Internal communication is an important factor in organisations today. For many system development teams it’s critical that the communication works well. Without communication, success would be impossible. This study aims to highlight the effect communication has on the members of agile project teams. The theoretical data is gathered from a literature study in the fields of relevance. The empirical data in this study is gathered from interviews and observations at three different companies, all working with agile development methods. The results from the interviews and observations presents that all respondents were affected by the internal communication in their work. Our analysis show a clear resemblance between the empirical data and the data gathered in our theoretical study. Our conclusion show that internal communication has an effect on the agile project teams. A factor that became very clear is that the project teams feel more effective because of the communication. But our conclusion also shows that the internal communication improved relations, work became more fun, and the atmosphere in the project teams got more familiar. Communication helped the project teams spread their knowledge between each other in the project teams. The communication also created a common language for the system developers which meant they could understand the requirements better and easier, which leads to more effective communication.

The work presented in this PhD thesis defines a new approach for the modeling and the conceptualization of enterprise business processes in the perspective of building intelligent assistance software tools to support these processes. The proposed approach defines an organizational ontology, named K-CRIO. Its description is based on the Ontology Web Language. To illustrate our work, an intelligent assistance system has been designed and implemented according to the result from the modeling and conceptualization of a specific business process with the K-CRIO Ontology. It is a web-based application that integrates and takes full advantage of multi-agent systems.The K-CRIO Ontology is an Ontology dedicated to the study of organizations and the analysis of business processes adopting an organizational point of view. Specifically, it is used to understand, analyze and reason about organizations and the processes they implement. The targeted organizations are those composed of entities involved throughout products' design and, to do so, following a defined business process. The range of this type of organizations is quite wide. We have thus limited our study to organizations that produce software as the final process goal, specifically IT enterprises delivering software products or services. In this context, the K-CRIO ontology could be used to model structure of the considered organizations and model human activities appearing in their business processes. This ontology could be used to support process assistance within the described organizations. More specifically, the ontology could provide means for reasoning, annotating resources, monitoring design processes, enabling searches and pro-actively proposing tips and proper content. In order to illustrate the usage of K-CRIO, we apply K-CRIO on two different processes: the Waterfall Model and the Scrum methodology. These examples are both classical software-development processes. Moreover, for Scrum, the famous agile software-development process widely used in software enterprises, we have designed and developed an intelligent assistance tool. This tool mainly helps Scrum Masters to make decision by monitoring Scrum project teams' activities within their various projects and collecting knowledge about these activities.

This is an ethnographic study of the creation of a particular type of standard enterprise software package: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which support wide-ranging organisational functions within large and medium sized enterprises. Drawing upon the Social Shaping of Technology perspective and recent related attempts to theorise the Biography of Artefacts, this thesis addresses the under-researched area of ERP system development and ERP system support. In providing a system vendor’s viewpoint, it seeks to overcome current shortcomings in social research, notably from Information Systems and Organisational Studies, which focus almost exclusively on a user organisation perspective. Mostly concentrating on the moment of implementation, existing studies do not help us to better understand the software producer’s viewpoint or to find explanations as to how ERP systems are produced and supported in such a way that they can meet the specific requirements of their highly diverse users (the current market leader SAP had over 12 million users (2008)). Overall, we have very limited understanding of what happens within software package laboratories and how such organisations organise their relationship with their wide and diverse user base throughout the different phases of the product life cycle. Addressing this gap in the social study of software packages, this research offers an ethnographical insider’s perspective of the day-to-day working practices within one of the world’s leading ERP system providers, encompassing both its development and support functions. Based on rich ethnographic data, the study demonstrates first, how a supplier manages its relationship with its diverse user base during the moment when the system re-enters the vendor’s circle of responsibility through the software packages support channel. The sophisticated and mature mechanisms and policies are highlighted, which allow the vendor - not without challenges – to accommodate competing exigencies of its user base at this moment of product life cycle. Second, this research highlights how the software development phase is organised, by empirically describing and analysing from a social viewpoint, the software development process during a period of organisational change, in which the vendor reorganises itself in search for a new way to respond to the expectations of the market. Third, the account reveals unexpected communitarian behaviour amongst software developers at all levels, demonstrating the social character of programming, a feature which has not been adequately recognised by current studies in this area. Fourth, overall, this study highlights the need for a change of the current research agenda in social software package research towards a vendor organisation’s perspective, if we aim for a more complete understanding of the social aspects such type of technology.

