Derivation of an Agile Method Construction Set to Optimize the Software Development Process

Today,﻿IT﻿and﻿especially﻿the﻿development﻿of﻿customer-focused﻿software,﻿has﻿become﻿one﻿of﻿the﻿ most﻿important﻿elements﻿for﻿a﻿company﻿to﻿remain﻿competitive.﻿The﻿primary﻿purpose﻿of﻿this﻿article﻿ is﻿to﻿determine﻿whether﻿it﻿is﻿possible﻿to﻿improve﻿the﻿agile﻿development﻿of﻿a﻿company﻿by﻿adjusting﻿its﻿software﻿development﻿process﻿in﻿terms﻿of﻿cultural,﻿technical,﻿and﻿managerial﻿dimensions.﻿Based﻿ on﻿a﻿literature﻿analysis﻿and﻿practical﻿experience﻿in﻿the﻿company,﻿different﻿influencing﻿factors﻿and﻿ parameters,﻿which﻿affect﻿the﻿value﻿creation﻿throughout﻿the﻿software﻿development﻿process﻿of﻿a﻿company﻿ were﻿derived﻿and﻿clustered.﻿Out﻿of﻿these﻿clusters,﻿a﻿framework﻿(Agile﻿Method﻿Construction﻿Set)﻿ based﻿on﻿a﻿Microsoft﻿Excel﻿questionnaire﻿was﻿created﻿in﻿order﻿to﻿analyze﻿and﻿identify﻿optimization﻿potential﻿in﻿the﻿development﻿process﻿of﻿a﻿company.﻿This﻿construction﻿set﻿was﻿adapted﻿to﻿meet﻿the﻿

Summarizing the points above in one problem statement one can say: "How can a software developmentcompanybesupportedwithregardstoidentifyingaproperagilemethod,tailoringit andassistingwithitscontinuousimprovement?Theprimarypurposeofthispaperistodeterminewhetheritispossibletoimprovetheagile developmentofacompanybyadjustingitssoftwaredevelopmentprocessintermsofcultural,technical andmanagerialdimensionsaswellascurrentdevelopmenttrends.

COMPARISON OF AGILe MeTHODS
In the following, the agile methods Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP) and Feature Driven Development(FDD)arebrieflypresentedtoensureacommonunderstanding.

Deriving the Agile Method Construction Set
FromtheliteratureanalysisandtheprojectsundertakenatSwisslifeitbecamequicklyclearthatall factorsshouldbeclusteredaroundthedimensionsorganization,peopleandtechnology: • Organization: Here the main issue is how an organization needs to be set up in order to guaranteeanoptimalenvironmentfordevelopment.Itfocusesontheconditionswhichinfluence developmentanditsprocessasawhole: •

THe AGILe MeTHOD CONSTRUCTION SeT
In a first step, we derived questions from different influencing factors in order to assess the situation within a company and compiled them in the form of a questionnaire realized with Microsoft ® Excel.TheAgileMethodConstructionSetisthereforeastandardized,best-practice  Inthefollowing,twoexamplesillustratetheelementsoftheAgileMethodConstructionSet.Thefirstexample(Table2)referstothearea"Organization"andinparticulartothesettingofgoals.

Recommendation Regarding the Development Framework/Methodology
Therecommendationhelpstolocatethebestfittingdevelopmentframework/methodology.Ithelps togaininsightintowhyaspecificagileapproachismoresuitablethanothers(e.g.FDDgetsmore points in the subarea organization/culture than Scrum, because it works best if there is a stable companyenvironment).Itisveryimportantthatthedevelopmentprocessreliesonastandardandis onlyadaptedasfarasrequiredtoensurecompletenessandpatency (Schwaber&Aguanno,2009).

Benefits and Disadvantages of the Framework
Since the framework is based on standardized questions leading to a predefined optimization/ resultbasedontheanswers,theoutcomeshouldbelesssubjectivethaninananalysiswithouta standardizedprocedure.
Thegeneratedresultsonlygiveastartingpointintermsofimprovingthedepartmentanddo not replace the experience of stakeholders.Sometimes the root cause is deeper, e.g. in a lack of resourcesduetoalackofbudgetwhichleadstoaweakdevelopment/operationprocess.Therefore, itisimportanttodeeplyinvestigatetherelatedKPIsbeforeimplementingaproject.

DeSCRIPTION OF THe PILOT AND eVALUATION OF THe AGILe MeTHOD CONSTRUCTION SeT
To validate the framework, a development department was chosen in one of the leading Swiss insurance companies.The specific KPIs have been validated with data from past projects of the selecteddepartment.Thischaptergivesashortoverviewofthedepartmentstructureandassessment procedure.Becausethisisonlyintendedtoillustratetheprocess,onlysampledataisused.

example Results
Figure 3 shows suggestions for the software process improvement, here recommended artefacts accordingtothepredefineddimensions.Figure4depictstherecommendationoftheframeworkregardingtheproposedagilemethod (hereexemplifiedforScrum).Adetailedscoringforallareasandsubareasisprovided.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Structure of the agile method construction set

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Suggestions for software process improvement

Table 3 . Example record from the agile method construction set
Scalability could be considered as a new subarea within the Agile Method ConstructionSet.ElementsofSoSorSAFe ® ,e.g.theorganizationalcapabilitytosetupARTs couldbeadoptedinordertocheckwhetheranorganizationispreparedtoproperlyscaleScrum.