This report evaluates the team-structure of three software maintenance teams in order to decide their level of featureness (a term that defines to what extent a team has the quality (the set of characteristics) of being a feature team). Simulations of changes that are expressed as beneficial in an agile environment and that could increase the teams‘ level of featureness within the team structure are performed. The results show that each team‘s level of featureness is affected differently by each change. Partly, this underlines the importance of understanding the current team-structure before implementing changes that aim to increase the level of featureness. And secondly, within the scope of the study, the change where a user expert is declared a team member is concluded as the change that increases the teams‘ level of featureness the most. Based on the results the report also concludes that it is essential to implement changes that affect different, which in combination can increase the level of featureness.

Målet med detta arbete är att förbättra Spotifys processer när de gör förändringar internt som påverkar deras finansiella system. Arbetet har genomförts genom att kartlägga de team hos Spotify som skapar, påverkar och använder data i det finansiella systemet. Vidare har de olika teamens arbetssätt jämförts och skillnader i hur de arbetar identifierats. Baserat på de identifierade skillnaderna påvisas vilka utmaningar som finns när Spotify genomför förändringar där flera team är involverade. Kartläggningen visar att det finns både olika arbetssätt och grundinställning hos de olika teamen som skapar utmaningar i förändringsarbetet, speciellt i tvärfunktionella projekt. Slutsatser från resultatet presenteras i form av några olika förslag vilka kan hjälpa till att förbättra förändringsarbetet vid tvärfunktionella projekt hos Spotify. Skapa en koordinatorroll som fungerar som en gemensam kontakt för alla ärenden som genererar förändringar i det finansiella systemet. Genom den nya rollen tydliggör man informationsflödet. Skapa ett nytt team som ansvarar för alla förändringar som påverkar det finansiella systemet. Ett nytt team minskar beroenden mellan de olika teamen. Använda sig av tvärfunktionella projektledare som får dedikerade resurser att driva projekt där flera team är inblandade. Projektledaren kan då äga och ta ansvar för hela processen. Förändra så att alla inblandade team mäts på värdeskapandet för hela kedjan istället för att bedömas när de levererat sin del. Anordna en kortare workshop (1-5 dagar) med deltagare från de team som behöver interagera med varandra vid en förändring. Det blir ett effektivt sätt att minimera ledtiden mellan teamen. Skapa serviceavtal mellan de olika teamen, så att varje team effektivare kan planera sina resurser och veta vilka förutsättningar som gäller. / The objective of this thesis is to help Spotify to improve their internal change management process in their financial system. The work was done by charting the internal teams that create, influence and use data in the company’s financial system. Furthermore, the working methods of the different teams were compared and differences in how they work were identified. Our findings show that there are both different working processes and attitudes between the teams. This creates challenges in the change management process, especially in cross-functional projects. Conclusions from the results are presented as suggestions. These may help to improve the change management process in cross-functional projects at Spotify: Implement a coordinator role, which works as a single point of contact for everything that is related to changes in the financial system. The new role helps to improve the distribution of information. Create a new team that is responsible for all changes that affect the financial system. A new team reduces dependencies betweenthe different teams. Introduce cross-functional project managers who receive dedicated resources to implement projects where multiple teams are involved. The project manager can then take full responsibility for the entire process. Make sure the effectiveness/productivity of all involved teams is measured by the value created for the whole value chain rather than when their respective part has been delivered. Have a workshop (1-5 days) in which participants from the teams that needs to integrate components work together. This will be an effective way to minimize the waiting time between the teams. Create a service level agreement between the different teams, so that each team can efficiently plan their resources and know what to expect from other teams.

The needs of the consumer are drastically changing with increased awareness, technology, and innovation. Information technology services are no longer part of the support function but a full-scale solution; the increased demand for personalized, real-time, and hassle-free services has burdened software solution providing companies. Over the last decade, Agile project management has gained popularity among various industries and specifically in the Information Technology industry and is often considered a silver bullet to solve different software project management challenges. Agile project management revolutionized the way software projects are developed and organized. However, organizations find it challenging to implement agile principles as the process requires an organization-wide cultural and social transformation. Managers face several barriers when they try to bring agile approaches in traditional organizations regarding technology, mindset, practices. It’s not adequate to just start learning and implementing new ways of working. The transition process needs parallel or equally salient activities of dealing with challenges on the organization and team level. This study provides insights for software organizations willing to undergo an agile transition that needs an initial understanding of various challenges, which can be a potential pitfall in the transition process.

