MANAGEMENT
OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN BRAZIL USING AGILE METHODS
Claudia
Carrijo Ravaglia
topdown, Brazil
E-mail: claudia@topdown.com.br
Mirian
Picinini Mexas
UFF -
Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil
E-mail: mirian.picinini@gmail.com
Ana
Claudia Dias
Centro
Federal de Educação Tecnologica Celso Suckow da Fonseca – CEFET/RJ, Brazil
E-mail: missdias@gmail.com
Haydee
Maria Correia da Silveira Batista
COPPE
- UFRJ, Brazil
E-mail: haydeemcsb@gmail.com
Kleber
da Silva Nunes
topdown, Brazil
E-mail: kleber@topdown.com.br
Submission: 5/28/2020
Revision: 7/3/2020
Accept: 8/31/2020
ABSTRACT
The aim of the paper is to analyze how agile management practices are being adopted by specialists from software development technology companies in Brazil, identifying actions that contribute to the success of software implementation, aiming to ensure the survival of organizations in the market. The study counted with a literature review to support the field research with software development specialists who use the agile methodology and work in Brazil in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The results were analyzed through a descriptive statistics and content analysis. The research identified that the companies that adopt agile software management methodology in Brazil prefer the Scrum method and the development teams may be geographically distributed. The main positive points identified when adopting agile methods were the process speed, team involvement, maximization of results, involvement with the client, and simplicity. Most experts identified problems in the implementation of the agile methodology and as points of attention: management of distributed teams, scope estimation and communication. It was possible to identify the existence of a positive financial result by adopting the agile method for software development projects, as well as actions that contribute to the success of these projects, such as controlling quality using different testing techniques, project management, time, stakeholders, scope, and have agile communication, with feedback and good leadership. On the other hand, it was observed in the statistics that, although efficient, this method is still not being widely used. This research can contribute to the managers of software development companies in the use of agile methods as well as improving management decision-making.
Keywords: Project Management Software; Software development; Agile
1.
INTRODUCTION
When
idealizing a project, it is expected that it will generate greater value for
the business, however, the client does not always have full understanding of
the requirements or they change according to the evolution of the project or
influenced by external factors. There is also the human factor and its
emotions. All of this creates constant challenges for the management of
software development projects, making them dynamic.
According
to Pressman (2016), software development is a complex process involving many
people over a long period, with the aim of developing a computer system. In
addition, development resources are spread across the world, whether hardware
and software, mainly in the United States, or human resources, particularly in India
and China, due to labor costs. In this way, IT companies need to invest in
quality in the conduct of their projects, and management in software
development needs to minimize deadlines and costs, but in a sustainable way.
In
software development projects, there are two major strands of management, the
classic project management principles, and agile development methods. The
challenge is to choose, adapt and combine these approaches to achieve
excellence in the project execution (Vargas, 2016).
There
is no right way of management and control to achieve project success, each
project is unique and needs constant adaptation and speed in changes.
Therefore, understanding the risks and problems when using agile methodologies,
and when they must be adopted in software development companies, is essential
to guarantee the success of their use (Sheffield & Lemétayer,
2013). Since, if not used correctly, they can generate problems instead of
solutions.
In
this way, the agile methodologies used by software development management
technology companies were analyzed in this study, with the objective of
identifying how specialists in Brazil are adopting fundamental management
practices and if they complementing them with practices already established in
others methods ensuring the survival of organizations in the market.
To
achieve this objective, the present study carried out a field research with
software development specialists who use the agile methodology and work in
Brazil in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, seeking to identify the
applicability of agile management by companies in this country.
Therefore, it is expected, as a contribution of this research, to assist
IT managers in the use of agile methods as well as to improve management
decision making based on the results of the field research that were
corroborated by the literature review.
2.
CONSIDERATIONS ON AGILE DEVELOPMENT
According
to (Abdalhamid & Mishra, 2017) software
development organizations adopt agile methods as a solution for fast software
delivery, with high quality, reduced deadlines, presenting adequate responses
to problems and offering quick, better and low-cost solutions, in a constantly
changing environment.
The
agile process must meet unpredictability, for this reason it must be adaptable
in an incremental way. For that, it is necessary the constant monitoring and
feedback from customers which are carried out from software increments
delivered in a short time, making it possible for customers evaluate and
influence the necessary adaptations, reducing the associated risks with the
uncertainties of the projects. In view of the agile manifesto (Beck et al.,
2001), customer satisfaction with useful product deliveries and desired
quality.
It
is worth mentioning that according to Dingsøyr et al.
(2017), the client's participation, which is indispensable in agile methods, is
also considered a challenge in efforts to develop large systems. The risk of
failure increases due to having many stakeholders so, it is necessary to
establish a common understanding among all customer representatives, in
addition, when different groups of stakeholders have different priorities, an
open and transparent dialogue and cross communication is necessary between
groups.
The open and participative environment adopted by agile
methods favors the creation of tacit knowledge and the formation of
organizational culture. Team satisfaction generates quality and affects the
performance of the software produced. Other factors also generate quality, such
as: specification, schedule, teamwork, customer collaboration, identification
of challenges/risks, feedback, formation of the knowledge base, speed,
flexibility in the processes, changing requirements, simplicity,
standardization, team autonomy, automation, problem prevention, measurement,
delivery strategies, integration and testing. (Farid et al., 2016; Nuottila, et
al., 2016; Vargas, 2016; Sundararajan et al., 2014; Wautelet; Kolp, 2012; Mahnic
& Zabkar, 2012; Tripp et al., 2016; Laanti, 2014).
However,
Al-Sakkaf, Hashim and Omar
(2017) highlight the importance of understanding agile software development
methodologies and their practices, where agile teams need to choose the right
combination of practices, and must select those that will best meet the needs
of the organization to maximize benefits, thus identifying four groups of
practices: Project management; Quality warranty; Team communication and
incremental iterative practices.
Complementary
actions are also adopted in the management of agile software development. Like
risk management. According to Odzaly et al., (2018)
managing risks is an important process in Software Engineering, however for
agile methods, a risk management model that reduces effort is required, and
software agents are indicated to perform tasks in a supporting, identifying,
assessing and monitoring risks.
There
are other complementary activities that were also identified as budget control
and cost analysis, documentation and process for configuration management,
monitoring, definition of processes for the acquisition and contracting of
suppliers, definition and inclusion of new management roles, training, design
and architectural projects, testing processes, integration and acceptance and
change control. (Al-Aidaros & Omar, 2017; Farid et al., 2016; Wautelet
& Kolp, 2012; Lee & Yong, 2010; Sundararajan
et al., 2014; Surdu & Parsons, 2006; Nuottila et al., 2016; Bowen et al., 2014; Papatheocharous; Andreou, 2014; Kulkarni
et al., 2017).
Selecting
the one that best suits your project depends on many factors, such as: team
size, criticality of defects, ability to receive interactions / feedback from
customers, customer expectations, budget, schedule, and requirements
scalability. As these factors are different from project to project, the same strategies
should not always be used (Surdu & Parsons,
2006). Thus, the review of failures and successes, the lessons learned in agile
development projects, can help in the identification of possible critical
success factors, since the understanding of failures and successful actions can
contribute to improving the quality of projects (Chow & Cao, 2008).
3.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This
research was structured in five phases to achieve the objectives of this study.
In the first phase, a literature review was carried out, aiming to obtain
articles that would support the field research. In the second phase, a
questionnaire was developed and validated with open and closed questions. This
questionnaire used the theoretical foundations identified in the first phase.
In the third phase, data collection and tabulation were obtained through
answered questionnaires. The fourth phase carried out the results analysis,
generation of descriptive statistics and content analysis, and in the fifth
phase, the consolidation, conclusion, and perspective of future work was
carried out.
