The master thesis deals with proposal of project management implementation with software support in the company Aponia Software, s.r.o., which developes navigation software for mobile devices. The methodology of project management is used.

Då mjukvaruutveckling består av testning av mjukvara innebär det attmjukvarutestning ökar i takt med ny mjukvara. En typ av mjukvarutestning ärregressionstestning som innebär testning av befintlig mjukvara i syfte att säkerställaatt mjukvaran fungerar som planerat efter att ny funktionalitet tillkommer. Agilautvecklingsprocesser blir alltmer populära, dock är det brist på generell forskning sombetraktar regressionstestning ur en agil synvinkel. Denna studie ämnar undersöka hur agila mjukvaruutvecklingsteam arbetar medregressionstestning. Syftet med studien var att bidra med teoretisk kunskap kringregressionstestning ur agil kontext. För att genomföra undersökningen tillämpades enkvalitativ ansats med semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Tre testare och tre utvecklare frånett mjukvaruutvecklingsföretag intervjuades. Tematisk analys applicerades sedan tillstudiens resultat. Resultatet indikerar på att testare utgår ifrån sin domänkunskap samt kommunikationför att välja ut och avgöra omfattningen av testfall. Kommunikationen består avfunktionaliteten som tillkommer, förändringar som utvecklare har utvecklat men sominte var en del av den ursprungliga uppgiften samt potentiella riskområden.Mjukvaruutvecklare förlitar sig på befintliga tester för att säkerställa att nyfunktionalitet inte påverkar det befintliga systemet. Det innebär att för varje nyfunktionalitet som tillkommer behöver utvecklare säkerställa att tillräcklig kod täcksav relevanta enhets- och integrationstest. / Since software development consists of software testing the amount of softwaretesting increases in step with new software. One type of software testing is regressiontesting, which involves testing existing software in order to ensure that the softwareworks as planned after new functionality is added. Agile development processes arebecoming increasingly popular, however, there is a lack of general research thatconsiders regression testing from an agile point of view. This study aims to investigate how agile software development teams work withregression testing. The aim of the study was to contribute with theoretical knowledgeabout regression testing from an agile context. To carry out the survey, a qualitativeapproach was applied with semi-structured interviews. Three testers and threedevelopers from a software development company were interviewed. Thematicanalysis was applied to the results. The result indicates that testers rely on their domain knowledge and communicationto select and determine the scope of test cases. The communication consists of thefunctionality that is added, changes that developers have developed but were not partof the original task and potential risk areas. Software developers rely on existing teststo ensure that new functionality does not affect the existing system. This means thatfor every new functionality that is added, developers need to ensure that sufficientcode is covered by relevant unit and integration tests.

We know that it is difficult to forecast the future, and the same applies to project management. There are a lot of occurrences that are both predictable and not possible throughout the course of a project. The management of uncertainty is a management method that helps to forecast and adjust to future occurrences. In this context, frameworks and tools have been created to help project managers genuinely understand a project's potential.  The study was conducted as a case study at Rimaster Development in Söderhamn and aimed at discovering sources of uncertainty within their project development that affect project performance. The study is built on both quantitative and qualitative data gathering from a workshop, survey, meetings, and interviews from ten different projects of Rimaster. The study had five respondents who contributed with two projects, each of which they had been a part of previously, one classified as uncertain and one as more certain.  The data were analyzed with the statistics tool SPSS, where variables were computed based on the empirical findings in the uncertainty survey. The result was then presented through uncertainty attribute matrices to identify how each project performed in relation to customer satisfaction as well as time plan and budget. Here, dependent variables were tested, such as if the uncertainty score (the higher value, the more uncertain is the project) influenced project performance. From the data, two categories of projects could be developed: Higher performing projects and lower performing projects. To this, significant analysis of the performance groups was performed to find parameters that were significantly different between the categories. To capture more data to the thesis, each project was then evaluated through an individual project analysis which consisted of analyzing the data from the survey more closely for each project. The findings from this were then supported with qualitative interviews.  