Agile project management emphasizes flexibility and adapting to change. Embracing change often means that specified requirements get changed, removed or replaced under the course of a software project. Another consequence of the nature of agile projects is that everything that does not directly contribute to the working software gets dropped from the product lifecycle. Traceability – the ability to trace requirements back to their origins and forward to design artifacts, code, and testcases – is one such thing that may be overlooked. At the same time, traceability may be crucial to making sure that the delivered product meets the product goals. This thesis investigates the concept of decision traceability – the ability to trace decisions that relate to the evolution of a software product, as well as the fulfillment of product goals. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the importance of decision traceability in relation to product goals and changing requirements in agile software projects. For this purpose, two research questions were developed. (1) What are the challenges of achieving decision traceability in agile projects? And (2) What are important aspects of achieving decision traceability in agile projects? An interpretive qualitative case study was conducted at an IT-consultancy firm. In the case study, two of the organization’s in-house projects were observed, and six informants were interviewed. In answer to the research questions, seven challenges and six important aspects of achieving decision traceability were identified. A conclusion that can be made from the findings is that other aspects than just well-defined processes– such as team engagement, value perception, and communication – may be essential to achieving decision traceability in agile software projects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-159199 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Walden, Alice |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Informatik, Linköpings universitet, Filosofiska fakulteten |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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