An agile approach is most often used in software development but has been applied in other areas such as manufacturing and project management as well. Within literature, there are only a few studies that investigate the use of an agile approach for authoring educational content. This study explores how an agile approach could facilitate rapid and collaborative authoring of educational content. This qualitative study utilised a multiple case study strategy. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. The insight gained from this study indicated that the agile approach that emerged was a valuable lens through which to explore rapid and collaborative authoring of educational content. The study also revealed that community building among those participating in the authoring process is fundamental to the success of an agile approach. Further insights include offering training and support to the participants of the authoring sprints regarding an agile process, the applications utilised and imminent change. An agile approach in education emerged from the study and could be an alternative to traditional content authoring approaches for educational content. Finally, the study revealed the need for a comprehensive software package that included file sharing, instant messaging, task management, screen sharing and conferencing capabilities alongside the authoring software. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

The goal of this work is to analyze the problems of implementation of agile methods and to map it's positive and negative consequences. The first chapter briefly describes the history and sources of the given group of project development methodologies, including comparison of agile, waterfall and lean methods. In the second chapter, there is information about principles of agile methods, their structure and some concrete methods. The last part of the second chapter aims at the significance of agile methods and their use. The third chapter explores the studies of the given topic in Czech environment as well as outside of it. The practical part of thesis is based on the literature review and it presents the qualitative research of three companies as well as the analysis of the results. Information that was acquired during the semi-structured interviews and results of the literature research were used as the base for recommendations suggested in the conclusion of this work. Keywords: agile methods, project management, qualitative research

Background Lean and agile approaches to product development impose a paradigm shift in the way organizations are structured, lead, affect the core culture of the firms that use them. As more and more organizations attempt the move from traditional to lean-agile ways of working a large number of challenges and success factors from these transitions are reported in the scientific literature. Many of these challenges can be mitigated, and the success factors boosted, by the traditional line-manager. Objectives The objective of this study is to provide an empirically grounded theory of what managers can and should do in order to ease the transition to lean-agile ways of developing products and services. Methods This study uses constructivist grounded theory in order to obtain an empirically based theory for how managers ease the transition. This is achieved by combining the results from an online survey, a series of interviews, and field observations. The collected data is then analyzed, categorized and continuously tested against new data, resulting in an emergent theory that can be put into the context of the available scientific literature. Results This thesis presents the results from a yearlong study of a Swedish organization in the middle of transitioning from a traditional plan-driven to a scaled lean-agile approach to product development. The resulting theory states that managers can greatly ease the transition by being the manager teachers for their organizations and committedly leading the way in adopting the lean-agile values, principles and methods, in a value-based manner – making sure the new ways are adapted to fit the context of the company and its goals as an organization. Conclusions The conclusion of the study is that not only are managers needed in organizations adopting lean-agile values, principles and methods, they are central to a successful adoption. However, when not being knowledgeable of lean-agile, not staying committed, and not engaging with the teams and practitioners the managers may on the contrary end up costing the company the opportunities offered by the new approach to product development. The resulting theory is grounded both in empirical data and the scientific literature.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka teammedlemmars upplevelser om beslutsfattandet i agila projekt. En kvalitativ undersökning med semistrukturerade intervjufrågor genomfördes för att besvara frågeställningarna: Hur upplevs det att ta beslut i agila team? och Vad krävs för att fatta bra beslut?   Undersökningen grundar sig på åtta respondenters upplevelser och berättelser. Resultatet visar att teammedlemmar i agila projekt uppskattar friheten att fatta beslut, men att det råder vissa utmaningar där stöd efterfrågas. Även att teammedlemmarnas olikheter främst påverkar beslutsfattandet positivt. Resultatet visar även att bra beslut bygger på starkt samarbete med god kommunikation och tillit. Vidare framkom det att trots det gemensamma beslutsfattandet påverkar faktorer som erfarenhet, status och karaktär vem det är som tar eller påverkar beslut mer än andra. Slutsatsen är att den psykologiska tryggheten är en viktig faktor för beslutsfattande i agila projekt. / The purpose of the study is to examine how team members perceive decision making in agile projects. A qualitative survey with semi-structured interview questions was conducted to answer the questions: How does it feel to make decisions in agile teams? and What is required to make good decisions? The survey is based on eight respondents' experiences and stories. The study's findings suggest that team members in agile projects appreciate the freedom of decision-making, but that there are some challenges where support is requested. Also that team members' differences primarily have a positive influence on decision-making. The result also shows that good decisions are based on strong cooperation with good communication and trust. Furthermore, it was found that despite the joint decision-making, factors such as experience, status and character influence who it is that makes or influences decisions more than others. The conclusion is that psychological safety is an important factor for decision making in agile projects.