Background: The rapidly changing world of digital technologies forces many companies to undertake a digital shift by transforming existing business models into digital business models to achieve sustainable value creation and value capture. Especially, for established companies, that have been successful leaders before the dot-com bubble (1995-2000) and whose business models have been threatened by the emergence of digital technologies, there is a need for a digital shift. We refer to this digitization of business models as digital business model innovation. However, often adoption and implementation of digital technologies require tremendous changes and thus, can be challenging for established companies. Therefore, agile methods and business experimentation have become important strategic elements and are used to generate and test novel business models in a fast manner. We introduce lean startup as an agile method for digital business model innovation, which has proven to be successful in digital entrepreneurship. Thus, it requires further empirical investigation on how to use lean startup in established companies for successful digital business model innovation. Purpose: The purpose of our study is to identify enablers and barriers of lean startup as a tool for digital BMI in established companies. Thus, we propose a framework showing how established companies can be successful in digital business model innovation by using lean startup. Method: We conducted exploratory, qualitative research based on grounded theory following an abductive approach. Using a non-probability, purposive sampling strategy, we gathered our empirical data through ten semi-structured interviews with experts in lean startup and digital business model innovation, working in or with established companies, shifting their business model towards a digital business model. By using grounded analysis, we gained an in-depth understanding of how lean startup is used in practice as well as occurring barriers and enablers for established companies. Conclusion: We emphasize that successful use of lean startup for digital business model innovation is based on an effective (1) lean startup management, appropriate (2) organizational structures, fitting (3) culture, and dedicated (4) corporate governance, which all require and are based on solid (5) methodical competence of the entire organization. Furthermore, (6) external influences such as market conditions, role of competition, or governance rules indirectly affect using lean startup as a tool for digital business model innovation.

La industria del sector de restaurantes ha venido siendo una de las de mayor crecimiento en el Perú, incrementando también de forma continua la oferta y la competencia. Las estrategias diseñadas en el sector han estado basadas principalmente en la calidad del servicio, ofertas y productos; pero los procesos detrás de estas estrategias han resultado muchas veces operativamente ineficientes, afectando directamente los márgenes del negocio; algo que ha sido observado por cada una de las empresas activas. Durante los últimos años, y sobre todo en el 2020 debido a la coyuntura presentada por el COVID-19, esta industria también se ha visto afectada por la ralentización de la economía y paralización de los mercados, evidenciando las falencias operativas y resaltando los sobrecostos, acentuando aún más la necesidad de crear economías de escala como parte de sus estrategias. Con el objetivo de optimizar costos, los restaurantes han encontrado un aliado en la transformación digital de sus procesos, incrementando de forma natural el número de proyectos de tecnología requeridos, exigiendo mejores resultados y una gestión mas eficiente, lo cual ha generado diversas oportunidades de mejora en la ejecución, sobrecostos de la gestión y procesos que conviven de forma no estandarizada. El presente trabajo de investigación propone el diseño e implementación de una oficina de gestión de valor, alineada con los valores de la organización, basada en el uso de prácticas agiles y lean para la gestión de proyectos de tecnología, con procesos definidos y la generación de valor como prioridad. / The restaurant sector industry has been one of the fastest growing in Peru, leading to the continuous increase of the offer and competition. This sector's designed strategies have been based mainly on service quality, offers, and products, but the processes behind these strategies have often been operationally inefficient, directly affecting business margins, something that the active companies have perceived. Lately, especially in 2020, due to the COVID-19 situation, this industry has also been affected by the slowdown in the economy and the paralysis of the markets; showing the operational shortcomings and highlighting cost overruns, furthermore, accentuating the need to create economies of scale as part of their strategies. To optimize costs, restaurants have found an ally in the digital transformation of their processes, increasing the number of required technology projects naturally, demanding better results and more efficient management, which has generated various improvement opportunities in the execution, cost management, and processes that coexist in a non-standardized way. This research work proposes the design and implementation of a value management office aligned with the organization's values, based on the use of agile and lean practices for the management of technology projects, with defined processes and the generation of value as a priority. / Trabajo de investigación

PC-Dart is a software that the Swedish Armed Forces use to communicate when active on the field. They are limited to using the program only on Windows operating system, and their devices are not suitable for challenging contexts. It is not convenient for the army to bring impractical devices to the field, and it requires the soldiers to bring sleds of batteries and charging equipment with them. This thesis explores the possibilities of recreating the graphical user interface onto other platforms such as Android and Linux. It helps to increase the mobility on the field for the troops of the Swedish Armed Forces, which also means that there is not any restrictions by using their program on one platform. The development of the program required a pilot study on what available cross-platform frameworks to use in terms of developing an application that works on multiple platforms. Together with a relevant framework and a custom user-centered agile work process, this thesis strives to create an application that is cross-platform and with a graphical user interface that old users of the previous program can relate to. The project results show that a graphical user interface can be developed with a cross-platform framework while working in a user-centered agile process. However, it also shows that it can be a lot of work for one person, negatively affecting the process.

