Computational tool for learning electrostatic physics through the development of a disruptive methodology

A computational tool for learning electrostatic physics is presented through the development of a disruptive methodology. The tool allows the analysis of case studies based on Coulomb’s law, Gauss’s law, Poisson’s equation, and Laplace’s equation with boundary value. The tool was tested using reference exercises for each case study, making use of quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis between the traditional mathematical development and the computational tool. Errors were measured using Likert scale. The quantitative results showed errors of less than 1.8% in all the cases studied, concluding that the tool is effective. The qualitative results showed that the methodology allows a better development of the electrostatics learning process, dynamizing the study of complex topics such as electromagnetic physics theories through interactivity and technological resources, in addition to having a theoretical module developed using agile methodologies that provide dynamism and an intuitive environment to the interface.

eXtreme Programming, Agile Methodologies, Software Project Management, Customer Role, Rigorous Testing

Agile software development methodologies are attracting attention from academics and practitioners for planning and managing software projects. The eXtreme Programming (XP) challenges conformist wisdom regarding software system development processes and practices as agile methodologies. To work efficiently in the current software development practice, characterized by requirements fuzziness, XP moves away from document-centric operations into people-centric management. In the XP-based software project, the customers play an essential role, having multiple responsibilities such as driving the project, gathering requirements (‘user stories'), and exercising quality control (or acceptance testing). Besides, the customers must liaise with external project stakeholders (e.g., funding authorities, end-users) while maintaining the development team's trust and the wider business. The success of such software project management practices relies on the quality result of each stage of development obtained through rigorous testing. This chapter describes three characteristics of XP project management: customer role, software testing feedback, and learning.

Challenges and Trends of Agile

Rapidly increasing of requirements of business pushed researchers to define new approaches and methodologies to meet marketing needs. Agile methodology has been created and replaced the traditional-driven development methods that focus on soliciting, documenting a complete set of requirements, and take a long time comparing to market change. On the other hand, customers need to be closer to the development process and collaborate with team development. Despite agile advantages, introducing new tools, coordination, and collaboration concepts, some challenges still need to be discussed and improved. These challenges relate to achieve balanced IT service development process in the organization. As a result, new trends have been created to facilitate new changes in software development. This chapter will study agile methodologies and different challenges with suggested solutions generated from agile philosophy itself.

Software Maintainability Estimation in Agile Software Development

Agile methodologies have gained wide acceptance for developing high-quality products with a quick and flexible approach. However, until now, the quality of the agile process has not been validated quantitatively. Quality being important for the software system, there is a need for measurement. Estimating different quality factors will lead to a quality product. Also, agile software development does not provide any precise models to evaluate maintainability. Therefore, there is a need for an algorithmic approach that can serve as the basis for estimation of maintainability. The article proposes an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model for estimating agile maintainability. Maintainability is one of the prominent quality factors in the case of agile development. The proposed model has been verified and found to be effective for assessing the maintainability of agile software.

Going Agile, a Post-Pandemic Universal Work Paradigm - A Theoretical Narrative Review

Due to digital transformation, technology advancements, telework, we can no longer pretend that traditional work offers high incentives and efficiency, but on the contrary, traditional work falls behind each year, deeming organizations and individuals to adopt the agile work. Rapid technological developments have altered the way businesses operate, with the goal of producing viable solutions in an environment fraught with unpredictability. This paper is a theoretical narrative review on the general topic of agile work. The present paper addresses the issue of determining the best international practices for implementing agile methodology at work, carrying out a theoretical narrative review. Basing on literature on present-day theory the authors make an attempt to explain the implications of implementing agile methodologies into organizational culture, summarize existing approaches to classifying the main effects on implementing agile methodologies at work, consolidate and document best international practices for agile methodologies development among employers. After defining the concepts of agile method tailoring and agile maturity, the data obtained in the theoretical narrative analysis reveal that the implementing agile methodologies have a direct impact on management style, on teams, on learning environments, and on employee’s mental health. An overall conclusions and discussions section is presented along with the personal opinion of authors. This work is intended to open a post-pandemic agile work research methodology, since there are no systematic approaches to this topic.

