Abstract
Although Agile Software Development (ASD) has proven to be an important set of methods that promotes simplicity issues, there are difficulties in defining simplicity. In order to develop a conceptual model of simplicity from the agile teams perspective, a literature review was conducted covering models related to simplicity in different research areas. Based on that, a conceptual model was developed, which was then triangulated through a focus group with six ASD experts. Five simplicity perspectives in the context of ASD were identified. From the agile teams perspective, simplicity is defined as the theoretical virtue disposing the team towards an analytic attitude that leads agile projects to be successful. The conceptual model of simplicity in agile software development is an invitation to practitioners to do what they already do, but to do so more consciously. This consciousness can make a substantial difference in real situations.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the Brazilian National Research Council - CNPq (142296/2013-9), Brazil’s Science without Borders Program (205663/2014-1), the SFI grant 13/RC/2094 to Lero - the Irish Software Research Centre (www.lero.ie), and University of Limerick for the support of this research.
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Santos, W.B., Cunha, J.A.O.G., Moura, H., Margaria, T. (2018). Towards a Definition of Simplicity in Agile Software Development: A Focus Group Study. In: Santos, V., Pinto, G., Serra Seca Neto, A. (eds) Agile Methods. WBMA 2017. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 802. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73673-0_1
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