Cleviton V. F. Monteiro

Six years of systematic literature reviews in software engineering: An updated tertiary study

Context: Since the introduction of evidence-based software engineering in 2004, systematic literature review (SLR) has been increasingly used as a method for conducting secondary studies in software engineering. Two tertiary studies, published in 2009 and 2010, identified and analysed 54 SLRs published in journals and conferences in the period between 1st January 2004 and 30th June 2008. Objective: In this article, our goal was to extend and update the two previous tertiary studies to cover the period between 1st July 2008 and 31st December 2009. We analysed the quality, coverage of software engineering topics, and potential impact of published SLRs for education and practice. Method: We performed automatic and manual searches for SLRs published in journals and conference proceedings, analysed the relevant studies, and compared and integrated our findings with the two previous tertiary studies. Results: We found 67 new SLRs addressing 24 software engineering topics. Among these studies, 15 were considered relevant to the undergraduate educational curriculum, and 40 appeared of possible interest to practitioners. We found that the number of SLRs in software engineering is increasing, the overall quality of the studies is improving, and the number of researchers and research organisations worldwide that are conducting SLRs is also increasing and spreading. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the software engineering research community is starting to adopt SLRs consistently as a research method. However, the majority of the SLRs did not evaluate the quality of primary studies and fail to provide guidelines for practitioners, thus decreasing their potential impact on software engineering practice.

Team building criteria in software projects: A mix-method replicated study

Abstract Context The internal composition of a work team is an important antecedent of team performance and the criteria used to select team members play an important role in determining team composition. However, there are only a handful of empirical studies about the use of team building criteria in the software industry. Objective The goal of this article is to identify criteria used in industrial practice to select members of a software project team, and to look for relationships between the use of these criteria and project success. In addition, we expect to contribute with findings about the use of replication in empirical studies involving human factors in software engineering. Method Our research was based on an iterative mix-method, replication strategy. In the first iteration, we used qualitative research to identify team-building criteria interviewing software project managers from industry. Then, we performed a cross-sectional survey to assess the correlations of the use of these criteria and project success. In the second iteration, we used the results of a systematic mapping study to complement the set of team building criteria. Finally, we performed a replication of the survey research with variations to verify and improve the results. Results Our results showed that the consistent use team building criteria correlated significantly with project success, and the criteria related to human factors, such as personality and behavior, presented the strongest correlations. The results of the replication did not reproduce the results of the original survey with respect to the correlations between criteria and success goals. Nevertheless, the variations in the design and the difference in the sample of projects allowed us to conclude that the two results were compatible, increasing our confidence on the existence of the correlations. Conclusion Our findings indicated that carefully selecting team member for software teams is likely to positively influence the projects in which these teams participate. Besides, it seems that the type of development method used can moderate (increase or decrease) this influence. In addition, our study showed that the choice of sampling technique is not straightforward given the many interacting factors affecting this type of investigation.

An evidence‐based model of distributed software development project management: results from a systematic mapping study

Distributed software development (DSD) has intensified over the past few years, and DSD project management is more complex than collocated project management. However, no systematic research effort has focused on aggregating evidence from the scientific literature to build models to support project management on DSD context. For these reasons, the goal of this paper is to build an evidence‐based model of DSD project management from the research findings about challenges of DSD and the practices, models and tools proposed and used to overcome these challenges. We based the construction of this model on the evidence collected and synthesized by a comprehensive systematic mapping study of 70 research papers published between 1997 and 2009. We believe that our results can help practitioners and researchers to better understand the challenges and implement more effective solutions to improve project management within distributed project management teams. These results also provide a mapping of the research about DSD project management, identifying areas where further research is needed. Copyright

A critical appraisal of systematic reviews in software engineering from the perspective of the research questions asked in the reviews

After a seminal article introducing-evidence based software engineering in 2004, systematic reviews (SR) have been increasingly used as a method for conducting secondary studies in software engineering. Our goal is to critically appraise the use of SR in software engineering with respect to the research questions asked and the ways the questions were used in the reviews. We analyzed 53 literature reviews that had been collected in two published tertiary studies. We found that over 65% of the research questions asked in the reviews were exploratory and only 15% investigated causality questions. We concluded that there is a need for a consistent use of terminology to classify secondary studies and that reports of literature reviews should follow reporting guidelines to support assessment and comparison.

A qualitative study of the determinants of self-managing team effectiveness in a scrum team

There are many evidences in the literature that the use self-managing teams has positive impacts on several dimensions of team effectiveness. Agile methods, supported by the Agile Manifesto, defend the use of self-managing teams in software development in substitution of hierarchically managed, traditional teams. The goal of this research was to study how a self-managing software team works in practice and how the behaviors of the software organization support or hinder the effectiveness of such teams. We performed a single case holistic case study, looking in depth into the actual behavior of a mature Scrum team in industry. Using interviews and participant observation, we collected qualitative data from five team members in several interactions. We extract the behavior of the team and of the software company in terms of the determinants of self-managing team effectiveness defined in a theoretical model from the literature. We found evidence that 17 out of 24 determinants of this model exist in the studied context. We concluded that certain determinants can support or facilitate the adoption of methodologies like Scrum, while the use of Scrum may affect other determinants.

An Empirical Study on the Use of Team Building Criteria in Software Projects

The goal of this article is to identify criteria used in industrial practice to select members of a software project team, and to look for relationships between these criteria and project success. Initially, using semi-structured interviews for data collection and qualitative methods for data analysis and synthesis, a set of team building criteria was identified from project managers in industry. Then, using this set of criteria and a method to evaluate software project success, a survey questionnaire was created to investigate the relationship between the consistent use or application of the criteria and project success. A cross-sectional survey collected data from 48 projects in 24 software companies and the data was analyzed for internal reliability using statistical methods. The findings show that the consistent use of the set of criteria correlated significantly with project success, and the criteria related to human factors present the strongest correlations.

Software support for the Fuzzy Front End stage of the innovation process: a systematic literature review

The early stages of new product development, called the Fuzzy Front End (FFE), are essential for the success of innovation. Therefore, various software tools have been proposed to support FFE activities. However, little evidence is provided about the benefits of using such tools. The objective of this study is to present evidence that will assist industry practitioners to make informed choices about software support tools to be used in the FFE. The method used for this study was a systematic literature review that analyzed 1090 articles published between 1997 and 2009. The results show that software tools can speed up the FFE, reduce costs, increase collaboration, improve decision quality and knowledge management, reduce risks, and enhance overall creativity.

Relationships Between Communication Structure and Software Architecture: An Empirical Investigation of the Conway's Law at the Federal University of Pernambuco

Aim - The goal of this study is to investigate the relationships between the communication structure of a software team and the resulting architecture of the software developed under the perspective of Conways Law. Method - A quasi-experiment was designed in an industrial context in which the results of two teams were compared. One team worked using an agile approach based on Scrum with daily meetings and frequent daily communication. The other team used a more traditional approach based on hierarchical command-and-control style of management with very limited communication between team members. We observed both teams during the project, interviewed participants, and carried out a focus group to collect and compare impressions of team members at the end of the projects. Results - We found large differences between architectural designs of the two teams, as predicted. Hierarchical team presented best results with respect to efficiency and efficacy of development. Agile team produced a simpler solution and the system design was more coupled than hierarchical team. Conclusion - Our findings provided partial support to Conways Law, but some surprising results were found.