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Agile Software Development – Do We Really Calculate the Costs? A Multivocal Literature Review

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Book cover Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement (EuroSPI 2020)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1251))

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Abstract

Agile software development methods, in their various different forms, have become the basis for most software projects in today’s world. The methodology is present in almost all organisations today. However, despite the popularity, failure rates in software projects remain high. This paper identifies why agile methodologies have become so successful. In addition, the paper discusses certain factors that may often be overlooked in organisations that have adopted agile methods, such as rework, maintainability, adoption, turnover rates and the potential costs associated with each. The research carried out was a multivocal literature review (MLR). Multiple white and grey literature which was deemed to be relevant was selected. 32 contributions from white literature were selected for use in the review as well as 8 from grey literature sources. We find that while agile has many advantages, organisations may overlook the potential downsides of using an agile methodology. If not managed or implemented correctly, organisations risk taking on more hidden and expensive costs, for example in relation to rework. It is important that organisations are sufficiently trained in agile methods in order to succeed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported, in part, by Science Foundation Ireland grant 13/RC/2094 and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund through the Southern & Eastern Regional Operational Programme to Lero - the Irish Software Research Centre (www.lero.ie).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Aidan Fogarty, Aaron Edgeworth, Oishin Smith, Michael Dowling, Murat Yilmaz, Silvana Togneri MacMahon & Paul Clarke

  2. Lero – the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, Limerick, Ireland

    Murat Yilmaz, Silvana Togneri MacMahon & Paul Clarke

Authors
  1. Aidan Fogarty
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  2. Aaron Edgeworth
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  3. Oishin Smith
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  4. Michael Dowling
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  5. Murat Yilmaz
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  6. Silvana Togneri MacMahon
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  7. Paul Clarke
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Correspondence to Paul Clarke .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Murat Yilmaz

  2. University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Jörg Niemann

  3. School of Computing, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Paul Clarke

  4. I.S.C.N. GesmbH, Graz, Steiermark, Austria

    Richard Messnarz

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Fogarty, A. et al. (2020). Agile Software Development – Do We Really Calculate the Costs? A Multivocal Literature Review. In: Yilmaz, M., Niemann, J., Clarke, P., Messnarz, R. (eds) Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement. EuroSPI 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1251. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56441-4_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56441-4_15

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