Search results for "Agile"
showing 10 items of 138 documents
Software Startup ESSENCE : How Should Software Startups Work?
2020
Software startups need to work in a systematic fashion just like mature organizations. However, existing software engineering methods and practices are not aimed at software startups. They do not account for the business aspect of startups and may not be well suited for software startups in general. The Lean Startup Methodology on the other hand contains some useful practices for software startups but is nonetheless impractical, offering little in the way of telling you what to do. Software startups are thus required to tailor their own method. Currently, many software startups simply work ad hoc or use various Agile methods and practices. In terms of Agile methods and practices, little con…
Agile Enterprise Transformations : Surveying the Many Facets of Agility for the Hybrid Era
2022
Agile companies are not uniform. Consequently, agile transformations are conceived broadly, ranging from adopting agile methods and practices in software development teams or functions to building all-encompassing enterprise agility. Moreover, the targeted effects of agility may vary, and the success of transformations and the attainment of agility are measured in various ways. In this paper, based on a recent industrial survey study, we scrutinize holistically why companies want to transform, what types of agility they are aiming at, and how they gauge transformations. The survey data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Most of the respondents were in large or very large co…
Territori marginali e finestre di opportunità. Norcia tra gli eventi sismici del 1979 e del 2016
2021
Il contributo intende indagare la stretta connessione tra disastri naturali e traiettorie di sviluppo territoriale e come queste ultime siano determinate in larga parte dalle politiche pubbliche messe in atto nella fase post-emergenziale. A seguito dei disastri, il dibattito pubblico e politico, i grandi investimenti, la possibilità di operare trasformazioni urbanistiche possono generare uno scenario di opportunità e rinascita definibile come «window of opportunity». Si prende qui in considerazione l’evento sismico del 1979 di Norcia, insieme al relativo processo di ricostruzione, avviato assieme a un piano di rinascita economica incentrato sulle vocazioni locali e capace di frenare le tend…
Metrics Framework for Cycle-Time Reduction in Software Value Creation
2015
Agile software development methodologies driving cycle-time reduction have been shown to improve efficiency, enable shorter lead times and place a stronger focus on customer needs. They are also moving the process development focus from cost-reduction towards value creation. Optimizing software development based on lean and agile principles requires tools and metrics to optimize against. We need a new set of metrics that measure the process up to the point of customer use and feedback. With these we can drive cycle time reduction and improve value focus. Recently the lean startup methodology has been promoting a similar approach within the startup context. In this paper, we develop and vali…
Self-Directed Learning as a Practice of Workplace Learning: Interpretative Repertoires of Self-Directed Learning in ICT Work
2019
Changing technologies and competition in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) are challenging the learning of individual workers and teams alongside and through work. Organisations call for employees’ autonomy and self-directedness executed by agile operations and low hierarchies, where learning is also increasingly the responsibility of the individuals and teams themselves and occurs in practice without strong control of the organisation. Therefore, the multidimensional concept of self-directed learning becomes essential in the context of learning at work. In this study, we examine how employees in the ICT sector describe self-directed learning practices in the conte…
Towards Measuring the Agility of Software Business
2018
Agile development methods have been employed across the software industry. However, it is not always clear if the used methods actually help the software firms in being more agile and if agility has a positive influence in the software firm performance. Studying these questions may turn out impossible since good measurements for assessing the overall agility of software firms do not yet exist. A need is therefore detected to measure the differences in agility between firms and finding the means to evaluate the differences in agility in reliable manner. This article examines how to measure the agility of a software firm and reports initial steps in the process of developing measurement instr…
Quality culture boosts agile transformation : Action research in a business‐to‐business software business
2023
Agile methodologies are sometimes adopted, with the assumption that benefits can be attained by only using a set of best practices, which can sometimes work to a degree. In this paper, a case is discussed where a software-producing organization of seven teams achieved significant improvements. The goal of the research was to answer two questions: how an already agile organization could improve its performance further and what is the impact of promoting quality aspects? The questions were answered by implementing interventions based on prior literature and data emerging from semi-structured interviews. The context was an established business with a complex revenue stream structure, meaning t…
Coping with Uncertainty in an Agile Systems Development Course
2018
Uncertain and ambiguous environments are commonplace in information systems development (ISD) projects, and while different Agile frameworks welcome changes in organizational, technical, and business environments, the incurred uncertainty is known to negatively affect the development process and the quality of the final product. The effects of uncertainty on ISD projects have been studied in the past in real organizational contexts, but the effects of uncertainty on students in Agile systems development have received less attention from scholars. In this study, we measured the effects of experienced uncertainty on students’ performance in an Agile systems development course and how uncertai…
Official Development Assistance in fragile states: an unresolved issue - Focus on education
2013
Since the mid 2000s, the theme of "fragile states" became a structuring axis of development policies of most donors. Insofar as investment in education is perceived as a necessary, if not sufficient, to vanquish poverty, the option to stimulate and accelerate the development of education constitutes an opportunity for the international community. Even if it means that the latter also has to exercise some forms of interference. The findings of our empirical analysis show, that within fragile states, the emergence of a current contradiction between the inclusive nature of the EFA goals and the exclusionary nature of the paradigms on which foreign aid is based (effectiveness and results). This…
International aid on education in fragile states and armed conflict: what prospects?
2013
Currently, over a third of children not in school live in countries considered being as fragile or affected by an armed conflict. These countries, which are mainly located in sub-Saharan Africa, will not reach the objectives of Education For All for 2015. This paper covers approaches across comparative education, political science and sociology of organizations. The question is: what prospects for international assistance on education in fragile states and countries affected by armed conflict? Our study explores empirically the conditions of intervention of international aid within the contexts of fragility and armed conflict. Insofar as investment in education is perceived as a necessary, …