The findings in the study suggest that there is a relationship between project uncertainty and lower-performing projects in relationship to time plan and budget. Further, sixteen uncertainty parameters showed to have a significant value in the comparison between higher and lower performing projects. Based upon the data and the analysis of the study, managerial recommendations have been provided to Rimaster on tools and development processes that may assist the organization's uncertainty management and increase their project performance. / Det är allmänt känt att det är omöjligt att tydligt förutsäga framtiden och detsamma gäller projektledning. Det finns många händelser som är både oförutsägbara och riskfyllda under ett projektets gång, där osäkerhetshanteringen är en hanteringsmetod som hjälper till att prognostisera och anpassa sig till framtida händelser. Tidigare forskning inom osäkerhetshantering har utvecklat ramar och verktyg för att hjälpa projektledare att verkligen förstå ett projekts potential.  Studien genomfördes som en fallstudie vid Rimaster Development i Söderhamn och syftade till att upptäcka källor till osäkerhet inom deras utvecklingsavdelning som påverkar projektets prestanda. Studien bygger på både kvantitativ och kvalitativ datainsamling från en workshop, enkätundersökning, möten och intervjuer från tio olika projekt från Rimaster. Studien enkätundersökning hade fem svarande som bidrog med två projekt som de tidigare hade varit en del av, ett klassificerat som osäkert och ett som mer säkert.  Data erhållen from enkäten analyserades med statistikverktyget SPSS där variabler beräknades baserat på empiriska resultat i osäkerhetsundersökningen. Resultatet presenterades sedan genom osäkerhetsattributmatriser för att identifiera hur varje projekt presterade i förhållande till kundnöjdhet samt tidsplan och budget. Här testades beroende variabler som om den osäkerhetspoängen varde projekt erhöll (ju högre värde, desto mer osäkert är projektet) hade en effekt på projektets prestanda. Från analysen kunde två kategorier av projekt utvecklas: projekt med högre prestanda och projekt med lägre prestanda. Utöver detta genomfördes en signifikansanalys av prestationsgrupperna för att hitta parametrar som var signifikanta olika mellan kategorierna. För att samla ytterliga data till avhandlingen utvärderades varje projekt genom en individuell projektanalys som bestod av att analysera data från undersökningen närmare för varje projekt. Resultaten från detta styrktes sedan med kvalitativa intervjuer.  Resultaten i studien antyder att det finns ett samband mellan projektosäkerhet och projekt med lägre resultat i förhållande till tidsplan och budget. Vidare visade sig sexton osäkerhetsparametrar ha ett signifikant värde i jämförelsen mellan projekt med högre och lägre resultat. Baserat på analyseringen av den data studien samlat in så har rekommendationer överlämnats till Rimaster om verktyg och utvecklingsprocesser som kan hjälpa organisationens osäkerhetshantering och därmed öka deras projektprestanda.

This thesis explores the consequences of neglect and lack of proper support and implementation in maintenance management models, specifically an old implementation of the Pm3 model. The area of study is not widely explored, with studies and evaluation of the specific model we have looked at being almost non-existent. We have conducted a qualitative case study at an IT department/company at a Swedish university and the data has been collected through interviews with different IT department leaders, as well as one interview with a representative with the company that owns and distributes the Pm3 model. The current software development methodology at the IT company studied in this thesis are agile methods but is locked down to a micro level, while the Pm3 model handles the macro level. The consequences of this are then compared against research within fields such as IT governance and IT/business alignment to find discrepancies from which the phenomena’s can be explained. With this thesis we want to explore the consequences of not maintaining maintenance management models in organizations, especially the Pm3 model as this is widely in Swedish institutions such as universities and government authorities. This thesis provides a word of caution and argue for the importance of maintenance in maintenance management models for such organizations.

