Abstract
Software process reference models (such as Capability Maturity Model Integration – CMMI–DEV) have been used for years for software process evaluation and improvement. However, when a team uses agile methods for software development, these models hinder sustaining agility in higher maturity levels. This is the reason why some agile maturity models have been proposed in the last years. Although there are some models suggested in literature, few studies actually evaluate these models with real teams. The objective of this study is thus to evaluate an agile maturity model – the Agile Compass – creating empirical results for agile teams in the process improvement field. We conducted this research with two field studies in two different agile teams: an ethnographic study and a focus group. Our findings confirmed the need for empirical validation of academically–proposed models. The Agile Compass was effective in creating a maturity picture for the teams, but both teams seemed to prefer a more “objective” evaluation.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
ISO/IEC - International Organization for Standardization/ International Electrical Committee. ISO/IEC 33001:2015. Information technology - Process assessment - Concepts and terminology (2015). https://www.iso.org/standard/54175.html. Accessed July 2018
CMMI Product Team. CMMI for Development, Version 1.3 (CMU/SEI-2010-TR-033). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University (2010). http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/10tr033.cfm. Accessed July 2018
Beck, K., et al.: Manifesto for Agile Software Development (2001). http://agilemanifesto.org/. Accessed July 2018
Paulk, M.: Extreme programming from a CMM perspective. IEEE Softw. 18(6), 19–26 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1109/52.965798
Lukasiewicz, K., Miler, J.: Improving agility and discipline of software development with the Scrum and CMMI. IET Softw. 6(5), 416–422 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1049/ietsen.2011.0193
Schweigert, T., Nevalainen, R., Vohwinkel, D., Korsaa, M., Biro, M.: Agile maturity model: oxymoron or the next level of understanding. In: Mas, A., Mesquida, A., Rout, T., O’Connor, R.V., Dorling, A. (eds.) SPICE 2012. CCIS, vol. 290, pp. 289–294. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30439-2_34
Schweigert, T., Vohwinkel, D., Korsaa, M., Nevalainen, R., Biro, M.: Agile maturity model: a synopsis as a first step to synthesis. In: McCaffery, F., O’Connor, R.V., Messnarz, R. (eds.) EuroSPI 2013. CCIS, vol. 364, pp. 214–227. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39179-8_19
Özcan-Top, Ö., Demirörs, O.: Assessment of agile maturity models: a multiple case study. In: Woronowicz, T., Rout, T., O’Connor, R.V., Dorling, A. (eds.) SPICE 2013. CCIS, vol. 349, pp. 130–141. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38833-0_12
Özcan-Top, Ö., Demirörs, O.: A reference model for software agility assessment: agilitymod. In: Rout, T., O’Connor, R.V., Dorling, A. (eds.) SPICE 2015. CCIS, vol. 526, pp. 145–158. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19860-6_12
Leppänen, M.: A comparative analysis of agile maturity models. In: Pooley, R., et al. (eds.) Information Systems Development: Reflections, Challenges and New Directions, pp. 329–343. Springer, New York (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1951-5_27
Fontana, R.M., Albuquerque, R., Luz, R., Moises, A.C., Malucelli, A., Reinehr, S.: Maturity models for agile software development: what are they? In: Larrucea, X., Santamaria, I., O’Connor, R.V., Messnarz, R. (eds.) EuroSPI 2018. CCIS, vol. 896, pp. 3–14. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97925-0_1
Fontana, R.M., Reinehr, S., Malucelli, A.: Agile compass: a tool for identifying maturity in agile software-development teams. IEEE Softw. 32(6), 20–23 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2015.135
Adalı, O.E., Özcan-Top, Ö., Demirörs, O.: Evaluation of agility assessment tools: a multiple case study. In: Clarke, P.M., O’Connor, R.V., Rout, T., Dorling, A. (eds.) SPICE 2016. CCIS, vol. 609, pp. 135–149. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38980-6_11
Özcan-Top, Ö., Demirörs, O.: Assessing software agility: an exploratory case study. In: Mitasiunas, A., Rout, T., O’Connor, R.V., Dorling, A. (eds.) SPICE 2014. CCIS, vol. 477, pp. 202–213. Springer, Cham (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13036-1_18
Gren, L., Torkar, R., Feldt, R.: The prospects of a quantitative measurement agility: a validation study on an agile maturity model. J. Syst. Softw. 107, 38–49 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2015.05.008
Sidky, A., Arthur, J., Bohner, S.: A disciplined approach to adopting agile practices: the agile adoption framework. Innov. Syst. Softw. Eng. 3(3), 203–216 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-007-0026-z
Bryman, A.: Social Research Methods, 4th edn. Oxford University Press, New York (2012)
Schwartzman, H.B.: Ethnography in Organizations. Qualitative Research Methods Series, vol. 27. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (1993)
Venable, J., Pries-Heje, J., Baskerville, R.: A comprehensive framework for evaluation in design science research. In: Peffers, K., Rothenberger, M., Kuechler, B. (eds.) DESRIST 2012. LNCS, vol. 7286, pp. 423–438. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29863-9_31
Krueger, R.A.: Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 5th edn. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (2015)
Romain, G.: Characterizing the presence of agility in large-scale agile software development. Masters thesis presented in the Faculty of Computer Science of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) (2015)
Buglione, L.: Light maturity models (LMM): an Agile application. In: Profes 2011: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Product Focused Software Development and Process Improvement (2011)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Corrêa Rodrigues, A., Mantovani Fontana, R. (2019). Evaluation of an Agile Maturity Model: Empirical Evidences for Agility Assessments. In: Tonin, G., Estácio, B., Goldman, A., Guerra, E. (eds) Agile Methods. WBMA 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 981. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14310-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14310-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14309-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14310-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)