Using Students’ Screencasts as an Alternative to Written Submissions

2022 | HICSS | Citations: 0

Authors: Christensen, Henrik Bærbak

Abstract: In this paper, we report our experiences on using student produced screencasts ... Expand

Abstract: In this paper, we report our experiences on using student produced screencasts as a medium for students to explain and provide overview of their solution to advanced design and programming exercises. In our context, the screencasts have replaced written reports as submissions, and we report both on students' perception on work effort and effectiveness of screencasts as well as teaching assistants' experiences in assessing and marking the screencasts. Our main conclusions are that screencasted submissions is an important tool in the teacher's toolbox for some categories of learning tasks, but there are a number of best practices to follow to gain the full benefits of the approach. Collapse

Topics: brainstorming online learning system pandemic test-driven development systems design

Methods: survey design qualitative interview survey group interview personal interview

Differences Between the Required Skills of Workers in Agile Positions in Germany and the US According to Current Job Offers

2021 | International Conference on Business Informatics | Citations: 0

Authors: Aldenhoven, Céline Madeleine; Brosch, Dominik Korbinian; Prommegger, Barbara; Krcmar, Helmut

Abstract: The IT industry is getting more and more agile. Therefore, it is important to kn ... Expand

Abstract: The IT industry is getting more and more agile. Therefore, it is important to know about the required skills for agile workers in this industry. In this study, we analyzed 1000 job advertisements from online job portals to determine the differences in skill requirements for agile workers in the IT industry in Germany versus the U.S. We found that searches for non-technical skills are greater in the U.S. than in Germany. Test and Requirements Management are the most important management concept searches in both countries. JavaScript is searched more often in the U.S. This study contributes to a better understanding of the required skills of agile workers in Germany and the U.S. Collapse

Topics: IT skill programming language Monster.com JavaScript problem solving

Methods: survey qualitative coding design methodology computational algorithm

Performance Outcomes of Test-Driven Development: An Experimental Investigation

2020 | Journal of the Association for Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Bhadauria, Vikram; Mahapatra, RadhaKanta; Nerur, Sridhar

Abstract: Despite the growing popularity of test-driven development (TDD), there is no emp ... Expand

Abstract: Despite the growing popularity of test-driven development (TDD), there is no empirical confirmation of the benefits that this contemporary practice confers on its users. Prior research findings on its efficacy have largely been inconclusive. We conducted a laboratory experiment to assess the impact of TDD on software quality and task satisfaction. Additionally, we investigated the productivity aspect of TDD as compared to the traditional test-last method of software development. Results indicate that software quality and task satisfaction are significantly improved when TDD is used. Despite the additional requirements of testing, TDD is not more resource intensive than the test-last method. We also examined TDD’s impact on learning post hoc and discuss the implications of our findings and directions for future research. Collapse

Topics: systems development system quality productivity software developer problem solving

Methods: experiment parametric test survey ANOVA laboratory experiment

Theories: goal theory

Control Portfolio Adaptation in Scrum: Initial Findings from a Practitioner Survey

2019 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Fischer, Thomas; Hevner, Alan; Riedl, René

Abstract: Software development processes are defined by control practices such as daily st ... Expand

Abstract: Software development processes are defined by control practices such as daily stand-ups or burndown charts. Although previous research has thoroughly investigated the antecedents of control selection and the consequences of control enactment, there is a lack of research into the dynamic changes that are made to a control portfolio throughout a project's life cycle. In preparation for a large, future field study, we conducted (i) a literature review to create a list of practices that are common in Scrum pro-jects and (ii) a survey with selected interviews of 16 Scrum practitioners. Our goals are to investigate whether these agile control practices are used, and if so, how intensively, and whether their use changes over a project’s life cycle (i.e., whether they are used throughout the entire project, and added or removed during the project). We find initial evidence for elements in the project environment, project outcomes, and experiences with control mechanisms to be main triggers of change to a control portfolio. Further, we identify different modes of adaptations (e.g., control portfolio adaptation vs practice modification). Based on these findings we propose a research model and an outline for our future longitudinal field study. Collapse

Topics: Scrum test-driven development pair programming project productivity co-located work

Methods: design methodology survey literature sample longitudinal research field study

Practicing Scrum in Institute Course

2019 | HICSS | Citations: 1

Authors: Hsu, Hwai-Jung

Abstract: Scrum is one of the most popular agile methods following \textit{Manifesto for A ... Expand