A case study of using the hybrid model of scrum and six sigma in software development

<span>The world of software engineering is constantly discovering new ways that lead to an increase in team performance in the production of software products and, at the same time, brings the customer's further satisfaction. With the advent of agile methodologies in software development, these objectives have been considered more seriously by software teams and companies. Due to their very nature, agile methodologies have the potential to be integrated with other methodologies or specific managerial approaches defined in line with agility objectives. One of the cases is Six Sigma, which is used in organizations by focusing on organizational change and process improvement. In the present study, attempts were made to present the hybrid software development approach, including Scrum, as the most common agile and Six Sigma methodology. This approach was practically used in a case study, and the obtained results were analyzed. The results of this evaluation showed that this hybrid method could lead to the increased team performance and customer satisfaction. However, besides these two achievements, an increase in the number of re-works, number of defects discovered, and the duration of the project implementation were also observed. These cases are in line with the main objectives of Scrum and Six Sigma and are justifiable and acceptable due to achieving those objectives.</span>

Scrum: A new framework applied to education

The digital transformation entails the inclusion and development of agile methodologies that allow adapting the way of working to the conditions of the project, achieving flexibility to the specific circumstances of the environment by working collaboratively. The extrapolation of Scrum to education pursues a purely practical and experiential learning, with the aim of achieving the full development of its autonomy, abilities and skills. Consequently, the objective pursued by this article is to highlight the different topics that are considered when working with Scrum and presenting one example of the application of agile methodologies in the classroom eduScrum.

Are we ready? Identifying the gap between academia and software industry in the context of agile methodologies

Nowadays, there is an exponential increase in the technology industry. However, there is not enough movement to promote changes in the Computer Science curricula. This study aims to analyze the alignment between Brazilian northeast academia and the global industry regarding developing skills in the context of agile methods. This research conducted an exploratory and quantitative survey with 161 participants represented by 65 students, 85 professionals from 10 countries, and 16 university professors. The preliminary results illustrate that academics believe that they are moderately aligned with the market. However, from the practitioner's viewpoint, it is unsatisfactory. This article reports relevant findings that can help the Brazilian academy align its practices with the needs of the global software industry.

Critical success factors for outsourced software development projects from a vendor's perspective: A structural equation modelling analysis of traditional plan-based and agile methodologies

<p>There are many factors proposed as to why software projects fail, one of them is the inappropriate choice of a project management methodology. Although there is an increased range of available management choices, project managers do not frequently consider their alternatives. They tend to narrowly tailor project categorisation systems and use categorisation criteria that are not logically linked with objectives. To address this, this study develops and tests an integrative contingency fit model for contrasting perspectives of traditional plan-based and agile methodologies specifically for outsourced software development projects. In addition, it takes a vendor‘s perspective, rather than the client perspective that is mostly used. Overall, the research seeks to answer these questions: (RQ1) what are the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for outsourced software development projects from a vendor‟s perspective? (RQ2) What are the differences in these CSFs for traditional plan-driven and agile methodologies towards project success from a vendor‟s perspective? The IT literature reveals two major distinct categories of methodologies: traditional plan-based and agile. Previous research has identified CSFs with respect to project success with mixed findings. The recent increase in popularity of methodologies has shifted the debate, interest and controversy to CSFs that are the factors which are most important to make a methodology successful. While there is an increasing diversity of project types, project contexts and methodologies, the frameworks or theories connecting these are limited. To date software development projects studies have addressed generally one methodology per study and perceived candidate CSFs as a form of reasons of success amidst a wide range of project success criteria. Although contingency theory has been previously argued for outsourced software development projects, empirical models have frequently not fully incorporated contingency as fit or fit as moderation (i.e. traditional vs. agile). This study sought to fill this research gap. Cross-sectional data from 984 senior vendor project managers and team leaders was collected by a global web-based survey. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) (a multivariate statistical technique, in which parameters are estimated by minimizing the discrepancy between the model-implied covariance matrix and the observed covariance matrix) was used for data analysis. SEM results provide support for several contingency hypotheses theorizing relationships between candidate CSFs and project success. Project management methodology was found to moderate the effects of various CSFs on project success, and in different ways for various success measures. Similarly, the results show the level of project uncertainty moderates the impact of various CSFs on project success, and in different ways for various success measures. Together these findings provide empirical support for contingency as fit and more fully incorporate fit as moderation. The study contributes towards understanding the differences between traditional plan-based and agile project management based on the perceptions of vendor respondents with regard to their client organizations, and also to understanding what are the most significant antecedents of success (the CSFs) in different project contexts. The study also examines the indirect and interaction effects, and the findings contribute towards understanding of the contingency perspective as a framework to be used by project managers and organizations. Practical implications of these results suggest that project managers should tailor project management methodologies according to various project types, which is likely to improve current project success rates.</p>