Agile Knowledge Management

Author(s):  
Meira Levy ◽  
Orit Hazzan

This article is based on the assumption that Knowledge Management (KM) is a vital part of any project. Based on this working assumption, the purpose of this article is to introduce the term Agile Knowledge Management (AKM) by illustrating how the Agile Software Development (ASD) approach is suitable for the introduction of KM processes. The ASD approach emerged over the past decade in response to the unique problems that characterize software development processes (Highsmith, 2002). In general, ASD emphasizes customer needs, communication among team members, short releases and heavy testing throughout the entire development process. These ideas are implemented quite variedly by the different ASD development methods. Knowledge Management (KM) and Agile Software Development (ASD) are two organizational processes that face common barriers when introduced and applied. This article suggests that because the field of KM presents a less disciplined approach compared with ASD, it is logical that KM practitioners should learn how ASD has coped with very similar barriers. We further illustrate how it is but natural to emphasize the concept of Agile Knowledge Management (AKM) in order to improve KM processes, because ASD already encompasses the organizational and cultural infrastructure needed for KM. The pairing of KM and ASD is not new; a connection between the two concepts has been acknowledged by various researchers. For related discussions, see, for example, Dove (1999) and Holz, Melnik and Schaaf (2003). This connection, however, is not surprising because both disciplines deal with organizational culture and change management. In what follows, we further highlight the connection between the two fields. First, we show that the two processes, KM and ASD, face the same barriers when introduced into an organization. We also include some suggestions for coping with such barriers. Second, we highlight the way in which KM is already embedded into ASD processes. Thus, in order to improve KM in such processes, it should be made more explicit. Accordingly, we introduce an agile KM manifesto.

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 62-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Turk ◽  
France. Robert ◽  
Bernhard Rumpe

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 64-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Kelly

The development of scientific software is usually carried out by a scientist who has little professional training as a software developer. Concerns exist that such development produces low-quality products, leading to low-quality science. These concerns have led to recommendations and the imposition of software engineering development processes and standards on the scientists. This paper utilizes different frameworks to investigate and map characteristics of the scientific software development environment to the assumptions made in plan-driven software development methods and agile software development methods. This mapping exposes a mismatch between the needs and goals of scientific software development and the assumptions and goals of well-known software engineering development processes.


Author(s):  
Vinay Kukreja ◽  
Amitoj Singh

In the globalization of fast changing business and technology environment, it becomes very important to respond quickly to changing user requirements. Traditional methodologies are not appropriate for the projects where user requirements are not fixed. Agile methodologies have been developed to cope up with user changing requirements and emphasize more on working software and customer collaboration. Agile is an umbrella term and it is used for many software development methodologies which shares common characteristics. This chapter mainly focuses on the working methodology of agile development and the usage areas of industry where agile development is implemented. Agile software development is difficult in distributed environment as the team members are at distributed locations. This chapter discusses agile industry applicability enablers which are useful for agile software development in distributed environment.


Author(s):  
Anuradha Chaminda Gajanayaka

Agile software development has established as a reliable alternative to waterfall software development model. Unfortunately the use of agile software development has been limited to time based contracts and not for time limited contracts. The main reason for this limitation is the “Agile manifesto” itself. The forth value of the manifesto states that agile believers find more value in “Responding to change over following a plan”. This is the one of the main reasons why agile software development methods are not preferred for a fixed priced contract or time limited contract. The following case study provides an example on how the agile software development can be used for fixed priced software development contracts even when operating in offshore context. The agile software development concepts were used throughout to plan, execute, monitor, report, etc. for the project documented in this case study.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Aminu Umar ◽  
Sheidu Salami Tenuche ◽  
Sahabi Ali Yusuf ◽  
Aminu Onimisi Abdulsalami ◽  
Aliyu Muhammad Kufena

As the popularity and acceptance of agile software development methodologies increases, the need to integrate usability engineering in the design and development processes is imperative. While, agile the focus is on technical and functional requirements not on end-user interaction, usability is usually only dealt with on the side. Combining this two in practice will go a long way in development of better product. Since the success and acceptance of software product depends not only on the technologies used but how well it integrates user-oriented methods. Therefore, this chapter puts together works on how usability engineering has been integrated with agile processes.


Author(s):  
Michal Dolezel ◽  
Alena Buchalcevova

People rely on structures to make their worlds orderly. This chapter conceptually probes into the problem of the differences between organizational structures deployed in traditional and agile environments. The authors develop an argument that all common forms of organizational entities can be classified by involving a two-dimensional classification scheme. Specifically, they constructed a typology to examine the issues of formal vs. informal authority, and disciplinarity vs. cross-functionality in terms of their significance for traditional and agile software development workplaces. Some examples of concrete organizational forms—including traditional project team, independent test team, self-organizing agile team and developers' community of practice—are discussed. In sum, they argue that by employing this classification scheme, they can theorize the nature of the on-going structural shift observed in conjunction with deploying agile software development methods. They acknowledge that the structures have fundamentally changed, terming the move “democratization” in the software development workplace.


Author(s):  
M. Siponen ◽  
R. Baskerville ◽  
R. Kuivalainen

Software developers can use agile software development methods to build secure information systems. Current agile methods have few (if any) explicit security fea-tures. While several discrete security methods (such as checklists and management standards) can supplement agile methods, few of these integrate seamlessly into other software development methods. Because of the severe constraints imposed by agile methods, these discrete security techniques integrate very poorly into agile approaches. This chapter demonstrates how the security features can be integrated into an agile method called feature driven development.


Author(s):  
M. Siponen ◽  
R. Baskerville ◽  
T. Kuivalainen

Software developers can use agile software development methods to build secure information systems. Current agile methods have few (if any) explicit security fea-tures. While several discrete security methods (such as checklists and management standards) can supplement agile methods, few of these integrate seamlessly into other software development methods. Because of the severe constraints imposed by agile methods, these discrete security techniques integrate very poorly into agile approaches. This chapter demonstrates how the security features can be integrated into an agile method called feature driven development.


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