u tri preduzeća i pruža odgovor na osnovni cilj istraživanja &ndash; definisanje procesa, aktivnosti i pomoćnog alata za uvođenja agilnih metoda koji je identifikovan kao primer najbolje prakse u industriji.</p> / <p>The main objective of this study was to investigate agile method adoption in enterprises. Traditional organizations integrate agile methods in their business processes and specific research objectives were to identify: situational factors influencing the agile adoption process, transition of organizational roles, tools and techniques used to integrate agile methods in teams and to define framework for agile method adoption process. The proposed framework is obtained through the research conducted in three organisations and it provides a result to main research objective, which was designed to offer processes, activities and guidelines for agile method adoption process, designed based on best practice identified in the industry.</p>

Thesis (DPhil (Informatics))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Increasingly, organisations in South African and across the world rely on software for various reasons, such as competitiveness and sustainability. The software are either developed in-house or purchased from the shelf. Irrespective of how the software was acquired, they do encounter challenges, from implementation to support, and use stages. The challenges sometimes hinder and are prohibitive to processes and activities that the software is intended to enable and support. Majority of the challenges that are encountered with software are attributed to the fact that they were not tested or appropriately tested before implementation. Some of the challenges has been costly to many organisations, particularly in South Africa. As a result, some organisations have been lacking in their efforts toward growth, competitiveness and sustainability. The challenges manifest from the fact that there are no testing tools and methods that can be easily customised for an organisation’s purposes. As a result, some organisations adopt more tools and methods for the same testing purposes, which has not solved the problem, as the challenges continue among South Africa organisations. Based on the challenges as stated above, this study was undertaken. The aim was to develop a decision support system framework, which can be used for software testing by any organisation, owing to its flexibility for customisation. The interpretivist and inductive approaches were employed. The qualitative methods and the case study design approach were applied. Three South African organisations, a private, public and small to medium enterprise (SME) were used as cases in this study. A set of criteria was used to select the organisations. The analysis of the data was guided by two sociotechnical theories, actor network theory (ANT) and diffusion of innovation (DOI). The theories were complementarily applied because of their different focuses. The actor network theory focuses on actors, which are both human and non-human, heterogeneity of networks, and the relationship between the actors within networks. This includes the interactions that happen at different moments as translated within the heterogeneous networks. Thus, ANT was employed to examine and gain better understanding of the factors that influence software testing in organisations. The DOI focuses on how new (fresh) ideas are diffused in an environment, with particular focus on innovation decision process, which constitute five stages: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. Findings from the data analysis of the three cases were further interpreted. Based on the interpretation, a decision support system framework was developed. The framework is intended to be of interest to software developers, software project managers and other stakeholders, most importantly, to provide guide to software testers in their tasks of testing software. Thus, this research is intended to be of interest and benefit to organisations and academic through its theoretical, practical and methodological contribution as detailed in the chapter seven (conclusion). In conclusion, even though this research is rigorous, comprehensive and holistic, there are room for future studies. I would like to propose that future research should be in the areas of measurement of software testing. Also, sociotechnical theories like structuration theory and technology acceptance model should be considered in the analysis of such studies.

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Many software organisations using iterative software development approach use practices that relate to quality management. However, the quality management process has been inadequate. Despite many research studies conducted on quality management in iterative software product development none have adequately addressed the challenges and mitigation techniques to have an adequate process that leads to a quality software product. The objective of this study was to determine factors that affect the quality management process in iterative software development. The research followed a qualitative approach, a case of software organisation SasTech in Cape Town, South Africa. 22 interviews were conducted on three roles actively involved in the software product development process. These are product management, quality assurance and software developers. Themes were drawn from results and were tabulated. The duality of technology theory was used as a theoretical lens to data analysis. Several factors were identified to influence the software quality management process. These include planning, documentation, process ownership, technologies, testing, timelines and management support. Through the general proposed framework, facilities (human resources and technologies), interpretive schemes (architecture) and norms (practices) of software quality management can be institutionalised leading to adequate and effective quality management in iterative development for SasTech as well as other organisations in the same industry.

Organizações desenvolvedoras de software enfrentam hoje em dia o desafio de atuar concomitantemente em projetos que exigem tanto a prática de Metodologias Tradicionais quanto a de Metodologias Ágeis, metodologias de desenvolvimento de software com características opostas e conflitantes. Para atender a essa demanda as empresas têm adotado a Ambidestria Organizacional no desenvolvimento de softwares, criando estruturas organizacionais, processos e equipes capacitadas para atuar com ambas as metodologias de forma simultânea. Vários modelos podem ser adotados para a criação da Ambidestria Organizacional, mas pouco se sabe sobre como cada um deles surge e se desenvolve nas empresas. Nesta pesquisa objetivou-se conhecer um dos aspectos que podem influenciar a seleção do modelo de Ambidestria: as barreiras que uma organização pode enfrentar ao introduzir uma Metodologia Ágil em ambiente que já pratica alguma modalidade de Metodologia Tradicional. Através de dados secundários e do método de Estudo de Casos foi possível evidenciar a influência de algumas dessas barreiras no tipo de ambidestria escolhido pelas empresas, concluindo ainda que os impactos das barreiras de introdução de uma metodologia ágil podem ser muito diferentes quando comparamos sua ocorrência entre empresas desenvolvedoras de software para uso próprio e empresas desenvolvedoras de software sob encomenda, influenciando-as de modo diferente na escolha do modelo para a criação da Ambidestria Organizacional. Os resultados obtidos e as conclusões presentes neste estudo estabelecem, portanto, importante contribuição para pesquisas futuras, evidenciando que estudos sobre a Ambidestria Organizacional no campo do desenvolvimento de software devem ser realizados levando-se em consideração os diferentes perfis de empresa e as relações dessas empresas com seus clientes de projeto. / Software development organizations face nowadays challenges in conducting simultaneous projects, applying at the same time both Traditional and Agile Methodologies, software development processes with opposite and conflicting characteristics. In order respond to this challenges this companies adopt Organizational Ambidexterity in software development, creating organizational structures, processes and teams able to deal with both practices simultaneously. Different models exist for creating Organizational Ambidexterity, but there is a lack of knowledge about how each of these models emerge and grow at the companies. In this research we focused in understanding just one of the topics that influences the selection of the ambidexterity model: the barriers companies faces adopting Agile Methodologies on an environment where Traditional Methodologies are in use. Through secondary data analysis and Case Study methodology it was possible to reveal evidences of the influences that some of these barriers puts over the ambidexterity model selection, also concluding that barriers in agile methodologies introduction may be different when comparing their effects over on-demand software development companies and companies which develop software for their own use, influencing both their choices of ambidexterity model in different ways. The results and conclusions we present in this work, bring important contributions for future research, showing that future Organizational Ambidexterity in software development needs to attempt to different companies profile and their relationship with the projects customer.

