For many years, most IT departments used the same software development methodology called waterfall. This methodology outlines distinct phases for project completion; each phase needing to be completed prior to the start of the next. The primary accounting standard for allocating costs for software development is written in the language of waterfall. Costs are either capitalized or expensed depending on the type of activity that was performed. IT departments have been moving toward a new group of software development methodologies called agile. These methodologies do not follow the phases of waterfall. This makes the current accounting standard for software development difficult to interpret and determine the appropriate transaction. This further hinders IT organizations attempts to better quantify business value of software projects. To examine this issue, a new construct called accounting clarity is introduced in this research. Accounting clarity is an agreement between IT and accounting regarding the treatment of software development costs. This study shows that it is essential for both IT and accounting to work together to determine a solution. The accounting clarity construct is developed from the “ilities” of software quality models and the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Level 3 key process area (KPA) of intergroup coordination. Intergroup coordination provides the concepts for accounting clarity as the two groups must coordinate to determine the appropriate accounting treatment. The “ilities” are characteristics that should be followed and measured throughout a software development project to ensure long term maintainability of software. This study proposes that accounting clarity should be one of the "ilities" in the software quality model. A portion of the study of accounting clarity examines the relationship between accounting clarity and project control, proposing a positive relationship between the two variables. Then the study examines factors that help to increase accounting clarity. These factors were derived from teamwork and coordination literature. To test the hypothesized relationships, a survey methodology was used. Individuals working on agile software development projects were participants in the survey. This study contributes to both the IT and accounting literature. The research provides a framework to examine other contexts in which the current accounting standards are unclear. As changes happen more frequently in business, this is more likely to occur on a frequent basis. The study has practical implication for software development as it highlights the importance of understanding the accounting implications prior to the project and continuously throughout the lifespan of the software. Adding accounting clarity to the “ilities” of software quality helps software development teams include this in project plans with any software development methodology.

This master thesis has been conducted at Uppsala University and was performed in collaboration with the company Alten Sverige AB during a time period of twenty weeks.The purpose of the study was to enhance the creative and innovational output of agile project teams within the organization by revising and improving an existing management system. The thesis was divided into two main phases. The first phase had a theoretical focus and included a literature study with the objective to create a knowledge baseline from academia, compare it with the existing system, and to revise and improve the management system. The second phase had an empirical and consisted of a quasi-experimental case study of a scrum team and implementation of the management system with the objective to get information of how the studied team perceived the improved system.The literature study looked into three main topics; creativity, innovation, and agility. The topics was studied to see the connections between them and to find common barriers and enablers for creative and innovational output. The case study observed and interacted with the scrum team to gather information about their current work process. Their work process later altered during the quasi-experimental implementation stage based on the new requirements within the updated management system. To see if the team’s perception of the work process had changed a questionnaire was answered before and after the work process was altered. The questionnaire was answered by the studied team and a reference group to increase the studies validity.The results from the literature study showed that there were several characteristics of creativity, innovation and agility that was considered to be either enablers or barriers and a few characteristics which saw contradictions in the literature. The findings from the study was compared, analyzed and mapped out into topics, sub-topics, and requirements within the management system, which was simultaneously updated. The results from the implementation stage and the documentation of the team’s changed perceptions showed that eleven characteristics identified as enabler was strengthened by the empirical findings, one enabler was weakened (deadlines), and one new enabler emerged (direct contact with external expertise or customer). Regarding the barriers, four of them was strengthened, one was weakened (diversity), and one new barrier was discovered (insufficient documentation).

