Supporting Agile Transformation with Defect Management in Large Distributed Software Development Organisation

Abstract

Many software development organizations have started to deploy agile methods to gain improvements, for example, in production speed and quality. In a large, distributed organization the agile transformation may be a long-term, complex process. Solutions that work well in small companies turn out to be much harder to implement in thousand-developer projects. Thus evaluating achieved benefits and measuring the success of the change can be difficult, especially in the early phases of the transformation, and the lack of visibility to any progress made can decrease motivation among the personnel.

In this thesis, the general goal was to explore the impact of the agile methods when a large, distributed software organization is transforming to an agile way of developing software. The main focus of the study was to analyze the impact of agile methods on software development from defect data, and to utilize the collected data to support the organization in its agile transformation.

Data was collected with interviews, surveys, documentation analysis, and from defect data records over several years. The results show that there are changes in the defect data and defect reporting practices caused by the adoption of agile practices. Additionally, by analyzing the practices in use, by exploring the defect data, and by collecting feedback from the personnel, it was possible to provide feedback on the progress, to analyze the engagement of personnel to the transformation process, and to evaluate the success in reaching the transformation goals already at a very early stage of the agile transformation.

To conclude, this study provides research results on the impact of a large-scale agile transformation from defect management point of view in a real industrial setting. These results can be used by other organizations planning to start agile transformation to support their change process.