According
to Gray (2012), qualitative research often works with a small sample of people
located in certain contexts, thus aiming to identify cases rich in information,
seeking to identify the relevant characteristics of the research. Therefore,
the present study was carried out with the application of the questionnaire in
a non-probabilistic sample by judgment and accessibility, with 21 experienced
experts, working in software development companies and that use agile
methodologies. There were no restrictions on the teams related to the level,
including both managerial and operational levels. As evidenced by Laanti (2014) it is important to listen to employees
because they know all the problems. The profile was also mapped, by length of
service, the size of the company where they work and whether they have any
certification.
The
invitations to answer the interviews were sent by email to specialists in Rio
de Janeiro and São Paulo. The profile of the experts who contributed to the
survey, which corresponds to part 1 of the questionnaire, is detailed in
section 4.1 where the analysis of the respondents' profile is carried out and
it can be seen that most of it was carried out by experienced professionals
over ten years old working in the software development area.
It
is worth mentioning that the questionnaire was built based on the bibliographic
body of the research, as shown in table 1, and aimed to understand how
companies use agile methods in software development, what were the results
obtained; what tools were adopted; what were the difficulties encountered; and
what are the points that require special attention identified during the
conduct of the projects, among other questions. The result of this second part of
the questionnaire is detailed in section 4.2.
Before
sending the questionnaire to the respondents, a pre-test was carried out with
three experts in agile development, aiming at its validation. Based on the
pre-test responses, the questionnaire was adjusted and sent to agile software
development specialists.
In
addition, the answers to open questions were assessed through content analysis,
which, according to Gray (2012), with a more deductive character, deals with
making inferences about data usually collected through texts, which can be
considered a potentially important tool for researcher evaluation, seeking to
identify characteristic forms with the location of classes or categories. When
identifying a pattern, these were presented in graphical format, as well as in
the analysis of closed questions, descriptive statistics with frequency graphs
were used, sometimes confirming, and sometimes denying the considerations
identified in the literature search.
4.
ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH RESULTS
The
questionnaire used was divided into two blocks, the first of which assessed the
profile of the specialist and the second assessed how the specialists manage
agile software development projects. The survey was distributed to 62
specialists working in software development companies in Rio de Janeiro and São
Paulo, during the months of February and March 2018, receiving only 21
questionnaires answered, obtaining 34% return.
4.1.
Analysis of the respondents ‘profile
The
analysis of the respondent's profile was carried out to assess the diversity of
the sample, his experience in software development and familiarity with agile
methods.
The
size of the company was assessed considering the number of employees (SEBRAE,
2013), and it can be seen, as shown in Graph 1, that 72% of the respondents
work in large companies with more than 99 employees. The others are equally
divided into medium-sized companies with 50 to 99 employees and Micro-companies
with up to nine employees and none of the respondents works in a small company
with 10 to 49 employees.
Considering
that most respondents work in a large company, there is a trend of great
cultural diversity, increasing intellectual capital, providing diversity and
process improvements, according to PMI (2017), in large organizations it is
possible to combine practices of several fundamental methods, reuse or create
new methods, principles and practices.
Evaluating
the experience, the answers, for the most part, are from experienced software
development specialists, as shown in Graph 2, where 55% have more than 15 years
of experience and 25% have 11 to 15 years of experience, with a tendency
towards reliability of the search result.
Considering
the analysis of Laanti (2014) as relevant, which
identified that listening to the team is important, because they are the ones
who know the problems, the analysis of the respondents' role was performed,
identifying it according to graph 3, identifying that 54% have a managerial
role and 46% have a managerial role. operational function, this balance
indicates that the problems and solutions are the domain of the respondents.
