Pair programming is a programming technique in which two programmers sit literally side by side working on the same task at the same computer. One member of a pair called “driver” is in charge of writing the code. The other member plays a role of “navigator”, working on the more strategic tasks, such as looking for tactical error, thinking about overall structure, and finding better alternatives. Pair programming is claimed to improve product quality, reduce defects, and shorten time to market. On the other hand, it has been criticized on cost efficiency. To increase a body of evidence regarding the real benefits of pair programming, this thesis investigates its effect on software defects and efficiency of defect correction. The analysis bases on 14-month data of project artifacts and developers' activities collected from a large Italian manufacturing company. The team of 16 developers adopts a customized version of extreme programming and practices pair programming on a daily basis. We investigate sources of defects and defect correction activities of approximately 8% of defects discovered during that time, and enhancement activities of approximately 9% of new requirements. Then we analyze whether there exists an effect of pair programming on defect rate, duration and effort of defect correction, and precision of localizing defects. The result shows that pair programming reduces the introduction of new defects when the code needs to be modified for defect corrections and enhancements.

In the software industry a number of different software processes has been used throughout the years to address known problems with software development, despite their intention complains has been raised that some of these are too bureaucratic. The Agile Alliance was formed in 2001 and aimed to solve this problem, they developed a manifesto and twelve principles which are supported by all Agile software processes. The purpose with the manifesto and its principles is to uncover better ways of developing software and these are by many intercessors of Agile seen as common sense and not completely new ideas. The aim with this master thesis is to answer the question if companies that explicitly claim that they do not use any Agile software process are already applying some of these ideas since they are thought of as obvious and common sense. The comparison in this thesis is performed between the project lifecycles used in specific projects by five non-Agile software companies and four identified lifecycle characteristics and two more general characteristics of the Agile software processes Extreme Programming (XP) and Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM). The result from the analysis of these interviews has shown that it is very difficult to decide if a software company really is working as described by XP or DSDM, this is due to that many different factors affect the final outcome. For example type of project and is the software company using different software processes for different kinds of projects. Since we just covered specific projects we were only able to conclude with absolute certainty actions that really were performed in just these projects. The project lifecycles of these software companies had some similarities with the above mentioned Agile software processes, but as a whole the analysis showed that they are quite different due to that two very important characteristics according to us, namely iterative development and frequent releases, were not applied by any of the software companies and that their project phases differed tremendously compared to XP and DSDM. Our common sense hypothesis for Agile software development was shown in this investigation to be incorrect since important activities were not performed by any of the software companies. Instead of using an iterative approach with frequent releases they all followed sequential waterfall like software processes.

Context: Over the past few years, Global Software Development (GSD) has emerged as an evolving trend in the software industry. The reasons behind this evolution are globalization, economic benefits, time to market, organizational and strategic location, access to skilled labor and reduction of costs. But despite its benefits, GSD also has challenges associated with communication, coordination and control. The challenges are mainly due to temporal, geographical and socio-cultural distances. Due to flexibility, and emphasis on frequent communication in agile methods, researchers have shown interest in incorporating agile methods in GSD. Extreme Programming (XP) is one of the most widely known agile methodologies that values simplicity, communication, courage and feedback. In this research study, we have investigated the suitability of XP in GSD by exploring its benefits and challenges in the state of art and state of practice. Objectives: This study aims at investigating the benefits and challenges associated with the combination of XP and GSD both in the research literature and in practice. The study also explores practices or solutions adopted in order to address the challenges of XP-GSD combination. Moreover, this study compares challenges of XP-GSD combination with the traditional GSD challenges. Methods: This research study has been accomplished with the help of a systematic literature review (SLR) and an industrial survey. For the systematic review, the snowballing approach was applied, and an initial set of papers was selected from IEEE Xplore and Google Scholar. After selecting the initial set of papers, backward snowballing was conducted by searching the reference list of the selected articles. Then, forward snowballing was conducted by looking for the citations of the selected articles. After completing the systematic review, the industrial survey was conducted to complement the findings of the literature review. The data collected from both SLR and survey was analyzed both separately and collectively. Results: Through SLR, we have identified 21 benefits, 17 challenges, and 18 solutions to the identified challenges. The benefits and challenges have been classified according to communication, coordination and control in correspondence with temporal, socio-cultural and geographical distance. From the survey, we have identified 19 benefits, 20 challenges, and 17 solutions to the identified challenges. However, 13 benefits, 9 challenges, and 8 solutions were in common. The majority of challenges found in both literature review and survey were however traditional GSD challenges. Conclusions: The scarcity of research literature in the area suggests that more work needs to be done to successfully implement XP in GSD projects. The benefits and challenges extracted from literature and industry suggest that the application of XP can be beneficial for GSD since the majority of the reported challenges are traditional GSD challenges. Nevertheless, application of XP practices can alleviate these challenges. Based on the results, we conclude that XP can be successfully adopted in GSD projects.

