Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Towards optimal software engineering: learning from agile practice

  • SI: Engineering of Computer-Based Systems
  • Published:
Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In essence, optimal software engineering means creating the right product, through the right process, to the overall satisfaction of everyone involved. Adopting the agile approach to software development appears to have helped many companies make substantial progress towards that goal. The purpose of this paper is to clarify that contribution from comparative survey information gathered in 2010 and 2012. The surveys were undertaken in software development companies across Northern Ireland. The paper describes the design of the surveys and discusses optimality in relation to the results obtained. Both surveys aimed to achieve comprehensive coverage of a single region rather than rely on a voluntary sample. The main outcome from the work is a collection of insights into the nature and advantages of agile development, suggesting how further progress towards optimality might be achieved.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. For the purpose of the survey, a ‘project’ was defined as a phase of development that concluded with a software release.

References

  1. BBC (2013) How Dave Brailsford and Team Sky stormed cycling. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21331484. Accessed June 2013

  2. Chrissis MB, Konrad M, Shrum S (2011) CMMI for development: guidelines for process integration and product improvement. In: SEI series in software engineering, 3rd edn. Addison Wesley, Boston

  3. Beck K, Beedle M, van Bennekum A, Cockburn A, Cunningham W, Fowler M, Grenning J, Highsmith J, Hunt A, Jeffries R, Kern J, Marick B, Martin RC, Mellor S, Schwaber K, Sutherland J, Thomas D (2001) Manifesto for agile software development. http://agilemanifesto.org/. Accessed June 2013

  4. West D, Grant T (2010) Agile development: mainstream adoption has changed agility. Forrester Research, Chicago

  5. Agile Alliance (2013). http://www.agilealliance.org/the-alliance/what-is-agile/. Accessed June 2013

  6. Ambler SW (2010) Agile software development. In: Encyclopedia of software engineering, library. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.1081/E-ESE-120044477

  7. Wikipedia. Agile software development. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development. Accessed June 2013

  8. Schwaber K, Beedle M (2008) Agile software development with Scrum, Pearson, Education

  9. Schwaber K (2004) Agile project management with Scrum. Microsoft Press, USA

  10. Sutherland J, Schwaber K (2013) The Scrum papers. http://scrumfoundation.com/library. Accessed June 2013

  11. Poppendieck M, Poppendieck T (2003) Lean software development: an agile toolkit. Addison-Wesley, Boston

  12. Anderson D (2010) Kanban. Blue Hole Press, Bahamas

  13. Beck K, Andres C (2004) Extreme programming explained: embrace change. 2nd edn. Addison Wesley, Boston

  14. Tudor DJ, Tudor IJ (2010) The DSDM Atern Student Workbook, 2nd edn. Galatea Training Services Ltd., UK

  15. Cockburn A (2001) Agile software development. Addison Wesley, Boston

  16. Ambler SW (2013) Surveys exploring the current state of information technology practices. http://www.ambysoft.com/surveys. Accessed Jan 2013

  17. VersionOne, State of Agile Development, 6th Annual Survey, http://www.versionone.com/state_of_agile_development_survey/11/. Accessed Jan 2013

  18. Vijayasarathy LR, Turk D (2008) Agile software development: a survey of early adopters, J Inf Technol Manag 19(2):1–8

    Google Scholar 

  19. Laanti M, Salo O, Abrahamsson P (2011) Agile methods rapidly replacing traditional methods at Nokia: a survey of opinions on agile transformation. Inf Softw Technol 53(3):276–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. ISO/IEC 9126–1 (2001) Software Engineering product quality—Part 1: Quality Model, International Organisation for Standardisation

  21. Office of Government Commerce (2009) PRINCE2:2009 Manual—Managing successful projects with PRINCE2

  22. UK Cabinet Office, Government ICT Strategy, http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/government-ict-strategy. Accessed June 2013

  23. UK Cabinet Office, Government ICT Strategy–Strategic Implementation Plan, http://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/85971/govt-ict-sip.pdf. Accessed June 2013

  24. Paetsch F, Eberlein A, Maurer F (2003) Requirements engineering and agile software development, In: Proceedings Twelfth IEEE International Workshops on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises, WET ICE 2003, IEEE, pp 308–313

  25. Ramesh B, Cao L, Baskerville R (2012) Agile requirements engineering practices and challenges: an empirical study. Inf Syst J 20(5):449–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Cohn M (2005) Agile estimating and planning. Prentice Hall, New Jersey

  27. Abrahamsson P, Ali Babar M, Kruchten P (2010) Agility and architecture: can they coexist? Software. IEEE 27(2):16–22

    Google Scholar 

  28. Mølokken-Østvold K, Furulund KM (2007) The relationship between customer collaboration and software project overruns. Proc. Agile pp 72–83

  29. Sutherland J, Agile Manifesto 10 year reunion: full video, http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2011/11/agile-manifesto-10-year-reunion-full.html. Accessed June 2013

  30. Williams L (2012) What agile teams think of agile principles. Commun ACM 55(4):71–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Liker JK (2004) The Toyota Way: 14 management principles from the world’s greatest manufacturer. McGraw-Hill, New York

  32. Bustard DW (2012) Beyond mainstream adoption: from agile software development to agile organizational change. In: Proc 19th International Conference and Workshops on Engineering of Computer-Based Systems (ECBS 2012) Novi Sad, Serbia. IEEE Press, NJ, pp 90–97

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work draws on the results of surveys sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland in 2010 and 2012. The authors are grateful to the companies who participated, particularly those individuals who gave their time generously in helping to complete the questionnaires. The companies involved were: 8Over8, AllState (NI), Andor, Asidua, Autonomy, Biznet Solutions, Bombardier, British Telecom, BTi Systems, Citi Belfast, Consilium Technologies, Core Systems, CyberSource, Datactics, DTS, Equiniti-ICS, Etain, Fidessa, First Derivatives, HBoS, HP (3PAR), ICONI Software Ltd, IBM (Intelliden), IBM (Q1 Labs), inTune Networks, Kainos, Kana (Lagan), Kofax (Singularity), Liberty IT, Lucid, Mediasmiths Forge, mFormation, Navinet, NiSoft, NYSE, OmniSoft, Openwave, Opt2Vote, Oracle (ATG), Parity Solutions Ltd, Replify, SkillSoft, StreamOn, TADL, Tascomi, TextHelp, Tyco International, and Wellington IT Solutions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing and Information Engineering, University of Ulster, Coleraine, UK

    David Bustard

  2. School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Ulster, Jordanstown, UK

    George Wilkie

  3. School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queens University of Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Des Greer

Authors
  1. David Bustard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. George Wilkie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Des Greer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Bustard.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bustard, D., Wilkie, G. & Greer, D. Towards optimal software engineering: learning from agile practice. Innovations Syst Softw Eng 9, 191–200 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-013-0216-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-013-0216-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation