Anna Rohunen

Approaches to agile adoption in large settings: a comparison of the results from a literature analysis and an industrial inventory

Nowadays the software industry is applying agile methods widely. However, there appears to be a lack of comprehensive guidelines and strategies addressing agile adoption. In addition, agile methods and practices often have to be tailored to be integrated into existing processes. In this study, agile adoption frameworks and strategies discussed in the literature, especially in the context of agile in the large, are analysed. The findings from the literature are validated by and compared to an industrial inventory. Based on the validation and the comparison, new approaches for agile adoption in large settings have been identified: incremental agile adoption approaches combining both bottom-up and top-down strategies; the important role of identified key practices that enable quick feedback and adaptation in the early adoption stages; and approaches derived from the multidimensional nature of agility. These approaches make possible to overcome the restrictions of conventional agile methods.

Exploring the Transient Nature of Agile Project Management Practices

Agile software projects have considerable freedom in shaping their emerging project management practices, and there are established ways to do that, e.g., with process retrospectives. The practices may change due to many reasons, such as (i) changes to critical system or process properties, (ii) process context, (iii) process capability maturity, etc. Maturity is not the only reason and a suitable wider perspective and support is necessary to handle the transient nature of agile practices. We propose to use a value-based approach and shift the discussion from the conventional solution space to the goal (value) space. Further we recommend an impact estimation approach for identifying current practice state (agile positioning) and a corresponding approach for navigating through the value (and solution) space as well as ways to visualize the results. This work underlies the ongoing development of an agile positioning and navigation tool including a survey approach to practice and tool impact analysis and estimation.

Approaches to Privacy Protection in Location-Based Services

Location-based services (LBS) introduce serious privacy threats, which need to be addressed before the users and the service providers can get full benefit of these promising services. We addressed this challenge by reviewing and analysing privacy protection solutions proposed in the literature. Based on the analysis, we identified three general approaches for implementing privacy protection in LBS: privacy parameters, data disclosure control algorithms and information architectures. Implementation of specific privacy protection methods based on these approaches have still many unsolved challenges, such as data precision requirements of different service types and technical issues in information architectures. In addition, we see that user centric approach should be emphasised in the future privacy protection method development, in order to foster users’ trust to the services.

Validating Applicability of Smart-M3 Platform for a Multi-vendor Micropayment System in the Context of Small Business

To be economically feasible, micropayment systems are expected to be efficient, with low transaction and computing costs and light security protection. In addition, a micropayment system is a networked good involving both consumers and merchants subject to positive network effects: the value of the system to consumers depends on the number of merchants adopting the system and vice versa. The objective of this study was to implement a micropayment system pilot for small business with restricted resources, scarce labor force and growing number of products and vendors. Based on the results of a literature review conducted in this study, an account-based system was considered an appropriate starting point for the pilot. Further, applicability of Smart-M3 platform for the system was validated. The results of the study show that the implemented system provides small business with opportunities of additional services and products, cost savings, and inclusion of new vendors.

Agile Adoption Strategies in the Context of Agile in the Large: FLEXI Agile Adoption Industrial Inventory

FLEXI Agile Adoption Industrial Inventory (FLEXI AAII) was intended to amass current knowledge and experiences about agile adoption strategies in large settings. It was conducted among industrial partners of FLEXI project (see acknowledgements) by reviewing project deliverables, publications and other relevant material. The ground for FLEXI AAII was based on an extensive literature analysis on existing agile adoption strategies. FLEXI AAII identified new approaches to manage the restrictions of adopting conventional agile methodologies, along with a comparison to reported approaches in the literature. These new approaches are: combining different agile adoption strategies and taking multidimensional nature of agility in the preliminary activities of agile adoption into account.

Explaining Diversity and Conflicts in Privacy Behavior Models

ABSTRACT Technological development and increasing personal data collection and utilization raise the importance of understanding individuals’ privacy behavior. Privacy behavior denotes the willingness to disclose personal data for services utilizing these data. The literature presents various privacy behavior models (PBMs). However, the research is incoherent, with inconsistencies among models. Therefore, the application and subsequent development of PBMs are challenging. Different background theories are used for model construction, and studies have been conducted in distinct application domains. We studied whether the models’ inconsistencies could be explained by these differences. Our in-depth analysis of PBMs was based on a systematic literature review of the most often cited key studies. Our findings indicate that the choice of theories and the application domains do not explain inconsistencies; instead, the models are often of an ad hoc type and constructed in an eclectic way. These results imply the need for more consistent research on privacy behavior.

FLEXI Project Management Survey

FLEXI Project Management Survey (FLEXI PMS) has been established to gain detailed knowledge on how the software industry – in particular successful companies – manages agile software development. FLEXI PMS investigates the actual agile values, principles, practices and contexts. The survey is supported by a careful literature review and analysis of existing studies. Special attention is attached to large, multi-site, multi-company and distributed projects – the target area of FLEXI project. The survey is intended to provide solid data for further knowledge acquisition and project/company positioning with regard to feasible agile management practices.