According to graph 4, the agile method is classified as especially important or
important, by 81% of respondents.
|
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Graph 1: Company size |
Graph 2: Experience in software
development |
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Graph 3: Function in the company |
Graph 4: Importance of the agile
method |
There was a balance in quantity between those who have and those who do not have certifications, as shown in graph 5.
Graph 5: Do you have any
certification?
4.2.
Analysis of the software development
management characteristics using agile
Graph
6, referring to question 1 in table 1, identified the preference for Scrum
followed by KANBAN and XP, with some experts combining methods and frameworks,
using the processes that best adapt to the needs of the company, but in the
answers it was possible to identify that it is common to combine agile with
traditional methods / frameworks, which highlights the need for parallel
controls not provided for in agile methodologies. This need was also identified
in the literature review where several authors also used methodologies /
frameworks to complement the agile method.
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Graph 6: What agile methods /
frameworks are used? |
Graph 7: What is the geographical
location of the teams? |
The
agile method is being used regardless of the location of the teams, as shown in
Graph 7 (question 2), with no significant preference for local development
teams. Which confirms (Papatheocharous & Andreou, 2014), when referring to
the location of the teams, whether or not they may be in the same environment
that they will work in the same way.
When
evaluating team communication, it was identified in Graph 8 (question 3), that
almost all respondents use both formal and informal communication. Given the
agile manifesto, (Beck et al., 2001), in which information is transmitted
through face-to-face conversations. However, according to graph 9 (question 4),
81% of the respondents declare that they have already identified some type of
communication problem, highlighting problems related to the lack of daily
meetings or the planning of meetings, problems with communication with the
client, rework and ill-defined responsibilities, parallel prioritization and
problem in the dissemination of information.
|
|
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Graph 8: What type of
communication is used? |
Graph 9: Have you identified any
communication problems? |
According
to Dingsøyr et al. (2017), rapid communication in informal meetings improves
integration and learning, however, attention should be paid to the
dissemination of information. According to (Al-Aidaros & Omar, 2017), one
of the causes that cause failures in projects that use agile methods is poor
communication.
Communication
and teamwork were indicated as the most important skills to team members of an
agile software development project, as shown in Graph 10 (question 5), with
emphasis on communication: ease of communication, knowledge listening and
sharing information, clarifying doubts, validating requirements, accepting and
receiving criticism.
The
team's skills were also cited as necessary: carrying out documentation, being
self-managed, committed, and multidisciplinary, proactive, and knowing how to
estimate deadlines assertively. Other characteristics are also mentioned, such
as: Collaborative, experienced, creative, flexible team, know agile methods and
motivating management. According to the literature, where the authors Vargas
(2016) and Kulkarni et al. (2017) cite the self-organized teams, Tripp,
Riemenschneider and Thatcher (2016) present the variety of skills and work
autonomy, and Dingsøyr et al. (2017) describes about knowledge sharing,
collaborative relationships and informal rapid communication and
self-management.
Graph 10:
What are the skills that the company identified as necessary for participants
for an agile project?
The
tools in support of agile development are used for project management,
planning, costs, tasks, communication, documentation, modeling, timesheet, test
management and version control. Preferred are MS-Project, proprietary tools,
e-mail, Jira, and MS-Office, as shown in Graph 11 (question 6). The diversity
of tools presented agrees with Kulkarni et al. (2017), which indicates that the
tools are used according to organizational needs and characteristics.
Graph 11: What support tools were used to control the project?
The
training of the team is carried out by 40% of the respondents, as shown in
Graph 12 (question 7), where various forms of training were used, such as
lectures, meetings and feedback, formal training and dissemination of knowledge
in which the most experienced guide the most new, in the same way as defended
by Nuottila, Aaltonen and Kujala (2016), and the team should not be limited to
formal training only. The transfer of knowledge builds the organizational
identity defining its differential in relation to other companies.
Graph 12: Were there any capacitation / training plans?
The most used roles in
agile software development projects are those of the development team (test,
programmer), project manager, scrum master and product owner, as shown in graph
13 (question 8).
