| 1. |
- Alahyari, Hiva, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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A study of value in agile software development organizations
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Systems and Software. - : Elsevier BV. - 0164-1212 .- 1873-1228. ; 125, s. 271-288
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Agile manifesto focuses on the delivery of valuable software. In Lean, the principles emphasise value, where every activity that does not add value is seen as waste. Despite the strong focus on value, and that the primary critical success factor for software intensive product development lies in the value domain, no empirical study has investigated specifically what value is. This paper presents an empirical study that investigates how value is interpreted and prioritised, and how value is assured and measured. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 23 participants from 14 agile software development organisations. The contribution of this study is fourfold. First, it examines how value is perceived amongst agile software development organisations. Second, it compares the perceptions and priorities of the perceived values by domains and roles. Third, it includes an examination of what practices are used to achieve value in industry, and what hinders the achievement of value. Fourth, it characterises what measurements are used to assure, and evaluate value-creation activities. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Alahyari, Hiva, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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An exploratory study of waste in software development organizations using agile or lean approaches : A multiple case study at 14 organizations
- 2019
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Ingår i: Information and Software Technology. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 0950-5849 .- 1873-6025. ; 107, s. 78-94
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context: The principal focus of lean is the identification and elimination of waste from the process with respect to maximizing customer value. Similarly, the purpose of agile is to maximize customer value and minimize unnecessary work and time delays. In both cases the concept of waste is important. Through an empirical study, we explore how waste is approached in agile software development organizations. Objective: This paper explores the concept of waste in agile/lean software development organizations and how it is defined, used, prioritized, reduced, or eliminated in practice Method: The data were collected using semi-structured open-interviews. 23 practitioners from 14 embedded software development organizations were interviewed representing two core roles in each organization. Results: Various wastes, categorized in 10 different categories, were identified by the respondents. From the mentioned wastes, not all were necessarily waste per se but could be symptoms caused by wastes. From the seven wastes of lean, Task-switching was ranked as the most important, and Extra-features, as the least important wastes according to the respondents’ opinion. However, most companies do not have their own or use an established definition of waste, more importantly, very few actively identify or try to eliminate waste in their organizations beyond local initiatives on project level. Conclusion: In order to identify, recognize and eliminate waste, a common understanding, and a joint and holistic view of the concept is needed. It is also important to optimize the whole organization and the whole product, as waste on one level can be important on another, thus sub-optimization should be avoided. Furthermore, to achieve a sustainable and effective waste handling, both the short-term and the long-term perspectives need to be considered. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
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| 3. |
- Fagerholm, F., et al.
(författare)
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Cognition in Software Engineering: A Taxonomy and Survey of a Half-Century of Research
- 2022
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Ingår i: Acm Computing Surveys. - : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 0360-0300 .- 1557-7341. ; 54:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cognition plays a fundamental role in most software engineering activities. This article provides a taxonomy of cognitive concepts and a survey of the literature since the beginning of the Software Engineering discipline. The taxonomy comprises the top-level concepts of perception, attention, memory, cognitive load, reasoning, cognitive biases, knowledge, social cognition, cognitive control, and errors, and procedures to assess them both qualitatively and quantitatively. The taxonomy provides a useful tool to filter existing studies, classify new studies, and support researchers in getting familiar with a (sub) area. In the literature survey, we systematically collected and analysed 311 scientific papers spanning five decades and classified them using the cognitive concepts from the taxonomy. Our analysis shows that the most developed areas of research correspond to the four life-cycle stages, software requirements, design, construction, and maintenance. Most research is quantitative and focuses on knowledge, cognitive load, memory, and reasoning. Overall, the state of the art appears fragmented when viewed from the perspective of cognition. There is a lack of use of cognitive concepts that would represent a coherent picture of the cognitive processes active in specific tasks. Accordingly, we discuss the research gap in each cognitive concept and provide recommendations for future research.
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| 4. |
- Gomes, Francisco, 1987, et al.