Since last four to five years the buzz of continuous growing of agile development has been spread all around the world, specially Extreme Programming as the most important methodology of this kind. From the other side, ISO 9001:2000-TickIT Guide 5.0 has been established mainly in Europe as one of the well-known Quality Management Systems, in order to create a continuous software process improvement throughout software organizations that is mainly related to a certi¯cation process. This thesis is developed to mainly answer the question of how Extreme Programming and the standard ISO 9001:2000 with its interpretation for software development as TickIT Guide 5.0 can be used together, in order to have a continuous software process improvement with the agility to respond quickly to environment changes and satisfy the customer needs and expectations.

Mobile tourism service applications can be developed and successfully deployed with the rapid developments in mobile phones, communication technologies and tourism. In many situations, when travelers visit a country for a special event or just as travelers, it is obvious that they want to utilize the time and resources efficiently to enjoy the events and visit many places as possible. To achieve this, a traveler needs variety of information to make decisions and travel plans. Traditionally, this means purchasing tour guide books about a county or a city that refer them. At the same time, the 29th Olympic game is coming to the oldest civilized country China in 2008. The goal of our mobile service is to provide needed tourist information of the host country as well as event specific information. In the case of traveling for a special event, it is crucial to be informed about the last minute changes in the schedules. Our implementation tries to address these issues as much as possible.

Agile software development methods are often advertised as a contrast to the traditional, plan-driven approach to software development. The reported and argued benefits on software quality, coordination, productivity and other areas are numerous. The base of empirical evidence to the claimed effects is however thin, and more empirical studies on the effects of agile software development methods in different contexts are needed, especially in large-scale, industrial settings. The purpose of the thesis was to study the impact of using agile principles and practices in large-scale software development projects at Ericsson and it was carried out as a multiple-case study of two projects. One of the projects had implemented a limited number of agile software development practices and was largely plan-driven, while the other project had fully adapted its organization and product design for agile software development. Propositions of possible effects of the use of agile principles and practices in the two projects were generated by a literature review. Empirical data was then collected from online surveys of project members, internal documents, personal contact with key project members and a collection of metrics, to study the presence of the proposed effects. The study was focused on eight different areas: internal software documentation, knowledge sharing, project visibility, pressure and stress, productivity, software quality and project success rate. Agile principles and practices were found to: Lead to a more balanced use of internal software documentation, when supported by sound documentation policies. Contribute to knowledge sharing. Increase project members’ visibility of the status of other teams and the entire project. Increase coordination effectiveness and reducing the need for other types of coordination mechanisms. Increase productivity. Possibly increase software quality. Additionally, the study showed that internal software documentation is important also in agile software development projects, and cannot fully be replaced with face-to-face communication. Further, it was clear that it’s possible to make a partial implementation of agile principles and practices, and still receive a positive impact. Finally, the study showed that it’s feasible to implement agile principles and practices in large-scale software development. It therefore contributes to understanding the effects of agile software development in different contexts.

The emerging industrial trend towards agile software development processes brings forth new concerns, challenges as well as opportunities. One of the main concerns is with respect to the achievable quality levels of the final product, for which testing is the well-known assurance mechanism. However, it is not well defined for the community on how to perform testing using existing expertise in an agile environment. This uncertainty may create confusion and contra productivity that can lead to testing teams and their practices considered as an obstacle for full implementation of agile processes within an organisation.   This thesis outlines our current research activities towards identifying and addressing important organisational and technical challenges in the agile environment.  In this context, we propose a new role for traditional testers which will enable them to integrate into the agile team as well as to fully exploit their knowledge in the new context. We have conducted an elaborate industrial survey on the preferences and practices with respect to the contemporary aspects of software testing and identified test-driven development as an important technical area for improvement.  A systematic review on empirical evidences related to test-driven development was performed subsequently, which revealed a list of factors limiting its widespread industrial acceptance. Knowledge of testing was identified as one of those factors and was further investigated in a controlled experiment performed with undergraduate students.   Our future works aim to confirm these research findings in wider as well as industrial settings and investigate other limiting factors in detail, with the aim of providing guidelines for achieving better utilisation of testers and testing practices.