A digitalização e a evolução tecnológica experimentadas em anos recentes têm promovido mudanças na forma como as organizações se estabelecem e desenvolvem seus modelos de negócios. São exigidos intervalos de respostas cada vez mais curtos, bem como flexibilidade e dinamismo. Algumas práticas têm emergido para auxiliar empreendedores atuantes neste novo cenário, em especial aos líderes de startups e projetos de base inovadora. O presente trabalho apresenta resultados de uma pesquisa que teve como objetivo de investigar de que forma o lean startup pode auxiliar novos empreendimentos baseados em inovação a validar seus modelos de negócio, quais os fatores críticos de sucesso para a sua implementação e qual o grau de adoção de suas práticas por startups tecnológicas na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre (RS). Para isto, o estudo foi dividido em três principais etapas. A primeira etapa consistiu em uma revisão sistemática da literatura a respeito da temática, com a identificação de estudos acerca do lean startup, customer development e gestão ágil. Foram identificados principais efeitos da implementação sobre as organizações e fatores críticos de sucesso para a execução A segunda e terceira etapas compreenderam estudos de caso múltiplos, com a identificação de práticas utilizadas por startups tecnológicas para a validação de elementos de modelos de negócio, e a coleta de percepções de líderes de startups de engenharia quanto ao lean startup e os principais obstáculos e facilitadores para a sua implementação. Entre os principais resultados, destacam-se os benefícios das práticas ágeis sobre a flexibilidade das organizações, bem como a redução de custos, se comparados à gestão baseada em planos de negócios. Deve-se ressaltar que os estudos de caso possuem limitações quanto à generalização, visto que podem não representar outras realidade. De toda a forma, o presente trabalho contribui para o preenchimento de parte de uma lacuna existente na literatura quanto à temática. / Digitization and technological evolution experienced in recent years has led to changes in the way organizations establish and develop their business models. Market demands quick responses as well as flexibility and dynamism. Some practices have emerged to assist entrepreneurs in this new scenario, especially leaders behind startups and innovation-based projects. This work presents results of a research that aimed at investigating how lean startup can support the validation of business models in innovation-based ventures, what are the critical success factors for its implementation, and whether the startups in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre (RS) are actually adopting the methodology. To achieve this objective, the study was divided into three main stages. The first stage consisted of a systematic literature review on the subject, with the identification of studies about lean startup, customer development and agile management. As main findings, we identified lean startup effects on organizations and critical success factors for its implementation. The second and third steps included multiple case studies, identifying the practices used by technological startups to validate business models elements, and the perceptions of leaders behind engineering startups regarding to lean startup, as well as main obstacles and facilitators for its implementation. Some results regard the benefits of agile practices on the flexibility of organizations, as well as the reduction of costs, when compared to plan-based management approaches. Case studies have limitations on generalization, since they may not represent other realities. In any case, the present work contributes to fill part of a literature gap on the subject.

A adoção de métodos ágeis é uma forma eficaz de reduzir o ciclo de entrega no desenvolvimento de software, fornecendo software de qualidade em curto espaço de tempo. Porém, a adoção desta nova abordagem de desenvolvimento de software torna necessário repensar a forma de medir e controlar os projetos. Os métodos ágeis não tratam claramente sobre os assuntos utilização de métricas e adoção de um processo de medição para projetos de softwares desta natureza, faltando estudos que tragam recomendações em como estabelecer métricas para projetos ágeis e como adotar um processo de medição compatível com esta abordagem. Visando contribuir neste sentido esta tese tem como objetivo definir um conjunto de métricas adequadas às necessidades de monitoramento e propor um processo de medição, compatível com a abordagem ágil de desenvolvimento de software. Como método de pesquisa foi realizado um trabalho exploratório através de revisão de literatura e de pesquisa de campo com entrevista em profundidade em empresas de desenvolvimento de software experientes em métodos ágeis. O primeiro resultado do trabalho é a apresentação de um conjunto de métricas consolidados para auxiliar na gestão de projetos ágeis de desenvolvimento de software nas fases de projeto/releases, iteração e diário. As métricas são especificadas detalhadamente contendo as informações necessárias para seu entendimento e aplicação. Posteriormente é proposto um processo de medição compatível com a abordagem ágil de desenvolvimento de software, visando apoiar as empresas que adotam métodos ágeis na definição de métricas adequadas para suas necessidades de medição e no monitoramento. O processo contempla as fases de planejamento de medição, monitoramento da iteração, ações da iteração, monitoramento do projeto/releases, ações sobre o projeto/releases e avaliação final, sendo que em cada fase do processo são apresentadas recomendações para a sua implantação. O processo está estruturado num ciclo de gestão baseado em etapas de planejar, executar, verificar, atuar, refletir e melhorar, respeitando as características dos projetos ágeis de desenvolvimento de software, e na proposição de um quadro visual de monitoramento que permita a gestão do processo de medição de forma visual. Além dos resultados apresentados foram deixadas hipoteses e recomendações para trabalhos futuros. / The adoption of agile methods is effective way to reduce the delivery cycle on software development, providing quality software in a short time. However, the adoption of this new approach to software development is necessary rethink how to measure and control projects. Agile methods not explain about adoption metrics and measurement process for software projects of this approach, lacking studies providing recommendations on how to establish metrics for agile projects and how to adopt a process measurement compatible with this approach. Contributing this thesis goal produce a set of metrics adequate monitoring needs and propose a measurement processcompatible with agile software development. Method of research was exploratory through literature review and field research with depth interviews in experienced software development companies in agile methods. The first result of this work is the presentation of a consolidated metrics set to help the management of agile development at the phases of project/releases, iteration and daily. The metrics are specified detailed containing the information necessary for their understanding and application. Later we propose a measurement process compatible with agile approach to software development, to support businesses that adopt agile methods in defining adequate metrics for your measurement needs and monitoring. The process include the steps of measurement planning, monitoring of the iteration, the iteration actions, monitoring project/releases, actions on the project/releases and final evaluation, in each stage of the process provides recommendations for implementation. The process is structured in a management cycle based on steps to plan, implement, check, act, reflect and improve, respecting the characteristics of agile software development projects and propose a visual tracking board that allows for the management of the measurement process. In addition to the results were allowed hypotheses and recommendations for future work.