(författare)
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Evolution of statistical analysis in empirical software engineering research : Current state and steps forward
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Systems and Software. - : Elsevier Inc.. - 0164-1212 .- 1873-1228. ; 156, s. 246-267
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Software engineering research is evolving and papers are increasingly based on empirical data from a multitude of sources, using statistical tests to determine if and to what degree empirical evidence supports their hypotheses. To investigate the practices and trends of statistical analysis in empirical software engineering (ESE), this paper presents a review of a large pool of papers from top-ranked software engineering journals. First, we manually reviewed 161 papers and in the second phase of our method, we conducted a more extensive semi-automatic classification of papers spanning the years 2001–2015 and 5196 papers. Results from both review steps was used to: i) identify and analyse the predominant practices in ESE (e.g., using t-test or ANOVA), as well as relevant trends in usage of specific statistical methods (e.g., nonparametric tests and effect size measures) and, ii) develop a conceptual model for a statistical analysis workflow with suggestions on how to apply different statistical methods as well as guidelines to avoid pitfalls. Lastly, we confirm existing claims that current ESE practices lack a standard to report practical significance of results. We illustrate how practical significance can be discussed in terms of both the statistical analysis and in the practitioner's context. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.
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| 5. |
- Gren, Lucas, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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Group development and group maturity when building agile teams: A qualitative and quantitative investigation at eight large companies
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Systems and Software. - : Elsevier BV. - 0164-1212 .- 1873-1228. ; 124, s. 104-119
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The agile approach to projects focuses more on close-knit teams than traditional waterfall projects, which means that aspects of group maturity become even more important. This psychological aspect is not much researched in connection to the building of an "agile team." The purpose of this study is to investigate how building agile teams is connected to a group development model taken from social psychology. We conducted ten semi-structured interviews with coaches, Scrum Masters, and managers responsible for the agile process from seven different companies, and collected survey data from 66 group-members from four companies (a total of eight different companies). The survey included an agile measurement tool and the one part of the Group Development Questionnaire. The results show that the practitioners define group developmental aspects as key factors to a successful agile transition. Also, the quantitative measurement of agility was significantly correlated to the group maturity measurement. We conclude that adding these psychological aspects to the description of the "agile team" could increase the understanding of agility and partly help define an "agile team." We propose that future work should develop specific guidelines for how software development teams at different maturity levels might adopt agile principles and practices differently. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 6. |
- Gren, Lucas, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Is it possible to disregard obsolete requirements? a family of experiments in software effort estimation
- 2021
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Ingår i: Requirements Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. - 0947-3602 .- 1432-010X. ; :3, s. 459-480
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Expert judgement is a common method for software effort estimations in practice today. Estimators are often shown extra obsolete requirements together with the real ones to be implemented. Only one previous study has been conducted on if such practices bias the estimations. We conducted six experiments with both students and practitioners to study, and quantify, the effects of obsolete requirements on software estimation. By conducting a family of six experiments using both students and practitioners as research subjects (N= 461), and by using a Bayesian Data Analysis approach, we investigated different aspects of this effect. We also argue for, and show an example of, how we by using a Bayesian approach can be more confident in our results and enable further studies with small sample sizes. We found that the presence of obsolete requirements triggered an overestimation in effort across all experiments. The effect, however, was smaller in a field setting compared to using students as subjects. Still, the over-estimations triggered by the obsolete requirements were systematically around twice the percentage of the included obsolete ones, but with a large 95% credible interval. The results have implications for both research and practice in that the found systematic error should be accounted for in both studies on software estimation and, maybe more importantly, in estimation practices to avoid over-estimations due to this systematic error. We partly explain this error to be stemming from the cognitive bias of anchoring-and-adjustment, i.e. the obsolete requirements anchored a much larger software. However, further studies are needed in order to accurately predict this effect. © 2021, The Author(s).
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| 7. |
- Gren, Lucas, 1984, et al.
(författare)
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The Prospects of a Quantitative Measurement of Agility: A Validation Study on an Agile Maturity Model
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Systems and Software. - : Elsevier BV. - 0164-1212 .- 1873-1228. ; 107, s. 38-49
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Agile development has now become a well-known approach to collaboration in professional work life. Both researchers and practitioners want validated tools to measure agility. This study sets out to validate an agile maturity measurement model with statistical tests and empirical data. First, a pretest was conducted as a case study including a survey and focus group. Second, the main study was conducted with 45 employees from two SAP customers in the US. We used internal consistency (by a Cronbach’s alpha) as the main measure for reliability and analyzed construct validity by exploratory principal factor analysis (PFA). The results suggest a new categorization of a subset of items existing in the tool and provides empirical support for these new groups of factors. However, we argue that more work is needed to reach the point where a maturity models with quantitative data can be said to validly measure agility, and even then, such a measurement still needs to include some deeper analysis with cultural and contextual items.