Requirements are features or attributes which we discover at the initial stage of building a product. Requirements describe the system functionality that satisfies customer needs. An incomplete and inconsistent requirement of the project leads to exceeding cost or devastating the project. So there should be a process for obtaining sufficient, accurate and refining requirements such a process is known as requirement elicitation. Software requirement elicitation process is regarded as one of the most important parts of software development. During this stage it is decided precisely what should be built. There are many requirements elicitation techniques however selecting the appropriate technique according to the nature of the project is important for the successful development of the project. Traditional software development and agile approaches to requirements elicitation are suitable in their own context. With agile approaches a high-level, low formal form of requirement specification is produced and the team is fully prepared to respond unavoidable changes in these requirements. On the other hand in traditional approach project could be done more satisfactory with a plan driven well documented specification. Agile processes introduced their most broadly applicable technique with user stories to express the requirements of the project. A user story is a simple and short written description of desired functionality from the perspective of user or owner. User stories play an effective role on all time constrained projects and a good way to introducing a bit of agility to the projects. Personas can be used to fill the gap of user stories.

There are several critical success factors suggested for why agile software development projects succeed, including organisational and process factors. Although there are an increasing number of identified critical success factors, IT professionals lack the modelling techniques and the theoretical framework to help them meaningfully understand their influences. To solve this problem, this study developed a model by employing the following theories: Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to create a fit model for agile software development projects. The research sought to answer the question: What are the critical success factors that influence the success of agile software development projects? The literature review considers the continued failure of agile and traditional software development projects which have led to the consideration of, and dispute over, critical success factors — the aspects most vital to a methodology’s success. Though TRA, TPB and UTAUT have previously been applied to agile methodologies, empirical models have not been completely integrated to develop a fit model. This research sought to fill this gap. Data was collected in South Africa through a web-based survey using structured questionnaires and an interview guide. Face-to-face interviews were done to identify the critical success factors in agile projects. The data was captured and analysed for descriptive statistics, convergent and discriminant validity, composite and internal reliability, and correlation in order to inform the structural equation modelling (SEM). SEM was used to test the research model and hypotheses to answer the research questions. The results informed development of a comprehensive model that could provide guidelines to the agile community. The study contributes towards understanding the critical success factors for agile projects. It examined direct, indirect and moderating effects, and the findings contribute towards developing a framework to be used by agile professionals. These key result shows that organisational factors have a great influence on performance expectancy characteristics. To ensure success of agile projects, managers are advised to focus on the effect of the organisation’s environment, culture and policies on performance and effort expectancy. / School of Computing / Ph. D. (Computer Science)

Although there is a growing influence of psychology and human resources in modern management, this area is being often neglected in theory and particularly in praxis of project management. This area offers a big potential for improvement of performance of project teams and increase of teamwork efficiency. Therefore this thesis is focused on human factor in project management and the opportunity for using psychology, especially the theory of motivation and teamwork. There were set more main goals of thesis they can be split in two groups. In the first group there are research goals aimed on teamwork in project teams managed by agile or traditional methods, establishment of project teams, characteristics of projects suitable for agile approach and implementation of agile methods in a company. The proposal of solution of identified problem areas belongs to the second group of goals. According to the research results agile project teams are closer to psychological concept of team, whilst traditional project teams are closer to work groups. Therefore agile project teams have better potential for being more efficient and performing higher than the project teams managed by traditional methods. Another finding in this thesis is regarding setting up the project teams and their daily work. Although agile methods seem to be more efficient from the teamwork perspective, they don't offer general solution for all problems in project management and their usage is not necessary suitable for all kinds of projects and company environment. That's why the characteristics of appropriate projects for being managed by agile methods were also investigated. Successful implementation and application of agile methods is strongly influenced by company environment and other factors that were identified in theoretical part of the thesis and subsequently verified by the research. The thesis brings a lot of verified information regarding work in project teams and emphasizes the significance of management, motivation and development of project teams. For identified problem areas with significant potential for improvement were prepared two solution proposals included in final parts of the thesis. The first solution is a model for implementation of project methodology in a company; the second one is a model aimed on project team performance increase. Both proposed solutions offers specific tools and techniques ready for application in company environment.