abstract: Software engineering education today is a technologically advanced and rapidly evolving discipline. Being a discipline where students not only design but also build new technology, it is important that they receive a hands on learning experience in the form of project based courses. To maximize the learning benefit, students must conduct project-based learning activities in a consistent rhythm, or cadence. Project-based courses that are augmented with a system of frequent, formative feedback helps students constantly evaluate their progress and leads them away from a deadline driven approach to learning. One aspect of this research is focused on evaluating the use of a tool that tracks student activity as a means of providing frequent, formative feedback. This thesis measures the impact of the tool on student compliance to the learning process. A personalized dashboard with quasi real time visual reports and notifications are provided to undergraduate and graduate software engineering students. The impact of these visual reports on compliance is measured using the log traces of dashboard activity and a survey instrument given multiple times during the course. A second aspect of this research is the application of learning analytics to understand patterns of student compliance. This research employs unsupervised machine learning algorithms to identify unique patterns of student behavior observed in the context of a project-based course. Analyzing and labeling these unique patterns of behavior can help instructors understand typical student characteristics. Further, understanding these behavioral patterns can assist an instructor in making timely, targeted interventions. In this research, datasets comprising of student’s daily activity and graded scores from an under graduate software engineering course is utilized for the purpose of identifying unique patterns of student behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Engineering 2016

No description available.

A startup is a fledgling business designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. In the 21st century, startups have been growing significantly both in developed and developing countries. Since2014, startups are currently a new booming phenomenon in Indonesia. Nowadays, there are 1,716 registered startups that have been rapidly growing in Indonesia which also places the country in 4th place worldwide after theUnited States, India, and the United Kingdom. Startups in Indonesia were forecasted to grow significantly due to a strong macroeconomic outlook and favorable demographics. This research is a qualitative study to provide an academic literature for Indonesian startups, especially for agile software development. Regarding the high failure rate for startups, the purpose of this study is to explore the perceived success factors of Indonesian agile development startups. It also covers the adoption of implementing agile project management. This study was conducted through interviews from 20 participants within various IT-related startups in Indonesia. The implementation of agile methodologies has been broadly found in software development projects in Indonesian startups with Scrum as the common agile practice. Most of them have been using agile methods for less than a year. Contrarily, a minority of the participants refused to use agile methodologies and chose a traditional way, such as the waterfall method. It has been investigated that there are six perceived critical success factors that were found in implementing agile methodologies, as follows: project definition process, management commitment, project schedule, team environment, team capability, and delivery strategy. In addition, there is a positive correlation between those critical success factors with previous studies and startup characteristics.

Agile software development is gaining popularity, with many organizations across several industries migrating to agile methodologies. Employees are the assets of any organization and it is of utmost importance for the organization’s success to make the best use of available human resources. For this, measuring job performance through performance evaluation becomes crucial. This study aims at investigating the limitations of annual performance appraisal when applied to agile work set-up. When the shortcomings in the current appraisal process are identified, corrective measures for eliminating such gaps are listed out as an outcome of this research study with the aim of making the appraisal system more effective. Survey and interviews are primarily used for data collection. Several important observations are noted as a result of our study. The research findings briefly highlight the good aspects of current appraisal system in the agile work set-up. However, the main focus is to illustrate the limitations in annual performance appraisal with evidence. Consequently, proposals for a better appraisal system in agile work set-up are suggested. Some of them include: need for team performance evaluation, informal and less time-consuming appraisal process, timely and anonymous feedback from all stakeholders.