Due to fast-paced technological disruptions and diversifying users, user experience (UX) professionals are experiencing a flood of new UX methods and a need for continuous learning. Literature has shown that with a lack of understanding, UX practice research has designed too abstract UX methods making them hard to understand and to apply. With a thematic analysis of an interview with 13 UX professionals, this study presents results on how UX professionals choose UX methods and insights into their lifelong learning. The results from the thematic analysis agree that UX methods are hard to integrate into Agile, too complicated, take too much time to learn, and colleagues have shown to be an essential component for learning. These findings indicate that UX methods might work better if they are designed less complicated and deliver results quicker following the design of Scrum. Also, companies could use novel ideas to ease the access to users and to learn, e.g., lunch lectures.

While conventional approaches of managing organizations have been considered to be outdated, Organizational Agility has been acclaimed for its prowess to cope with today's increasingly volatile and dynamic environment. Yet the predominant focus has been directed towards how agility is achieved, while its retention as organizations grow has to a great extent been unexplored. Through a qualitative case study of a renowned organization for its unorthodox approach, this study aims to contribute with an extension to the current scope of organizational agility by stretching beyond the focus on mere transformations in an attempt to understand in what ways organizational agility is retained as they grow. The findings of this study challenge the common conceptions found within literature suggesting that changes in the external environment are what drives organization’s to be agile in order to sustain its competitiveness. Organizational agility has thus primarily been considered to be constituted by dynamic adaptations in accordance to forces of the external environment. In contrast, this study finds that the retention of organizational agility during growth is an evolutionary process that is internally driven by placing indispensable value on the employees and by focusing on the organization itself, its desire and community. Retaining organizational agility is thus something that grows “from the inside and out”.

This thesis follows concept of integration ITIL library and agile methodology Scrum into the IT company developing IT services. After theoretical analysis of both concepts and analysis of chosen company, we will develope methodology, which will tie both process approaches and ensure their perfect synergy. As a methodology support, web application was developed. It evaluates effectivness of processes using key informations and their plot representation. Proposed methodology was presented in the AVG Technologies, which used described processes as template for its internal proceses. Main result of the thesis is set of templates describing processes, which could be specified and applied in companies using Scrum together with ITIL for their development.

