Communications of the ACM (CACM for short, not the best sounding acronym around) is the ACM’s flagship magazine. Started in 1957, CACM is handy for keeping up to date on current research being carried out across all topics of computer science and realworld applications. CACM has had an illustrious past with many influential pieces of work and debates started within its pages. These include Hoare’s presentation of the Quicksort algorithm; Rivest, Shamir and Adleman’s description of the first publickey cryptosystem RSA; and Dijkstra’s famous letter against the use of GOTO. In addition to the print edition, which is released monthly, there is a fantastic website (http://cacm.acm. org/) that showcases not only the most recent edition but all previous CACM articles as well, readable online as well as downloadable as a PDF. In addition, the website lets you browse for articles by subject, a handy feature if you want to focus on a particular topic. CACM is really essential reading. Pretty much guaranteed to contain content that is interesting to anyone, it keeps tabs on the latest in computer science. It is a valuable asset for us students, who tend to delve deep into a particular area of CS and forget everything that is happening around us. — Daniel Gooch U ndergraduate research is like a box of chocolates: You never know what kind of project you will get. That being said, there are still a few things you should know to get the most out of the experience.

Communications of the ACM

https://research.aalto.fi/files/11744469/1_s2.0_S0164121216300826_main.pdf

Challenges and success factors for large-scale agile transformations

There is a growing interest in applying agile practices in Global Software Development (GSD) projects. The literature on using Scrum, one of the most popular agile approaches, in distributed development projects has steadily been growing. However, there has not been any effort to systematically select, review, and synthesize the literature on this topic. We have conducted a systematic literature review of the primary studies that report using Scrum practices in GSD projects. Our search strategy identified 366 papers, of which 20 were identified as primary papers relevant to our research. We extracted data from these papers to identify various challenges of using Scrum in GSD. Current strategies to deal with the identified challenges have also been extracted. This paper presents the review’s findings that are expected to help researchers and practitioners to understand the challenges involved in using Scrum for GSD projects and the strategies available to deal with them.

/pdf/using-scrum-in-global-software-development-a-systematic-57gry79i7m.pdf

Using Scrum in Global Software Development: A Systematic Literature Review

Collaboration Mechanisms to Increase Productivity in the Context of Industrie 4.0

This paper presents the results of systematically reviewing the current research literature on the use of agile practices and lean software development in global software engineering (GSE). The primary purpose is to highlight under which circumstances they have been applied efficiently. Some common terms related to agile practices (e.g. scrum, extreme programming) were considered in formulating the search strings, along with a number of alternatives for GSE such as offshoring, outsourcing, and virtual teams. The results were limited to peer-reviewed conference papers/journal articles, published between 1999 and 2009. The synthesis was made through classifying the papers into different categories (e.g. research type, distribution). The analysis revealed that in most cases agile practices were modified with respect to the context and situational requirements. This indicates the need for future research on how to integrate all experiences and practices in a way to assist practitioners when setting up non-collocated agile projects.

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Agile Practices in Global Software Engineering - A Systematic Map

Distributed agile development (DAD) has received increasing interest both in industry and academia as global software development (GSD) is becoming main-stream. However, agile methods and in particular agile practices have been designed for collocated software development, and are thus not directly applicable to DAD. In this paper, we present findings from a multiple case study on agile practices in two small and one mid-sized distributed Scrum project. Based on an interview study of 19 project team members, we describe how Scrum practices, such as daily scrums, backlogs, and sprints were successfully adopted to distributed development. We also describe supporting GSD practices employed, such as frequent visits and multiple communication modes that the projects used. Finally, we depict the challenges and benefits the case projects reported, as well as lessons learned from applying Scrum in distributed settings.

https://www.cs.vu.nl/~hans/publications/y2012/ICGSE2012-RUPtoScrum/Agile%20and%20GSD/Paasivaari2009.pdf

Using Scrum in Distributed Agile Development: A Multiple Case Study

While seemingly incompatible, combining large-scale global software development and agile practices is a challenge undertaken by many companies. Case study reports on the successful use of agile practices in small distributed projects already exist. How these practices could be applied to larger projects, however, remains unstudied. This paper reports a case study on agile practices in a 40- person development organization distributed between Norway and Malaysia. Based on seven interviews in the development organization, we describe how Scrum practices were successfully applied, e.g., using teleconference and Web cameras for daily scrum meetings, synchronized 4- week sprints and weekly scrum-of-scrums. Additional agility supporting practices for distributed projects were identified, e.g., frequent visits, unofficial distributed meetings and annual gatherings are described.

Distributed Agile Development: Using Scrum in a Large Project

While seemingly incompatible, combining global software development and agile practices is a challenge undertaken by many companies. Case study reports on the successful use of agile practices in small distributed projects already exist. How these practices can be applied to larger projects, however, remains unstudied. This paper reports a case study on agile practices in a 40-person development organization distributed between Norway and Malaysia. Based on seven interviews in the development organization, we describe how scrum practices were successfully applied, e.g. using teleconferencing and web cameras for daily scrum meetings, synchronized 4-week sprints, weekly scrum-of-scrums, and Jira for backlog management. Non-scrum agile practices included nightly builds, automated testing, and team rooms. Supportig global software development practices, e.g. frequent visits, unofficial distributed meetings, domain expert networks, and annual gatherings are described. Positive experiences of using scrum included improved communication, trust and motivation, as well as better perceived quality. Challenges included misunderstood requirements, lack of videoconferencing possibilities, and awkward communication in distributed meetings due to cultural and geographical distance. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Sandra Durasiewicz

Papers

Using Scrum in Distributed Agile Development: A Multiple Case Study

Distributed Agile Development: Using Scrum in a Large Project

Using scrum in a globally distributed project: a case study