A potential solution to producing quality software in an acceptable time frame may be found by using the newer, innovative methods, such as collaborative software development. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the individual developer characteristics, developmental settings, collaborative methods and the processes during development that impact collaborative programming performance and satisfaction outcomes. Understanding individual differences in performance in the collaborative development setting is important, since it may help us understand how the collaborative setting may raise the lowest level of performance to much higher levels, as well as how to select individuals for collaborative development. Exploring the impact of the virtual setting on collaborative development processes is important as it may help us improve performance outcomes in different work settings. Investigating how adaptations of pair programming impact collaborative processes may assist in implementing changes to the method that enhance quality and individual satisfaction. A multi-phase methodology is used, consisting of an intensive process study (Study 1) and two laboratory experiments (Studies 2 and 3). Study 1 illustrates that collaborative programming (pair programming) outcomes are moderated by both individual developer differences and the processes used during development. While cognitive ability and years of IT experience are important factors in performance, the impacts of conflict and the faithful appropriation of the method are highlighted. Distributed cognition is used as a theoretical foundation for explaining higher performance. Study 2 findings suggest that while collaborative programming is possible in a virtual setting, performance is negatively impacted. Face-to-face programmers have significantly higher levels of task performance, as well as satisfaction with the method, when compared to virtual programmers. Study 3 results suggests that the use of structured problem solving (preparing test cases before writing code) may be a key factor in producing higher quality code, while collaboration may be indusive to higher levels of developer satisfaction.By understanding how, why and when collaborative programming techniques produce better performance outcomes and what factors contribute to that success, we add to the body of knowledge on methodologies in the MIS domain.

This study defines the systems development methodologies named agile methods and investigates the environmental conditions where agile methods are most suitable. A definition of agile methods was developed using an analytical comparativeframework to investigate five of the earliest published agile methods; Dynamic SystemsDevelopment Method, Extreme Programming, Scrum, Adaptive Software Development,and Crystal Methods. The framework decomposed each method into its componentparts; philosophy, models, techniques, tools, scope, outputs, practice, and the extent towhich the method may be adapted to a situation. Based on this analysis and a literaturereview, a theoretical model of the target environment for agile methods was developed.This theoretical model is a proposed set of organisation, people, project, technology,and domain factors that relate to the successful use of an agile method.A mixed method research methodology was used. A qualitative design, consisting ofpositivist case studies, was used to test the theoretical model. Data was gathered fromnine software development projects, both agile and non-agile, using questionnaires andinterviews of project leaders. Then cross-case analysis was carried out on each projectfactor in the theoretical model. The relationship between environmental factors andagile method usage was investigated using non-parametric quantitative data analysis.This led to a revised model of the target environment for agile methods. The empiricaldata showed that specific organisational culture factors correlate with effective use of anagile method. These include the organisational characteristics of feedback and learning,teamwork, empowerment of people, collaboration, leadership, loyalty, and a resultsorientedculture that values entrepreneurship, innovation and risk taking.This research is significant for method users, those carrying out empirical research into agile methods, and those carrying out studies of systems development methodologies.

There has been unprecedented growth in wireless technologies in recent years; wireless devices such as cellular telephones and wireless local area network (WLAN) transceivers are becoming ubiquitous. It is now common for a single hardware device, such as a cellular telephone, to be capable of multi-band operation. Implementing a dedicated radio frequency (RF) front-end for each frequency band increases the component count and therefore the cost of the device. Consequently, there is now a requirement to design RF and microwave circuits that can be reconfigured to operate at different frequency bands, as opposed to switching between several fixed-frequency circuits. Barium strontium titanate (BST) thin films show great promise for application in reconfigurable microwave circuits. The material has a high dielectric constant which can be controlled by the application of a quasi-static electric field, combined with relatively low losses at microwave frequencies. Tunable microwave components based on BST-thin films have the potential to replace several fixed components, thereby achieving useful size and cost reductions. This thesis is concerned with the growth and microwave circuit applications of BST thin films on c- and r-plane sapphire substrates. Sapphire is an ideal substrate for microwave integrated circuit fabrication due to its low cost and low loss. Electronically tunable capacitors (varactors) were fabricated by patterning interdigital electrode structures on top of the BST films. High capacitance tunabilities of 56% and 64% were achieved for the films grown on c-plane and r-plane sapphire, respectively, at 40 V bias. A novel electronically tunable 3 dB quadrature hybrid circuit was also developed. Prototypes of this circuit were initially implemented using commercial varactor diodes, in order to validate the design. An integrated version of the coupler was then fabricated using BST varactors on c-plane sapphire. The results achieved demonstrate the potential of sapphire-based BST thin films in practical microwave circuits.