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European Conference on Software Process Improvement

EuroSPI 2008: Software Process Improvement pp 13–24Cite as

Problems Encountered When Implementing Agile Methods in a Very Small Company

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 16))

Abstract

This paper presents a case study carried out in a very small company in Ireland, Sporting Software Ltd. The authors had access to Sporting Software Ltd. while the company was implementing eXtreme Programming when developing a new product. We discuss how the implementation was carried out and what went wrong; with the company itself ultimately declaring that the implementation was a failure. We present the problems and benefits experienced, and why these indicate that the implementation of agile methods within a very small company located remotely are not easily achievable While some of the outcomes are not surprising, for example, management did not wholly support the implementation of agile methods, others, such as pre-existing contractual employment arrangements, should be noted.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Michael J. O’Donnell

  2. Lero – the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Ita Richardson

Authors
  1. Michael J. O’Donnell
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  2. Ita Richardson
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Editor information

Rory V. O’Connor Nathan Baddoo Kari Smolander Richard Messnarz

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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O’Donnell, M.J., Richardson, I. (2008). Problems Encountered When Implementing Agile Methods in a Very Small Company. In: O’Connor, R.V., Baddoo, N., Smolander, K., Messnarz, R. (eds) Software Process Improvement. EuroSPI 2008. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 16. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85936-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85936-9_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-85934-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-85936-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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