Over the years, organizations have seen fit to adopt the use of agile systems development methodologies (ASDMs) because of the benefits that they offer, such as flexibility and the ability to deliver products faster, in constantly changing environments. When ASDMs are used in projects, they are made to fit or be suitable for a project‟s unique aspects, such as its size, requirements, scope and outcomes. This is known as the contingent use of ASDMs. Little is known about the contingent use of ASDMs in South African organizations. It is not known whether it is happening, its procedure and its success. It is important to know this because quality and control need to be maintained in systems produced. There is always a danger that the benefits of using a system development methodology (SDM) would be lost if ASDMs are highly adapted. This led to an investigation of three organizations in South Africa that use contingent ASDMs. With the help of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and documents, data was collected that was analysed, using the tool ATLAS.ti, and the analysis methods content and cross-case analysis. It was found that some South African organizations in the telecommunications, consulting, technological, outsourcing and agricultural sectors use ASDMs in combination with the still popular waterfall SDM. Compatibility between the SDM and the project is a factor in some organizations. Scrum was cited to be the ASDM that was used in some of the organizations interviewed due to its maturity. They make ASDMs contingent by using aspects in the methods, such as Scrum, that are useful for their unique projects. These aspects are in some cases combined with other SDMs to form hybrid methodologies. Some organizations use criteria, such as project needs, outcomes, size and complexity to make ASDMs contingent. Some organizations have measures and facilities in place to manage, monitor, control and document the process used to make ASDMs contingent. They make use of contingent ASDMs as they have experienced more success with them and they will continue to do so. / Thesis (MCom (Computer Science & Information Systems))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Over the years, organizations have seen fit to adopt the use of agile systems development methodologies (ASDMs) because of the benefits that they offer, such as flexibility and the ability to deliver products faster, in constantly changing environments. When ASDMs are used in projects, they are made to fit or be suitable for a project‟s unique aspects, such as its size, requirements, scope and outcomes. This is known as the contingent use of ASDMs. Little is known about the contingent use of ASDMs in South African organizations. It is not known whether it is happening, its procedure and its success. It is important to know this because quality and control need to be maintained in systems produced. There is always a danger that the benefits of using a system development methodology (SDM) would be lost if ASDMs are highly adapted. This led to an investigation of three organizations in South Africa that use contingent ASDMs. With the help of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and documents, data was collected that was analysed, using the tool ATLAS.ti, and the analysis methods content and cross-case analysis. It was found that some South African organizations in the telecommunications, consulting, technological, outsourcing and agricultural sectors use ASDMs in combination with the still popular waterfall SDM. Compatibility between the SDM and the project is a factor in some organizations. Scrum was cited to be the ASDM that was used in some of the organizations interviewed due to its maturity. They make ASDMs contingent by using aspects in the methods, such as Scrum, that are useful for their unique projects. These aspects are in some cases combined with other SDMs to form hybrid methodologies. Some organizations use criteria, such as project needs, outcomes, size and complexity to make ASDMs contingent. Some organizations have measures and facilities in place to manage, monitor, control and document the process used to make ASDMs contingent. They make use of contingent ASDMs as they have experienced more success with them and they will continue to do so. / Thesis (MCom (Computer Science & Information Systems))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

