Pekka Abrahamsson

Extreme programming: first results from a controlled case study

Evolutionary product line modelling

This work proposes an evolutionary software product line modelling approach based on controllable inheritance of product line members specifications that uses hierarchies of implemented product specifications accompanied by correctness control of product model transformations.

Digging into the fundamentals of extreme programming building the theoretical base for agile methods

Preface Agile Software Technologies Software Process Engineering Software Confi Guration Management Support for Extreme Programming Software Process Engineering

This report summarises the main research and development activities carried out on Embedded Software at VTT Electronics in 2002 and aims to enable the industry to utilize the change-driven (i.e., Agile) product …

Experimental software engineering (STESE)

Software engineering theory and practice is still to a large extent based more on faith than on science. Only by contributing to the scientific and empirically grounded body of knowledge within a specific area of application, theory and practice can develop. Experimentation is an important scientific approach to collect empirical data and to test theories as well as to bring light to new phenomena so that theories can be formulated and corrected. This is the background for the emerging field of experimental software engineering. The focus of this minitrack is on experiments and experimental studies performed in academic or industrial settings where the aim is to study the software professionals' work practices related to the development of software. This minitrack is divided in two three-paper sessions. The papers are briefly introduced in the following. The three papers in the first session are experiments performed in an academic setting. Syversen, Anda and Sjoberg report the results from an experiment with 26 subjects where they explore how a use case model can best be applied in an object-oriented development process. Serrano, Calero and Piattini describe how to apply the experimental method in metrics definition for multidimensional data models. Their paper gives an overview of the method including a description of how it was applied. The first session is concluded with a paper authored by Liu and Grandon where they empirically explore with 79 subjects how task performance and domain-specific self-efficacy influence the perceived ease of use of object-oriented analysis techniques. The first two papers in the second session include a set of experiments and an empirical study performed in an industrial setting. Jokela describes five different experiments where the attempt is to assess the quality of the usability engineering processes of four different companies. Jokela explains how the assessment process is iteratively changed and improved based on the results of the earlier experiments. Borjesson and Mathiassen compare two software process improvement initiatives carried out in industry. They focus on factors affecting the implementation success. Dugan, Glinert and Rogers conclude the minitrack by introducing a technology-focused methodology called CAMELOT, which is intended for testing computer supported co-operative work software. They report results from an experiment where the proposed methodology was tried out.

Development Essentially an Agile Method ?

The study shows that while from a legal perspective the OSS development paradigm could be seen more as a licensing structure exploiting the terms of the General Public License or similar, the O SS does in many ways follow the same lines of thought and practices as the main stream of existing agile methods.

Is Open Source Software Development Essentially an Agile Method

The study shows that while from a legal perspective the OSS development paradigm could be seen more as a licensing structure exploiting the terms of the General Public License or similar, the O SS does in many ways follow the same lines of thought and practices as the main stream of existing agile methods.

Improving requirements management in extreme programming with tool support - an improvement attempt that failed

While extreme programming (XP) relies on certain principles, it requires an extensive set of tools to enable an effective execution of its practices. In many companies, putting stories on the board may not be sufficient for managing rapidly changing requirements. The objective of This work is to report the results from a study where a requirement management tool - the Storymanager - was developed to meet the needs of a XP project team. The tool was used in a case project where a mobile application for real markets was produced. The tool was dropped by the team only after two releases. The reasons of the process improvement failure are addressed in This work. The principal results show that the tool was found to be too difficult to use and that it failed to provide as powerful a visual view as the paper-pen board method. The implications of these findings are addressed for both the practitioners and researchers in the field.

Managing commitments and risks: challenges in distributed agile development

Usability Assessment of an Extreme Programming Project: Close Co-operation with the Customer Does Not Equal to Good Usability

The analysis reveals that XP pays almost no attention on the usability of the software, apart from some actions that can be regarded as implicit usability evaluations, and that in XP the team transfers the responsibility of the product's usability to the customer.

Self-Adaptability of Agile Software Processes: A Case Study on Post-iteration Workshops

Empirical results show that with less than 4% effort it is possible to hold post-iteration workshops that significantly help to improve and optimize practices and enhance the learning and satisfaction of the project team.

Empirical Evaluation of Agile Software Development: The Controlled Case Study Approach

A controlled case study approach is presented, which has been applied in a study of extreme programming methodology performed in close-to-industry settings, which considers the generation of both quantitative and qualitative data