Venugopal Balijepally

A decade of agile methodologies

Ever since the agile manifesto was created in 2001, the research community has devoted a great deal of attention to agile software development. This article examines publications and citations to illustrate how the research on agile has progressed in the 10 years following the articulation of the manifesto. Specifically, we delineate the conceptual structure underlying agile scholarship by performing an analysis of authors who have made notable contributions to the field. Further, we summarize prior research and introduce contributions in this special issue on agile software development. We conclude by discussing directions for future research and urging agile researchers to embrace a theory-based approach in their scholarship.

Theoretical reflections on agile development methodologies

The traditional goal of optimization and control is making way for learning and innovation.

Assessing the relative influence of journals in a citation network

Some journals are perceived as sources of knowledge; others serve as storers of knowledge. Learning the strengths and persuasions of journals is of value to academia, scholars, and publishers.

Towards an understanding of the conceptual underpinnings of agile development methodologies

While the growing popularity of agile development methodologies is undeniable, there has been little systematic exploration of its intellectual foundation. Such an effort would be an important first step in understanding this paradigm’s underlying premises. This understanding, in turn, would be invaluable in our assessment of current practices as well as in our efforts to advance the field of software engineering. Drawing on a variety of sources, both within and outside the discipline, we argue that the concepts underpinning agile development methodologies are by no means novel. In the tradition of General Systems Theory this paper advocates a transdisciplinary examination of agile development methodologies to extend the intellectual boundaries of software development. This is particularly important as the field moves beyond instrumental processes aimed at satisfying mere technical considerations.

Is Information Systems a Reference Discipline

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in the level of intellectual contribution that IS makes to other disciplines. Much of the debate that has dominated the literature so far is based on the visions and opinions of a few IS scholars. This study endeavors to provide new insights into these deliberations by examining citation flows between journals from various business fields, many of which have served as reference disciplines to IS research. A log-multiplicative model was used to assess the influence of IS journals vis-à-vis other business journals. Further, inter-disciplinary flows were analyzed to address the question of whether IS is a valuable source or provider of knowledge. The results suggest that IS, while serving as a modest source of knowledge to management and marketing, is still predominantly a refereeing discipline, relying primarily on these two disciplines for its research.

Effect of Task Mental Models on Software Developer's Performance: An Experimental Investigation

This study provides some preliminary results on the efficacy of mental models in software development. Specifically, based on results from a controlled laboratory experiment, it shows that a software developers mental model quality is a determinant of software quality performance, regardless of whether the task is performed individually or in pairs. Further, this effect is found to be consistent across software tasks of varying complexity.