Submitted by Milena Rubi (milenarubi@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-19T11:30:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Choma_Joelma_2015.pdf: 93651349 bytes, checksum: 4f1e422a507384b78e63a797fc7488f8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi (milenarubi@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-19T11:31:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Choma_Joelma_2015.pdf: 93651349 bytes, checksum: 4f1e422a507384b78e63a797fc7488f8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi (milenarubi@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-19T11:31:20Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Choma_Joelma_2015.pdf: 93651349 bytes, checksum: 4f1e422a507384b78e63a797fc7488f8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-19T11:31:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Choma_Joelma_2015.pdf: 93651349 bytes, checksum: 4f1e422a507384b78e63a797fc7488f8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-10 / Não recebi financiamento / Agile development principles ensure that continuous attention to technical excellence combined with a good design contributes to increased agility ensuring products with higher quality. Usability is one of the quality attributes, and is related to making the experience enjoyable user through an efficient and intuitive interface design. Agile methods are committed to deliver valuable software to the satisfaction of the customer. At times, they deliver only the utility, without covering aspects of usability. Design solutions providing greater usability and more appropriate to the users’ context is the main concern of the Interaction Design (IxD). The IxD is based on user-centered design, which takes into account the users needs and wants, aiming to promote interaction more enjoyable experience. In recent years, the attention in integrating user-centered design practices into agile methodologies has increased. However, a very limited number of contributions have addressed the integration into a broader level, gathering practices and providing guidance to the organization of work within a software development roadmap. This dissertation presents an approach to integrate user interaction design into Scrum process through activities and artifacts. In the first stage of the study, a literature study was performed to determine possible strategies for integrating IxD into Scrum process. Furthermore, an action research approach was applied to define and evaluate the artifacts that would support the ScrumUX integration approach, closely with the professionals in the software development industry. In the second stage, an experimental study was carried out to evaluate the proposed ScrumUX integration compared to traditional Scrum approach. The experiment was carried out in an academic context, in which nineteen students divided into five teams worked in software development projects, in the ERP systems domain. Statistical tests confirmed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups, noting that the teams who used the ScrumUX approach produced software with better degree of usability in the task support perspective, considering ERP systems’ users opinion. / Princípios do desenvolvimento ágil asseguram que a atenção contínua á excelência técnica aliada á um bom design contribui para o aumento de agilidade garantindo produtos com maior qualidade. A usabilidade é um dos atributos da qualidade, e está relacionada com tornar a experiência do usuário agradável por meio de um design de interface eficiente e intuitivo. Métodos ágeis estão comprometidos em satisfazer os clientes entregando software de valor. Mas, por vezes, acabam entregando somente a utilidade, sem cobrir os aspectos de usabilidade. Projetar soluções com maior usabilidade e mais apropriadas ao contexto dos usuários é a principal preocupação do Design de Interação (DxI). O DxI fundamenta-se no design centrado no usuário, que leva em conta as necessidades e desejos dos usuários para promover a mais agradável experiência de interação. O interesse em integrar práticas de design centrado no usuário com metodologias ágeis tem aumentado nos últimos anos. Contudo, um número bem limitado de contribuições têm abordado a integração em um nível mais abrangente, reunindo práticas e fornecendo orientações para a organização do trabalho dentro de um roteiro de desenvolvimento de software. Esta dissertação apresenta uma abordagem para integrar o Design de Interação do usuário ao processo Scrum por meio de atividades e artefatos. Na primeira etapa do estudo, realizou-se um estudo bibliográfico para verificar as possíveis estratégias para a integração do DxI com o processo Scrum, e em paralelo uma abordagem de pesquisa-ação foi aplicada, junto á profissionais da indústria de desenvolvimento de software, para definir e avaliar os artefatos que dariam suporte á abordagem de integração ScrumUX. Na segunda etapa, um estudo experimental foi conduzido com objetivo de avaliar a proposta de integração ScrumUX em relação ao Scrum tradicional. O experimento foi realizado em contexto acadêmico, onde dezenove alunos divididos em cinco equipes atuaram em projetos de desenvolvimento de software no domínio de sistemas ERP. Os testes estatísticos confirmaram uma diferença significativa entre os grupos experimentais e de controle, apontando que as equipes que utilizaram a abordagem ScrumUX produziram softwares com melhor grau de usabilidade na perspectiva de suporte á tarefas, considerando o ponto de vista de usuários de sistemas ERP.