Litteratur inom systemutvecklingsområdet visar behov av nya snabbare systemutvecklingsmetoder. Orsaken är komplexiteten både i systemutvecklingsprojekten och i organisationer, där systemutveckling sker. Nu föredras små projekt, som omfattar färre än tio deltagare och genomförs på mindre än ett år. De traditionella systemutvecklingsmetoder anses vara lämpliga för stora projekt. Det finns nya systemutvecklingsmetoder, som får benämningen dynamiska metoder, för små projekt. I detta examensarbete studeras faktorer för två dynamiska metoder som gör dem lämpliga för små projekt. De två dynamiska metoderna som kommer att studeras är Extreme Programming och en specifik dokumenterad anpassning av RUP. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att studera metoddokumentationen för två dynamiska metoder för att reda ut i vilken utsträckning de passar för små projekt. Ett ytterligare syfte är att genom analys av andras erfarenheter om tillämpningar av de två metoderna redogöra för det som styrker argumenten om deras lämplighet för små projekt. För att besvara frågeställningen studerades litteratur och ett antal artiklar. Två telefonintervjuer genomfördes också för att besvara en av de två delfrågorna, som tillsammans utgör frågeställningen för denna studie. Resultatet visar att den specifikt dokumenterade anpassade RUP inte följer alla aspekter för små projekt. Däremot följer Extreme Programming alla de aspekterna.

In this thesis, we tried to solve those problems by adapting agile development methods with Non-functional requirements-framework (NFR-Framework). In this thesis, we have inspected many research papers, and we have met industrial experts for feedback regarding our theoretical results. As a result of the inspection, we have been able to adapt agile development methods (extreme programming (XP)) with NFR-framework. We use XP since it is more practically oriented process than other agile development methods. In the first try for this process model, we got three alternatives for applying it. The first one is based on collecting all NFRs from the beginning of the development process. The second one is based on updating the SIG (software interdependency graph) every time we have new functional requirements (FR) and the third one is based on the incremental nature of agile development methods. Each one of these alternatives has it is own advantages and disadvantages. We tried to extract those advantages and disadvantages by brainstorming and reading research papers. The most important issue in all of the three alternatives is the applicability. Finally we got industrial feedback regarding all of them. As a result of the industrial feedback, we were able to find another alternative of how to apply the process model which is presented in 7.2.

Le secteur public est un domaine en perpétuelle mutation, de par la pression économique actuelle mais aussi du fait des progrès technologiques constants. C'est en particulier le cas des collectivités territoriales, dans lesquelles les agents du secteur public sont soumis à de fortes pressions, notamment par la nécessité d'assurer un service de qualité aux usagers tout en minimisant les coûts engagés, mais également du fait de devoir développer de nouvelles compétences pour répondre à des exigences en évolution. Les projets actuels, impliquant de multiples technologies et le besoin de travailler en synergie avec les acteurs territoriaux, sont devenus primordiaux pour la gestion des chaînes logistiques du secteur public. Le domaine du génie industriel a développé diverses méthodes pouvant répondre à ces nouveaux besoins. Ces méthodes englobent différentes théories et pratiques allant du progrès permanent à la gestion de la chaîne logistique jusqu’à la gestion de la relation client. Ces pratiques visent avant tout à améliorer la coordination et l'intégration de toutes les activités nécessaires à l'élaboration d’un produit ou un service. L’apparition de nouvelles démarches, telles que la Smart City, légitime la mise en pratique de méthodes industrielles pour la gestion de services répondant à l’intérêt général d’un territoire. Dès lors, l'objectif de ce travail a été de transposer aux collectivités territoriales des méthodes issues du génie industriel, en s’appuyant sur la démarche de la Smart City, afin de permettre une synergie entre les partenaires, tout en augmentant la productivité de l’organisation dans la fourniture de services publics plus performants.