Abstract: Scrum is one of the most popular agile methods following \textit{Manifesto for Agile Software Development}, and is a value-driven software development approach which focuses on maximizing the values of the customers. Many top software companies like Amazon.com, Apple, and Microsoft directly apply Scrum and other Agile methods for developing great software products. To raise the talents required by industry, teaching agile methods in university is necessary. However, with the limits of time, space, and experts in agile development, it can be difficult for students to learn the practices of agile methods in college. In this paper, we describe an experimental course in Feng Chia University that practices Scrum for term projects among five teams composed of 34 students. To the best of our knowledge the practices is the few attempts to practically apply all the factors described in Scrum framework such as sprint planning, daily scrum, review, retrospective meetings, product owner, and scrum master in institutional agile education. In this paper, the design and the process of the term projects based on Scrum are described, and the lessons learned from practicing Scrum in college are presented as discussion. Collapse

Topics: Scrum agile software development test-driven development pair programming

Methods: design methodology survey

How Pair Programming Influences Team Performance: The Role of Backup Behavior, Shared Mental Models, and Task Novelty

2019 | Information Systems Research | Citations: 31

Authors: Kude, Thomas; Mithas, Sunil; Schmidt, Christoph T.; Heinzl, Armin

Abstract: This study examines the team-level effects of pair programming by developing a r ... Expand

Abstract: This study examines the team-level effects of pair programming by developing a research model that accounts for mediators and moderators of the relationship between pair programming and team performance. We hypothesize that pair programming helps software development teams establish backup behavior by strengthening the shared mental models among developers. In turn, backup behavior attenuates the negative effect of task novelty on team performance. We collect data from the software developers, Scrum masters, and product owners of 62 software development teams in a global enterprise software firm and find broad support for our research model. The study makes important contributions by shifting attention to the team-level effects of pair programming and by explicating mediating and moderating mechanisms related to the roles of shared mental models, backup behavior, and task novelty. The results underline the importance of viewing pair programming as a context-specific practice that helps establish backup behavior in teams. In terms of implications for practitioners, our results show that pair programming can be a valuable element of team governance to create shared mental models and backup behavior and to achieve high team performance when teams face high levels of task novelty. Collapse

Topics: pair programming backup team productivity systems development software developer

Methods: design methodology survey descriptive statistic robustness check survey design

Theories: theory of shared mental models adaptation-level theory

A Case Study of API Management Using Aspects in a Brazilian Organization

2019 | Americas Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Santana, Samuel Linhares; Reis, Rodrigo; Souza, Cleidson de

Abstract: IntroductionA new business context emerged as a result of the connection of int ... Expand

Abstract: IntroductionA new business context emerged as a result of the connection of internal parts of an organization with the external public (Chesbrough 2003). This context allows the creation of a collaborative environment between organizations and their external public. The collaboration can occur in a variety of ways, but it often occurs through a set of software solutions that provide support and automation of interoperable activities and transactions, both by the organizations themselves and the external members. This set of solutions is translated into a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs, for short). According to Blosh (2006), APIs can be the biggest assets of an organization because they can help to capture clients due to the clients' investment on buying, writing and learning them. Examples include Google, Twitter, and Facebook, to name a few (De Brajesh 2017).As the use of an API increases and the development community that consumes this API expands, its management becomes increasingly more important (De Brajesh 2017; Oracle 2017). That is, API management is important to ensure that the IT services provided through the APIs are delivered faster, and with better quality. For instance, API management can provide insights into the use of APIs, including: geographical access patterns, types of devices used, latencies, key users, etc. Information on the use of APIs facilitates the decision making about product and service strategies of the underlying company (Zhenchang and Eleni 2007;Vásquez, 2014;Polak and Holubova 2015), as illustrated by organizations such as 3Scale (2017) and Apigee (2017). However, this management should be performed carefully to avoid problems in the application whose API is being monitored (Cibrán and Verheecke 2003;Bramantya 2015).Given the importance of APIs in the modern world and the need to manage APIs, this paper describes a case study of API management in a Brazilian organization. By API management, we mean the process of enabling one to create, analyze, and publish APIs in a secure, scalable environment through flexible communication, life cycle management, developer attraction, and usage analysis (De Brajesh 2017). This paper describes the API management module that we developed and a case study evaluating it. This module has two goals: (i) to manage Restful Java APIs, and as a byproduct, (ii) to automatically create documentation of RESTful Java APIs. Our module was implemented using aspect-oriented programming (AOP) (Kiczales 1997), which means it was located in an "intermediate transparent layer" between the API and the client allowing the definition of the target resources to be monitored found in the API using Web Services Management Layer (WSML) (Verheecke, 2004). By using AOP we were able to create and execute our management module without affecting the organization and its APIs to be monitored. Once the target resources were defined, the designed aspects monitored HTTP requests directed to the API, extracted information from the input, output, and header parameters of the respective request, and stored this information in a database for later analysis. In addition to the cited parameters, it was possible to identify other useful information for API management including the source IP of the request, the execution time, the exceptions thrown at runtime-level including class and method that caused of each exception (De Brajesh, 2017). Furthermore, our approach also allows the automatic creation of API documentation following the recommendations provided by SPYREST (Sohan, 2015). Therefore, our Collapse