Den här kandidatuppsatsen har genomförts ute på Volvo Car’s provbana Hällered Proving Grounds, uppsatsen har som utgångspunkt att studera ett teams aktiviteter och identifiera flaskhalsar. Av resultaten ska författarna komma med återkoppling på förbättringsarbeten för teamet. Metoden för studien har varit en direktanalys där teamets aktiviteter har observerats när de utförts på plats. Eftersom teamet inte arbetar med en traditionell typ av produktflöde har en kombination av tidsstudie och värdeflödesanalys arbetats fram med hjälp av ansvariga inom teamet. Den totalt observerade tiden bestod av ca 20 arbetsdagar. Av den totala observerade tiden bestod ca 25% av värdeskapande aktiviteter. Ca 28% av icke värdeskapande men nödvändiga aktiviteter orsakat av HPG-teamet. Ca 22% icke värdeskapande aktiviteter orsakat av HPG-teamet. Samt ca 24% icke värdeskapande aktiviteter orsakat av provbeställare. Tiden för nödvändiga men icke värdeskapande aktiviteter orsakat av provbeställaren var nästintill oväsentlig. Den mest utstickande flaskhalsen som anträffades gemensamt mellan HPG-teamet och provbeställaren var problemen med den tekniska utrustningen. Slutsatsen av examensarbetet är att det finns många förbättringsområden att jobba med. De området som ger möjlighet till tydligast förbättring är det förbyggande underhållsarbetet som krävs för att den tekniska utrustningen inte ska agera som en flaskhals i flödet. / This bachelor’s thesis has been carried out on Volvo Car's test track Hällered Proving Grounds. The thesis is based on studying a team's activities and identifying bottlenecks. From the results, the authors will provide feedback on improvement work for the team. The method of the study has been a direct analysis where the team's activities have been observed when carried out on site. As the team does not work with a traditional type of product flow, a combination of time study and value flow analysis has been developed with the help of the team leaders. The total observed time consisted of about 20 working days. Of the total observed time, approximately 25% consisted of value-added activities. About 28% of non-value-added but necessary activities caused by the HPG team. About 22% non-value-added activities caused by the HPG team. As well as about 24% non-value-added activities caused by sample commissioners. The time required for necessary but non-value-added activities by the sample client was almost immaterial. The most protruding bottleneck that was found in common between the HPG team and the test taker was the problems with the technical equipment. The conclusion of the thesis is that there are many areas for improvement to work with. The areas that provide the opportunity for clearest improvement are the preventive maintenance work required for the technical equipment not to act as a bottleneck in the flow.

This paper describes the way start-ups use Project Management, what their needs in this field are, and what tools they use to support it. In the first part of this paper, a comprehensive literature review is performed, divided into three main parts. First, Project Management in general is studied; second its benefits to SMEs are pinpointed; and finally its application to startups are reviewed. The second part of this paper is based on three case studies of start-ups in the Stockholm-region. Five representatives of these start-ups were interviewed, and the results of these face-to-face conversations are first exposed and then discussed by the author. In the end, this paper shows the traditional phase-based approach to Project Management does not suit start-ups. Instead, a more agile and iterative method is put forward, such as SCRUM. It is argued that such strategy should be kept by start-ups when growing and tapping other markets outside Sweden, although it is recognized that Project Management should become more formal than the general “on the go” approach witnessed in the three start-ups.

The security directives at Ericsson Group IT have recently been re-worked to apply to modern security requirements. For Ericsson's software development teams developing internal applications, security tools have been implemented into the daily workflow to follow these new directives. Before, security mainly was considered during the reviews and scheduled assessments of the software projects. The goal of these new tools is to add security to every part of the software development process. Security thus adds to the scope of work of the developers at Ericsson Group IT, which has, in the past, evolved from being solely a developer to being responsible for development and operations to development, security and operations. However, adding methods and tools to the developer's workflow can create inertia and friction in daily work. We intend to apply the concept of inertia to agile work practices to examine how small-scale projects are affected when new security tools and methods are introduced and implemented in the agile workflow. Research suggests that linked processes and methods should be put in place to achieve desirable results from the implemented tools and be integrated into the team's agile methodologies. The thesis aims to identify the factors that affect inertia by investigating and analysing the developers' use of methods and tools. As for data collection, a pilot study and a case study were applied to a team at Ericsson Group IT. The data was collected through qualitative surveys conducted on twelve proven factors regarding successfulness in work implementations. The data was then analysed through the Gioia methodology by compiling the collected data into first-order concepts and linking them to familiar second-order themes. These themes were then translated into aggregate dimensions synthesised from the study's theoretical framework. The results showed that several factors affected the change process: personnel training and education, appropriate communication, and adaptability to the change process. These are all factors attributing inertia to the change process, and awareness of these can help mitigate and facilitate a successful change process. Streamlining successful change processes is vital when integrating security as a requirement into an agile software development team.