Contextualizing agile : a study on software process tailoring in Maltese organisations

Abstract

Over recent years, the software industry has become an important contributor to Malta’s economy. Most of the organisations in this industry compete not only in the local market but also on the global stage. The software process used by these companies plays a major role on their ability to gain competitive advantage. Several studies show that companies around the world are adopting Agile software processes to help them cope with the complexity of software projects however, no studies have been found which indicate how Maltese software organisations are implementing and tailoring their software processes. Purpose - This dissertation attempts to address this shortcoming by conducting an exploratory research on the state of industry with regards to the software processes being used by Maltese organisations. Specifically, this research tries to answer three main questions: What are the situational factors affecting the choice of software process of Maltese organisations? How are software companies adopting and adapting their software process? And what approaches are Maltese companies taking to tailor the software process? Design - With these questions in mind, this research collected data from fifteen semi structured interviews with fifteen important organisations in the software industry. The data was then analysed using the Template Analysis and Data Display methods. Results – This dissertation contributes to existing literature in four main areas. First of all it develops knowledge about the situational factors which are affecting the software processes of Maltese organisations. Forty two different situational factors were identified from the analysis of the interviews. Secondly, this research enhances knowledge about the current industry standards with regards to Agile usage in Maltese organisations. The study shows that approximately half of the participant organisations claimed to be using an Agile based approach, specifically the Scrum methodology. However, the research also determined that different participants used different criteria on which to judge if their process was Agile based. A list of eight different used criteria was in fact compiled.