A qualidade dos sistemas de software é uma preocupação de todo bom projeto e muito tem se estudado para melhorar tanto a qualidade do produto final quanto do processo de desenvolvimento. Teste de Software é uma área de estudo que tem crescido significativamente nos últimos tempos, em especial a automação de testes que está cada vez mais em evidência devido à agilidade e qualidade que pode trazer para o desenvolvimento de sistemas de software. Os testes automatizados podem ser eficazes e de baixo custo de implementação e manutenção e funcionam como um bom mecanismo para controlar a qualidade de sistemas. No entanto, pouco conhecimento sobre a área e erros comuns na escrita e manutenção dos testes podem trazer dificuldades adicionais aos projetos de software. Testes automatizados de baixa qualidade não contribuem efetivamente com o controle de qualidade dos sistemas e ainda demandam muito tempo do desenvolvimento. Para evitar esses problemas, esta dissertação apresenta de forma crítica e sistemática as principais práticas, padrões e técnicas para guiar o processo da criação, manutenção e gerenciamento dos casos de testes automatizados. Inicialmente, são feitas comparações entre a automação de testes e outras práticas de controle e garantia de qualidade. Em seguida, são apresentados os problemas e soluções mais comuns durante a automação de testes, tais como questões relacionadas a tipos específicos de algoritmos, sistemas com persistência de dados, testes de interfaces de usuário e técnicas de desenvolvimento de software com testes automatizados. Para finalizar, a dissertação traz uma reflexão sobre o gerenciamento e a abordagem da automação de testes para tornar o processo mais produtivo e eficaz. / The quality of software systems is a concern of every good project and much has been studied to improve the quality of the final product and process development. Software Testing is an increasing area, especially test automation, which is in evidence due to the speed and quality that it may bring to the development of software systems. Automated tests can be effective and can have a low cost of implementation and maintenance to ensure and control the quality of the systems. However, little knowledge about the area and common errors in writing and maintaining tests may bring additional difficulties to the software projects. Low quality automated tests do not contribute effectively to quality control systems and still take a long time of development. To avoid these problems, we present critically and systematically the core practices, standards and techniques to guide the process of creation, maintenance and management of automated test cases. Initially, comparisons are made between the test automation, other control practices, and quality assurance. Next, we present the most common problems and solutions for the automation of tests, such as issues related to specific types of algorithms, systems with data persistence, testing user interfaces and techniques for software development with automated tests. Finally, this essay reflects on the management and approach to test automation to make the process more productive and effective.

A digitalização e a evolução tecnológica experimentadas em anos recentes têm promovido mudanças na forma como as organizações se estabelecem e desenvolvem seus modelos de negócios. São exigidos intervalos de respostas cada vez mais curtos, bem como flexibilidade e dinamismo. Algumas práticas têm emergido para auxiliar empreendedores atuantes neste novo cenário, em especial aos líderes de startups e projetos de base inovadora. O presente trabalho apresenta resultados de uma pesquisa que teve como objetivo de investigar de que forma o lean startup pode auxiliar novos empreendimentos baseados em inovação a validar seus modelos de negócio, quais os fatores críticos de sucesso para a sua implementação e qual o grau de adoção de suas práticas por startups tecnológicas na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre (RS). Para isto, o estudo foi dividido em três principais etapas. A primeira etapa consistiu em uma revisão sistemática da literatura a respeito da temática, com a identificação de estudos acerca do lean startup, customer development e gestão ágil. Foram identificados principais efeitos da implementação sobre as organizações e fatores críticos de sucesso para a execução A segunda e terceira etapas compreenderam estudos de caso múltiplos, com a identificação de práticas utilizadas por startups tecnológicas para a validação de elementos de modelos de negócio, e a coleta de percepções de líderes de startups de engenharia quanto ao lean startup e os principais obstáculos e facilitadores para a sua implementação. Entre os principais resultados, destacam-se os benefícios das práticas ágeis sobre a flexibilidade das organizações, bem como a redução de custos, se comparados à gestão baseada em planos de negócios. Deve-se ressaltar que os estudos de caso possuem limitações quanto à generalização, visto que podem não representar outras realidade. De toda a forma, o presente trabalho contribui para o preenchimento de parte de uma lacuna existente na literatura quanto à temática. / Digitization and technological evolution experienced in recent years has led to changes in the way organizations establish and develop their business models. Market demands quick responses as well as flexibility and dynamism. Some practices have emerged to assist entrepreneurs in this new scenario, especially leaders behind startups and innovation-based projects. This work presents results of a research that aimed at investigating how lean startup can support the validation of business models in innovation-based ventures, what are the critical success factors for its implementation, and whether the startups in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre (RS) are actually adopting the methodology. To achieve this objective, the study was divided into three main stages. The first stage consisted of a systematic literature review on the subject, with the identification of studies about lean startup, customer development and agile management. As main findings, we identified lean startup effects on organizations and critical success factors for its implementation. The second and third steps included multiple case studies, identifying the practices used by technological startups to validate business models elements, and the perceptions of leaders behind engineering startups regarding to lean startup, as well as main obstacles and facilitators for its implementation. Some results regard the benefits of agile practices on the flexibility of organizations, as well as the reduction of costs, when compared to plan-based management approaches. Case studies have limitations on generalization, since they may not represent other realities. In any case, the present work contributes to fill part of a literature gap on the subject.