Topics: application programming interface system deployment decision making web service test-driven development

Methods: case study qualitative interview design artifact computational algorithm design methodology

Scaling for agility: A reference model for hybrid traditional-agile software development methodologies

2018 | Information Systems Frontiers | Citations: 0

Authors: Gill, Asif Qumer; Henderson-Sellers, Brian; Niazi, Mahmood

Abstract: The adoption of agility at a large scale often requires the integration of agile ... Expand

Abstract: The adoption of agility at a large scale often requires the integration of agile and non-agile development elements for architecting a hybrid adaptive methodology. The challenge is ”which elements or components (agile or non-agile) are relevant to develop the context-aware hybrid adaptive methodology reference architecture?” This paper addresses this important challenge and develops a hybrid adaptive methodology reference architecture model using a qualitative constructive empirical research approach. In this way, we have uncovered the agility, abstraction, business value, business policy, rules, legal, context and facility elements or components that have not been explicitly modelled or discussed in International Standards (IS) such as the ISO/IEC 24744 metamodel. It is anticipated that a context-aware hybrid adaptive methodology can be architected by using the proposed context-aware hybrid adaptive methodology reference architecture elements for a particular situation when using a situational method engineering approach. Collapse

Topics: agile software development organizational value Scrum electronic health IT project

Methods: case study design methodology literature study cross sectional research business process modeling

Supporting the design of data integration requirements during the development of data warehouses: a communication theory-based approach

2017 | European Journal of Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Rosenkranz, Christoph; Holten, Roland; Räkers, Marc; Behrmann, Wolf

Abstract: Data warehouses (DW) form the backbone of data integration that is necessary for ... Expand

Abstract: Data warehouses (DW) form the backbone of data integration that is necessary for analytical applications, and play important roles in the information technology landscape of many industries. We introduce an approach for addressing the fundamental problem of semantic heterogeneity in the design of data integration requirements during DW development. In contrast to ontology-driven or schema-matching approaches, which propose the automatic resolution of differences ex-post, our approach addresses the core problem of data integration requirements: understanding and resolving different contextual meanings of data fields. We ground the approach firmly in communication theory and build on practices from agile software development. Besides providing relevant insights for the design of data integration requirements, our findings point to communication theory as a sound underlying foundation for a design theory of information systems development. Collapse

Topics: data integration agile software development electronic mail database system knowledge base

Methods: survey qualitative interview case study design methodology multiple case study

Theories: communication theory information systems theory

Holism versus reductionism in supply chain management: An economic analysis

2016 | Decision Support Systems | Citations: 1

Authors: Ponte, Borja; Costas, José; Puche, Julio; de la Fuente, David; Pino, Raúl

Abstract: Since supply chains are increasingly built on complex interdependences, concerns ... Expand

Abstract: Since supply chains are increasingly built on complex interdependences, concerns to adopt new managerial approaches based on collaboration have surged. Nonetheless, implementing an efficient collaborative solution is a wide process where several obstacles must be faced. This work explores the key role of experimentation as a model-driven decision support system for managers in the convoluted decision-making process required to evolve from a reductionist approach (where the overall strategy is the sum of individual strategies) to a holistic approach (where global optimization is sought through collaboration). We simulate a four-echelon supply chain within a large noise scenario, while a fractional factorial design of experiments (DoE) with eleven factors was used to explore cause-effect relationships. By providing evidence in a wide range of conditions of the superiority of the holistic approach, supply chain participants can be certain to move away from their natural reductionist behavior. Thereupon, practitioners focus on implementing the solution. The theory of constraints (TOC) defines an appropriate framework, where the Drum–Buffer–Rope (DBR) method integrates supply chain processes and synchronizes decisions. In addition, this work provides evidence of the need for aligning incentives in order to eliminate the risk to deviate. Modeling and simulation, especially agent-based techniques, allows practitioners to develop awareness of complex organizational problems. Hence, these prototypes can be interpreted as forceful laboratories for decision making and business transformation. Collapse

Topics: supply chain management decision support system decision making theory of constraints analytical information system

Methods: descriptive statistic experiment experimental design conceptual modelling computational algorithm

Theories: complex adaptive system