Assessing the Challenges of Adopting Agile Software Development Practices: The case of two software development companies in Addis Ababa
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Date
2021-06-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study was conducted to assess the challenges and implementation gaps of agile software development within Atlas Computing Technologies PLC and Jasmine Addis Trading. These two companies have different project approach, the first undertaking customer-initiated projects while the later mostly undertake in-house software development projects. Qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used in this study. A qualitative research was conducted to assess the challenges these companies face in implementing ASD practices. Primary data collection using questionnaire and in-depth interviews were conducted on all software development teams. Descriptive statistics was employed to present team size, composition, years of experience and other elements of teams. Questionnaires were distributed to teams in both companies to assess the nature, composition and other aspects of teams. In-depth interview sessions were held with technical leads and project managers to gather a comprehensive and descriptive data about the agile software development challenges faced in the case companies. Data collected from participants were analysed using narrative analysis approach. Requirement engineering challenges were prevalent mainly due to absence of team-stakeholder communication. Lack of commitment, self-management, and absence of proper workspace were among the major team and process challenges. Lack of managerial commitment and lack of agile-considerate recruitment strategy were among the major organizational challenges identified. In order to eliminate ASD implementation challenges it is advisable that each companies design their own custom Agile implementation strategies that align with their organizational values, resource capacity and cultural readiness. In the case of Jasmin Addis Trading, the firm should focus on commitment of customers throughout projects to ensure the dedication of product owners in the requirement engineering process. It would also be advantageous if the organization give room for research and development so that teams can enhance their technical capacity and look for optimization mechanisms for upcoming projects. Atlas computing technologies should focus on changing the organization culture, designing agile based recruitment strategy, conducting retrospective meeting sessions and training programs to change the perspective of employees towards the advantages of implementing agile practices. Managers should accept the necessity of business analysts in the requirement engineering process to tackle most of the prevalent challenges.
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Keywords
Agile software development, Agile practices, Requirement Engineering