Manufacturing firms are realising the customer value and competitive edge that can be captured through digitalisation. Manufacturing firms are therefore striving to integrate digital technologies on the existing product range to create an ecosystem of connected products to create, monitor and manage the aftermarket product services. The integration introduces multiple conflicting innovation regimes into the organisation namely product innovation and digital innovation regime. This changes the way traditional manufacturing companies work with dynamics business models and dynamic market conditions requiring a new approach to maintaining customer relationships, rethinking the organizational structure and product developmental processes. The current study focuses on the product development challenges to which the manufacturing companies are exposed while developing connected products. Physical development processes are characterised by physical materiality, long lead times, upfront planning, early binding following a linear development framework while digital innovation is characterised by digital materiality, shorter lead time, multiple launches, late bindings which follows an iterative agile model of development. The contrasting characteristics create challenges for executing physical-digital product development projects. A Swedish manufacturing company is considered as a case study company and 19 process challenges are identified and reported in the current study through interviews with 26 stakeholders from diverse functions along with secondary data observations from project interaction meetings. These challenges are prioritised and group into five overarching challenges which are lack of integrated development process, coordination issues, integration issues, knowledge gap and resources issues. Three external companies are interviewed to compare challenges in the physical-digital product development process and identify process and practices adopted by the companies to mitigate those challenges. Based on the insights from the literature study, interviews from the case company and external companies, six recommendations were proposed. The recommendations include defining clear roles and responsibilities, creating a TRL chart for connectivity, strengthen front-loading activities, developing connectivity integrated NPD process, creating a flexible framework for functions to coordinate and develop connectivity integrated testing process. / Allt fler tillverkningsföretag inser det ökade kundvärdet och konkurrenskraften som digitalisering kan medföra. Tillverkningsföretag strävar därför efter att integrera digital teknik i det befintliga produktsortimentet för att skapa ett ekosystem av digitalt uppkopplade produkter för att utforma, övervaka och hantera produkter och tjänster på marknaden. Integrationen kan skapa konflikter mellan företagets innovationsregimer i organisationen, såsom produktinnovation och digital innovationsregim. För att kunna upprätthålla kundrelationer samt omstrukturera organisationen och produktutvecklings-processerna krävs en ny strategi, eftersom integrationen förändrar hur traditionella tillverkningsföretag arbetar med dynamiska affärsmodeller och dynamiska marknadsförhållanden. Denna studie fokuserar på de utmaningar i produktutveckling somn tillverkningsföretag möter i utvecklandet av uppkopplade produkter. Utvecklingsprocesser för fysiska produkter kännetecknas av långa ledtider, planering i förväg samt tidiga beslut utifrån ett linjärt utvecklingsramverk, medans digital innovation kännetecknas av kortare ledtider, flera lanseringar, och senare beslut som följer en iterativ, agil utvecklingsmodell. Skillnaderna i utvecklingen av digitala och fysiska produkter skapar utmaningar för att genomföra fysisktdigitala produkttvecklingsprojekt. En fallstudie utfördes på ett svenskt tillverkningsföretag där 19, olika processutmaningar identifieras och rapporteras i denna studie. Studien baseras på intervjuer med 26 intressenter från olika avdelningar, samt sekundära dataobservationer från projekmöten. Utmaningarna prioriteras och grupperas i fem övergripande problemområden; utmaningar avseende samordning, integration, kunskap, respektive resurser, samt avsaknad av en integrerad utvecklingsprocess. Tre externa företag intervjuas för att jämföra utmaningar i den fysiskt-digitala produktutvecklingsprocessen samt för att identifiera processer och metoder som företagen har använt för att hantera dessa utmaningar. Baserat på litteraturstudien, intervjuer från företaget och de externa företagen föreslås sex rekommendationer. Dessa inkluderar att definiera tydliga roller och ansvarsområden, skapa ett TRL-diagram för anslutningar, stärka front-loading-aktiviteter, utveckla en integrerad produktuvtvecklings process för uppkopplade produkter samt skapa ett flexibelt ramverk för funktioner för att samordna och utveckla en integrerad testprocess för uppkopplade produkter.