This report represents a comparison between two different tools used to create an online store that was developed by two students at the Technical University in Jönköping. The web shop will be of great benefit to both customers and administrator in a food firm known as Mattias' Livs. The company wanted an online store that facilitates the sale section and gives a full control of their stocks. The aim of this thesis is to create an online store that offers customers the ability to shop online and help the staff to operate the company in a simpler and more efficient way, which reduces the need for human resources and thus leads to less costs for the company. The aim also includes a comparison between the two different tools used to create the online store. At the start of work, the authors discussed the problem with the client and finally came up with a set of requirements, which our work is based on. The report includes an introduction chapter, which is divided into two different sections. The first section describes the background and problem description. While second chapter describes the purpose of the thesis and the subjects that the students will respond at the end of the report. The study compares the two different tools, which is Microsoft Visual Studio and osCommerce. Visual Studio has been the market leader in Internet-based applications since 1997. While osCommerce is a newer tool that has gained significant market share. The two tools are examined through the creation of two websites built into each tool. The results of this study show that Microsoft Visual Studio is a more efficient alternative for creating a stable web applications, but the tool has also some usability problems due to programming complexity. OsCommerce is a simple tool that has some issues with the design customization, at the same time it has a usable interface for the administrator. The web shop was published online by installing the application on a host server which means the customers can order products online.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka huruvida det är mer eller mindre motiverande för anställda inom mjukvaruindustrin att jobba enligt agila utvecklingsmetoder än enligt traditionella utvecklingsmetoder. Undersökningen har gjorts med teoretisk utgångspunkt från motivationsskapande variabler ur de kontemporära motivationsteorierna Self Determination Theory samt Job Characteristic model. Som en ansats till att besvara frågeställningen har en kvalitativ fallstudie genomförts på företaget Kambi Sport Solutions AB. Kambi Sport Solutions AB har under de senaste åren genomfört en organisationsförändring där traditionella projektledningsmetoder ersatts av agila projektledningsmetoder. Studiens empiri visar med stöd ur motivationsteori att övergången till agila metoder signifikant påverkat individens motivation positivt. Framförallt som en följd av en högre grad av självbestämmande, kunskapsvariation, identitet i och betydelse av arbetsuppgiften, autonomi samt feedback.

Orientador: Fernando Bernardi de Souza / Banca: Jose de Souza Rodrigues / Banca: Robert Eduardo Cooper Ordoñez / Resumo: A Gestão de Projetos (GP) ganhou papel de destaque na viabilidade dos objetivos estratégicos das organizações. O desenvolvimento de produtos e serviços vem recebendo forte pressão do mercado, demandante de lançamentos frequentes e em prazos cada vez menores. Para atender estas novas exigências, a GP deve prover informações úteis para tomadas de decisões em ambientes de múltiplos e complexos projetos, sujeitos a relevantes incertezas e volatilidade. Considerando as oportunidades de melhoria das práticas da GP para lidar com este ambiente instável e ambíguo, o objetivo deste trabalho é propor, utilizando o método de Teoria Fundamentada em Dados (TFD), um framework que prescreva como aplicar de forma combinada dois métodos de GP: a Gestão de Projetos por Corrente Crítica (Critical Chain Project Management - CCPM) e o Scrum. Os resultados obtidos por este trabalho apontam que a integração destes métodos pode potencializar os benefícios e atenuar as fragilidades de cada uma delas em particular, e cujo uso articulado e coordenado pode permitir decisões mais efetivas em ambientes voláteis, incertos, complexos e ambíguos (VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) de múltiplos projetos. / Abstract: Project Management (PM) has gained a major role in the viability of the strategic objectives of organizations. The development of products and services has been under stronger market pressure, requesting frequent releases and in ever-shorter periods. To meet these new requirements, initiatives for maintaining PM as an information provider to make decisions in multiple and complex projects, exposed to relevant uncertainty and volatility, should be sought. Regarding the opportunities for improvement of PM practices to deal with this unstable and ambiguous environment, the objective of this work is to propose, using the Grounded Theory (GT) method, a framework that prescribes how to apply two GP methods in combination: the Critical Chain Project Management - CCPM and Scrum. The results of this work indicate that the integration of these methodologies can enhance the benefits and mitigate the weaknesses of each of them in particular. This hybrid model could permit a better articulation and coordination of the project tasks, allowing effective decisions in multiple project environments affected by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). / Mestre

