Developing a Software Metrics Dashboard Supporting Multi-Team Agile Software Development
Authors
Meakin, Daniel ; Hendriks, Ivo ; Nygart, Frederik Frode
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2017
Submitted on
2017-06-07
Pages
25
Abstract
Stadig flere softwareorganisationer bruger agile metoder, fordi de opleves som fordelagtige i forhold til traditionelle tilgange. At styre arbejdet på tværs af flere agile teams er dog udfordrende. I denne undersøgelse ser vi på, om softwaremetrikker (målinger—målbare indikatorer af processer og resultater) og visning af dem i et dashboard (et visuelt overblik) kan hjælpe i multi-team agil udvikling. Med udgangspunkt i Van de Vens Engaged Scholarship og Hevners Design Science-rammeværk—anerkendte tilgange, der vægter samarbejde med praktikere og opbygning/evaluering af artefakter—udviklede og vurderede vi iterativt en dashboard-prototype sammen med agile praktikere i en dansk softwarevirksomhed. Vores evalueringssessioner resulterede i fjorten fund om, hvor effektive dashboardet og dets metrikker var. Vi sætter disse fund i relation til eksisterende litteratur om metrikker, dashboards og agil udvikling og peger på centrale metrikker og designovervejelser for dashboards i multi-team-sammenhænge. Vi bidrager også med det artefakt, som udviklingsprocessen mundede ud i: den endelige prototype. Til sidst skitserer vi mulighed for videre udvikling og evaluering.
More and more software organizations use agile methods because they appear advantageous compared with traditional approaches. Yet coordinating work across multiple agile teams is challenging. This study examines whether software metrics—measurable indicators of process and outcomes—and showing them in a dashboard (a visual overview) can help in multi-team agile development. Guided by Van de Ven’s Engaged Scholarship and Hevner’s Design Science framework—established approaches that emphasize collaboration with practitioners and building/evaluating artifacts—we iteratively designed and assessed a dashboard prototype with agile practitioners at a Danish software company. From the evaluation sessions we derived fourteen findings about how effective the dashboard and its metrics were. We relate these findings to existing literature on metrics, dashboards, and agile development, and identify key metrics and design considerations for dashboards in multi-team settings. We also contribute the resulting artifact: our final prototype. Finally, we outline possible directions for further development and evaluation.
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