Graph 13: What roles were adopted in development projects using agile
methodologies?
Speed
was the main benefit mentioned in the adoption of the agile method, as shown in
graph 14 (question 9). The team's involvement, compliance, maximization of
results and prevention of problems are also pointed out as an advantage.
In
graph 15 (question 10), although 28% of the experts did not find negative
points in the agile method, problems were identified that in the agile method
should not exist, such as client interference, constant requests for changes
and overload of tasks, suggesting problems in implementation of the agile methodology
for 56% of the specialists, since the client's participation is one of the main
motivators of the agile manifest, this participation allows deviations in the
understanding of the scope to be identified earlier.
The
team is the main point of attention to be considered, according to graph 16
(question 11) where they mention: training, behavior, need to define roles and
management of distributed teams. Scope estimation and communication are also
cited as a point of special attention.
Graph 14: What were the positive points in the adoption of agile
methods?
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Graph 15: What were the negative
points in the adoption of agile methods? |
Graph 16: What were the points of
special attention in the adoption of agile methods? |
According
to graph 17 (question 12), the risk management plan is not adopted by 60% of
the specialists. Among those who adopted, most use it based on PMBOK. Farid,
Abd Elghany and Helmy (2016), Vargas (2016), Surdu and Parsons (2006) adopt
risk management as a complementary action to the agile method based on
traditional methodologies / frameworks.
Monitoring
is adopted by 70% of specialists, to assess quality, performance and cost in
agile software development projects, as shown in graph 18 (question 13), as
well as Dingsøyr et al. (2017) identified the need to monitor quality, and
Al-Aidaros and Omar (2017) identified the need to monitor the project to
prevent failures. The metrics used by the respondents are used to monitor
productivity, performance, the quality of the software delivered, the deadline
and changes in scope.
Documentation
management tools are used by 70% of experts, as can be seen in Graph 19
(question 14), as well as Nuottila, Aaltonen and Kujala (2016), Vargas (2016),
Sundararajan, Bhasi and Vijayaraghavan (2014), Surdu and Parsons (2006), being
mentioned MS-Office, Enterprise Architect, GIT, SVN, Wiki, Sharepoint, Redmine,
Jira and own tools.
|
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Graph 17: Was there a plan for the
management of the rich? |
Graph 18: Is monitoring used to
assess quality, performance, and cost? |
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Graph 19 - Does the company use
tools for document management? |
Graph 20 - Was there an
improvement in the financial result when agile methods were adopted? |
Graph
20 (question 15) shows that 71% of the respondents identified that there was an
improvement in the financial result with the use of the agile method. Which
indicates financial advantage when adopting this method in software
development.
Requirement
and change management are performed by 71% of specialists, as shown in Graph 21
(question 16). Respondents described that this management is carried out
through change management processes, carrying out technical specifications,
impact assessment and software is used for documentation, customer approval and
traceability of changes. The second agile manifesto (BECK et al., 2001), is
based on the ability to respond to changes more quickly. Surdu and Parsons
(2006) confirmed their confidence in the development process by the rapid
capacity to respond to changes.
The
use of coding standards was identified as important by 86% of specialists, as
shown in Graph 22 (question 17), who cited as advantages of using this
practice: ease of maintenance, reuse, code quality, reduction of learning time
and improvement productivity. According to Al-Sakkaf, Hashim and Omar (2017),
this is one of the quality management practices selected among the best to meet
the needs of the organization.
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Graph 21: Do you perform any
requirements and change management? |
Graph 22: Do you consider it
important to define and use coding standards? |
The
practices considered important to guarantee quality, and the experts' answers
were grouped and identified, as shown in Graph 23 (question 18). The test is
the main factor to guarantee the quality indicated by 31% of the experts'
answers with citations for: test plan, unit test, TDD, complete system test,
automated test, acceptance test and code review. The tests are also cited by
Bowen et al. (2014), Sundararajan, Bhasi and Vijayaraghavan (2014), Surdu and
Parsons (2006). Standardization was the second quality item, being cited in 19%
of the responses and pointing out the need to identify, establish and
disseminate the standards of processes, architecture, coding, and interface.