Submitted by Emanuel Varela Cardoso (emanuel.varela@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-09-10T20:31:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MIRKO BARBOSA PERKUSICH – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC) 2018.pdf: 3631770 bytes, checksum: 855cc4a180be90ee4d3788f2b18b6141 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-10T20:31:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MIRKO BARBOSA PERKUSICH – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGCC) 2018.pdf: 3631770 bytes, checksum: 855cc4a180be90ee4d3788f2b18b6141 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-05 / O aumento na utilização de métodos ágeis tem sido motivado pela necessidade de respostas rápidas a demandas de um mercado volátil na área de software. Em contraste com os tradicionais processos dirigidos a planos, métodos ágeis são focados nas pessoas, orientados à comunicação, flexíveis, rápidos, leves, responsivos e dirigidos à aprendizagem e melhoria contínua. Como consequência, fatores subjetivos tais como colaboração, comunicação e auto-organização são chaves para avaliar a maturidade do desenvolvimento de software ágil. O Scrum, focado no gerenciamento de projetos, é o método ágil mais popular. Ao ser adotado por uma equipe, a aplicação do Scrum deve ser melhorada continuamente sendo complementado com práticas e processos de desenvolvimento e gerenciamento ágeis. Apesar da Reunião de Retrospectiva, evento do Scrum, ser um período reservado ao final de cada sprint para a equipe refletir sobre a melhoria do método de desenvolvimento, não há procedimentos claros e específicos para a realização da mesma. Na literatura, há diversas propostas de soluções, embora nenhuma consolidada, para tal. Desta forma, o problema em questão é: como instrumentar o Scrum para auxiliar na melhoria contínua do método de desenvolvimento com foco na avaliação do processo de engenharia de requisitos, equipe de desenvolvimento e incrementos do produto? Nesta tese, propõe-se um processo sistemático baseado em redes bayesianas para auxiliar na avaliação da aplicação do Scrum em projetos de software, instrumentando o método para auxiliar na sua melhoria contínua com foco na avaliação do processo de engenharia de requisitos, equipe de desenvolvimento e incrementos do produto. A rede bayesiana foi construída por meio de um processo de Engenharia de Conhecimento de Redes Bayesianas. Uma base de dados, elicitada de dezoito projetos reais de uma empresa, foi coletada por meio de um questionário. Essa base de dados foi utilizada para avaliar a acurácia da predição da Rede Bayesiana. Como resultado, a previsão foi correta para quatorze projetos (acurácia de 78%). Dessa forma, conclui-se que o modelo é capaz de realizar previsões com acurácia satisfatória e, dessa forma, é útil para auxiliar nas tomadas de decisões de projetos Scrum. / The use of Agile Software Development (ASD) is increasing to satisfy the need to respond to fast moving market demand and gain market share. In contrast with traditional plan-driven processes, ASD are people and communication-oriented, flexible, fast, lightweight, responsive, driven for learning and continuous improvement. As consequence, subjective factors such as collaboration, communication and self-management are key to evaluate the maturity of agile adoption. Scrum, which is focused on project management, is the most popular agile method. Whenever adopted, the usage of Scrum must be continuously improved by complementing it with development and management practices and processes. Even though the Retrospective Meeting, a Scrum event, is a period at the end of each sprint for the team to assess the development method, there are no clear and specific procedures to conduct it. In literature, there are several, but no consolidated, proposed solutions to assist on ASD adoption and assessment. Therefore, the research problem is: how to instrument Scrum to assist on the continuous improvement of the development method focusing on the requirements engineering process, development team and product increment? In this thesis, we propose a Bayesian networks-based process to assist on the assessment of Scrum-based projects, instrumenting the software development method to assist on its continuous improvement focusing on the requirements engineering process, development team and product increments. We have built the Bayesian network using a Knowledge Engineering Bayesian Network (KEBN) process that calculates the customer satisfaction given factors of the software development method. To evaluate its prediction accuracy, we have collected data from 18 industry projects from one organization through a questionnaire. As a result, the prediction was correct for fourteen projects (78% accuracy). Therefore, we conclude that the model is capable of accurately predicting the customer satisfaction and is useful to assist on decision-support on Scrum projects.

This work is focused on developing of own proposals and recommendations for future growth of agile approach in selected company, based on description and analysis of existing procedures in this company. There is basic characteristic of selected company, general and specific description in case study after study of theoretical basis. Agile procedures are compared to principles of agile manifesto and Scrum method in conclusion of the case study. There are identified shortcomings of procedures in agile project management of selected company based on this comparison. For mitigation, or elimination of these shortcomings, there are presented and discussed own proposals and recommendations for future growth of agile approach in selected company.