Background: Effort estimation is one of the cornerstones in project management with the purpose of creating efficient planning and the ability to keep budgets. Despite the extensive research done within this area, one of the biggest and most complex problems in project management within software development is still considered to be the estimation process. Objectives: The main objectives of this thesis were threefold: i) firstly to define the characteristics for a large project, ii) secondly to identify factors causing inaccurate effort estimates and iii) lastly to understand how the identified factors impact the effort estimation process, all of this within the context of large-scale agile software development and from the perspective of a project team.Methods: To fulfill the purpose of this thesis, an exploratory case study was executed. The data collection consisted of archival research, questionnaire, and interviews. The data analysis was partly conducted using the statistical software toolStata.Results: The definition of a large project is from a project team’s perspective based on high complexity and a large scope of requirements. The following identified factors were identified to affect the estimation process in large projects: deficient requirements, changes in scope, complexity, impact in multiple areas, coordination, and required expertise, and the findings indicate that these are affecting estimation accuracy negatively. Conclusions: The conclusion of this study is that besides the identified factors affecting the estimation process there are many different aspects that can directly or indirectly contribute to inaccurate effort estimates, categorized as requirements, complexity, coordination, input and estimation process, management, and usage of estimates.

The video game industry has gone through a dramatic change over the last few decades, yetseveral reports show that there are currently many challenges that developers face in their dailywork. A major challenge includes difficulties of getting projects to close within set time andresource restraints. This is something that indicates a connection to the management methodsbeing used, among which Agile management is a popular framework that many turn to. Thisthesis searches for connections between challenges in video game development and the usage ofagile methods like Scrum and Kanban. For this, a qualitative research strategy was used in orderto look into the experiences of video game developers. Five semi-structured interviews with atotal of eleven respondents were conducted. As a complement, a quantitative web-based surveywas made where 23 people participated. The results of this study show that challengespreviously defined within the video game industry, including feature creep, crunch periods anda stressful work pace can also be identified in the industry in southern Sweden to some extent.Underlying patterns indicate the industrial culture as an explanation for an incorrectimplementation of agile methods, which could eventually lead to issues surrounding riskmanagement in projects.

Inadequate software development collaboration processes can allow technical debt to accumulate increasing future maintenance costs and the chance of system failures. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore collaboration strategies software development leaders use to reduce the amount of technical debt created by software developers. The study population was software development leaders experienced with collaboration and technical debt at a large health care provider in the state of California. The data collection process included interviews with 8 software development leaders and reviewing 19 organizational documents relating to software development methods. The extended technology acceptance model was used as the conceptual framework to better understand the social and cognitive influences on the perceived usefulness of collaboration in reducing technical debt. An inductive analysis of the data was used for coding, triangulation, and identifying themes related to the use of collaboration strategies to reduce technical debt. Prominent themes included using collaboration at all stages of development, using continuous verification processes, promoting a participatory culture, and using tools to support distributed teams. The study findings showed an environment that promotes collaboration, a culture that encourages participation, and accessibility to collaborative tools that may reduce technical debt in software projects. The results of this study may contribute to positive social change by demonstrating how individuals with diverse backgrounds and different perspectives can work together to improve critical software that people depend on every day.

Project managers can be change agents providing direction and motivation for subordinates to meet and exceed goals; however, there is a lack of information about the soft skills needed to achieve project success. Understanding the relationship between cognitive style and transformational leadership to software project outcomes is important. This study describes the lived experiences of software project managers by focusing on their attitudes towards, perceptions of, and behaviors related to using transformational leadership and cognitive styles in agile software development environments. Husserlian phenomenological design was used to identify the structure of participants' experiences. The naturalistic decision-making model and the theory of constraints were a framework for the study. Software project managers identified as transformational leaders were selected from government agencies and commercial companies. Prior to being interviewed, individuals completed the Cognitive Style Indicator. In-depth, semistructured interviews and member checking were used for data collection. Qualitative, phenomenological analysis was used to code the interview data and identify thematic response categories. Results indicated that transformational leaders possessing a planning or creating cognitive style stimulate an environment with an uplifting work atmosphere in which team members are fulfilled and product development outcomes are successful. The implications for positive social change include broadening project managers' leadership and decision making regarding overall project success and leading executives to reexamine the leadership and decision-making styles of their managers resulting in their organizations' prosperity, employee effectiveness, and cost containment.