Standard was one of the principles identified by Laanti (2014) and cited by (Papatheocharous
& Andreou, 2014).
Planning
and delivery were also classified as important in quality assurance, which
cited important understanding and approval of requirements, configuration
management and versioning of the code, a united, sincere team that knows how to
listen and good leadership, communication with feedbacks and daily meetings,
monitoring with the monitoring of the performance of the project, and
monitoring of the results, and the participation of the client following all
phases of the project from the scope survey to the tests and installation.
Graph 23:
Which practices are considered important to guarantee quality?
5.
CONCLUSION
Initially,
this study carried out a literature review which supported the questionnaire
with open and closed questions in the field research. The questionnaire was
applied to 21 experts in agile software development who work in Brazil, located
in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, whose answers were evaluated through
descriptive statistics and content analysis.
When
analyzing the profile of the respondents, it was identified that most
specialists work in companies with more than 99 employees, there is a balance
in the functions exercised between managerial and operational, most of them had
more than ten years of experience in software development, and half have some
certification.
The
agile method in software development was considered important by most
respondents, who reported having knowledge and were familiar with the method.
Despite this fact, only half of the respondents use it regularly. Here is a
suggestion for future studies to understand the reason for not using the
method, as if it exists it is considered important.
Most
respondents identified a positive financial result when adopting the method for
software development, signaling a great advantage in adopting this methodology
and it could be observed that there is a preference for the Scrum method,
however Kanban is already used by 24% of specialists.
The
teams are not restricted only to local development, but geographically
distributed teams are also used, there is also no defined standard for
communication, thus obeying the agile manifesto, however the specialists
identified problems in this practice, probably due to the excess of
informality. In this item, it arouses the need to identify the balance between
lack and excess of formality in communication.
Several
were the positive points cited by the adoption of agile development, among the
main ones are the speed that is cited by 31% of the interviewees and the
involvement of the team, compliance, maximization of results, prevention of
problems, involvement with the client were also mentioned , simplicity,
standardization and reuse, conformity and quality.
Although
28% of the experts did not identify any negative points, it was evident that
there are problems in the adoption of the agile method since they considered
the participation of the client to be a problem for development.
The
tools for managing agile software development are adopted for various controls
such as project management, planning, costs, tasks, communication,
documentation, modeling, timesheet, testing, and version management. This set
of tools was considered by 79% of the experts to be sufficient, however the
other 21% identified the need for complementation with tools for controlling
documentation and versioning requirements.
In
addition, the risk management plan is not adopted by most respondents, unlike
monitoring and document management, which is used by 70% of specialists, and
requirement and change management, which is carried out by 71%, through
technical specification and impact analysis and customer approval. Less than
half of the respondents adopt an acquisition plan, however, among those who do,
they did not know how to explain how it is done.
It
is worth mentioning that, in the opinion of experts, the actions that
contribute to the success of a software development project are basically in
quality control using different testing techniques, project management, time,
stakeholders, scope and having an agile communication. Confirming this
position, when they were asked about the actions to guarantee quality, they
mention several practices such as testing, standardization, planning and
delivery, configuration management, team and customer participation,
communication, and monitoring.
The
coding standard considered important by 86% of the specialists who cited the
advantage of easy maintenance, reuse, code quality, reduced learning time and
improved productivity. All these practices are used by specialists to generate
confidence and quality in the development process.
Despite
the improvement in the financial result with the use of the agile method and
being considered important, only half of the respondents
use it regularly. What suggests that this method should be adopted more, as a
suggestion for future research it is suggested to investigate the reason why
this method is not being widely adopted.
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