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A Methodology for Assessing Agile Software Development Approaches

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A Methodology for Assessing Agile Software Development Approaches A METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES Shvetha Soundararajan Research proposal submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science and Applications Dr. James D. Arthur (Chair) Dr. Osman Balci Dr. Steven D. Sheetz Dr. Todd Stevens Dr. Eli Tilevich March 17, 2011 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: Agile Assessment; Assessing Adequacy, Capability, and Effectiveness; Linkages between Objectives, Principles, and Practices; Indicators 1 A METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES Shvetha Soundararajan ABSTRACT Agile methods provide an organization or a team the flexibility to adopt a selected subset of principles and practices based on their culture, their values, and the types of systems that they develop. More specifically, every organization or team implements a customized agile method, tailored to better accommodate its needs. However, the extent to which a customized method supports the organizational objectives, or rather the ‘goodness’ of that method is questionable. Existing agile assessment approaches focus on a comparative analysis, or are limited in scope and application. In this research, we propose a structured, systematic and comprehensive approach to assess the ‘goodness’ of agile methods. We examine an agile method based on (1) its adequacy, (2) the capability of the organization to support the adopted principles and practices specified by the method, and (3) the method’s effectiveness. We propose the Objectives, Principles and Practices (OPP) Framework to guide our assessment. The Framework identifies (1) objectives of the agile philosophy, (2) principles that support the objectives, (3) practices that are reflective of the principles, (4) the linkages between the objectives, principles and practices, and (5) indicators for each practice to assess the effectiveness of the practice and the extent to which the organization supports its implementation. In this document, we discuss our solution approach, preliminary results, and future work. ii Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Motivation ........................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Problem Statement .............................................................................................................................. 3 1.3 Issues ................................................................................................................................................... 4 1.4 Solution Approach .............................................................................................................................. 6 1.5 Blueprint ............................................................................................................................................. 7 References ................................................................................................................................................. 7 2. Background ................................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Agile Overview ................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Agile Assessment .............................................................................................................................. 13 2.2.1. Agile Assessment Checklists .................................................................................................... 13 2.2.2. Agile Adoption Frameworks .................................................................................................... 14 2.2.3. Agility Measurement Approaches ............................................................................................ 16 2.3 Guiding Frameworks ........................................................................................................................ 17 2.3.1. Early Work in Software Measurement .................................................................................... 17 2.3.2. Objectives Principles Attributes (OPA) Framework ............................................................... 19 2.3.3. Evaluation Environment Methodology ................................................................................... 20 2.3.4. Relationship of the OPA Framework and EE Methodology to the OPP Framework ............. 21 References ............................................................................................................................................... 22 3. Evolving the Assessment Framework ....................................................................................... 24 3.1. The Framework ................................................................................................................................ 24 3.2. Formulated Components of the OPP Framework ............................................................................ 26 3.3 Proposed Work .................................................................................................................................. 31 References ............................................................................................................................................... 32 4. Our Proposed Approach to Assessing the ‘Goodness’ of Agile Methods ................................ 33 4.1. Assessing Adequacy ........................................................................................................................ 33 4.2. Assessing Capability and Effectiveness ........................................................................................... 35 4.3 Preliminary Work and Findings ........................................................................................................ 37 4.3.1. FDD Adequacy Assessment ..................................................................................................... 37 4.3.2 XP Adequacy Assessment ......................................................................................................... 41 4.3.3 Method A Adequacy Assessment .............................................................................................. 44 4.4. Proposed Work ................................................................................................................................. 49 References ............................................................................................................................................... 50 Selected Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 51 5. Substantiating the OPP Framework .......................................................................................... 52 5.1. Substantiating the components of the OPP Framework .................................................................. 52 5.2. Substantiating the assessment process ............................................................................................. 53 6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 55 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 56 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 58 Appendix C ................................................................................................................................... 62 iii List of Figures ! Figure 1.1. Core structure of the OPP Framework ......................................................................... 6 Figure 2.1. A generic agile method ............................................................................................... 12 Figure 3.1. The Objectives, Principles and Practices (OPP) Framework ..................................... 25 Figure 3.2. Objectives, Principles, and Practices .......................................................................... 26 Figure 3.3. Example linkages in the OPP Framework .................................................................. 27 Figure 3.4 Candidate set of linkages in the OPP Framework ....................................................... 28 iv List of Tables ! Table 4.1. Weighted Linkages ...................................................................................................... 34 Table 4.2. Linkage coverage criteria and Likert scale values ....................................................... 35 Table 4.3. Linkage coverage for FDD .......................................................................................... 38 Table 4.4. Adequacy assessment of FDD with respect to its touted bbjectives (using weighted linkage count) ............................................................................................................... 39 Table 4.5. Adequacy Assessment of FDD with respect to its stated principles (using linkage count) ..........................................................................................................................
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