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| 8. |
- Holmgren, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Modelling modal choice effects of regulation on low-sulphur marine fuels in Northern Europe
- 2014
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Ingår i: Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 1361-9209 .- 1879-2340. ; 28, s. 62-73
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The implementation of MARPOL Annex VI in the North and Baltic Sea Sulphur Emission Control Area (SECA) has raised economic concerns among shippers and shipowners, as well as spurred policymakers to appeal to various interests, such as citizen health, export industry competitiveness, and consumer prices. To justify their cases, policymakers and stakeholders have commissioned various agencies to monitor the implementation’s effects upon sustainability, especially regarding a potential modal shift from sea to road transport. This article thus reviews some of these commissioned studies in order to analyse the effects of the implementation and the possibility of modal shift. It also provides an agent-based simulation study of route choice for comparatively high-value cargo from Lithuania in the east to the United Kingdom in the west. Ultimately, the results of our TAPAS study do not provide concrete evidence supporting a modal shift from sea to road transport and indeed, they indicate that a shift is unlikely to occur.
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| 9. |
- Lenberg, Per, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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An initial analysis of software engineers’ attitudes towards organizational change
- 2017
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Ingår i: Empirical Software Engineering. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1382-3256 .- 1573-7616. ; 22, s. 2179-2205
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2016, The Author(s). Employees’ attitudes towards organizational change are a critical determinant in the change process. Researchers have therefore tried to determine what underlying concepts that affect them. These extensive efforts have resulted in the identification of several antecedents. However, no studies have been conducted in a software engineering context and the research has provided little information on the relative impact and importance of the identified concepts. In this study, we have combined results from previous social science research with results from software engineering research, and thereby identified three underlying concepts with an expected significant impact on software engineers’ attitudes towards organizational change, i.e. their knowledge about the intended change outcome, their understanding of the need for change, and their feelings of participation in the change process. The result of two separate multiple regression analysis, where we used industrial questionnaire data (N=56), showed that the attitude concept openness to change is predicted by all three concepts, while the attitude concept readiness for change is predicted by need for change and participation. Our research provides an empirical baseline to an important area of software engineering and the result can be a starting-point for future organizational change research. In addition, the proposed model prescribes practical directions for software engineering organizations to adopt in improving employees’ responses to change and, thus, increase the probability of a successful change.
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| 10. |
- Marculescu, Bogdan, et al.
(författare)
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An initial industrial evaluation of interactive search-based testing for embedded software
- 2015
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Ingår i: Applied Soft Computing. - : Elsevier. - 1568-4946 .- 1872-9681. ; 29, s. 26-39
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Search-based software testing promises the ability to generate and evaluate large numbers of test cases at minimal cost. From an industrial perspective, this could enable an increase in product quality without a matching increase in the time and effort required to do so. Search-based software testing, however, is a set of quite complex techniques and approaches that do not immediately translate into a process for use with most companies. For example, even if engineers receive the proper education and training in these new approaches, it can be hard to develop a general fitness function that covers all contingencies. Furthermore, in industrial practice, the knowledge and experience of domain specialists are often key for effective testing and thus for the overall quality of the final software system. But it is not clear how such domain expertise can be utilized in a search-based system. This paper presents an interactive search-based software testing (ISBST) system designed to operate in an industrial setting and with the explicit aim of requiring only limited expertise in software testing. It uses SBST to search for test cases for an industrial software module, while also allowing domain specialists to use their experience and intuition to interactively guide the search. In addition to presenting the system, this paper reports on an evaluation of the system in a company developing a framework for embedded software controllers. A sequence of workshops provided regular feedback and validation for the design and improvement of the ISBST system. Once developed, the ISBST system was evaluated by four electrical and system engineers from the company (the ’domain specialists’ in this context) used the system to develop test cases for a commonly used controller module. As well as evaluating the utility of the ISBST system, the study generated interaction data that were used in subsequent laboratory experimentation to validate the underlying search-based algorithm in the presence of realistic, but repeatable, interactions. The results validate the importance that automated software testing tools in general, and search-based tools, in particular, can leverage input from domain specialists while generating tests. Furthermore, the evaluation highlighted benefits of using such an approach to explore areas that the current testing practices do not cover or cover insufficiently. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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