Stefan Voigt
ABSTRACT
Although agile methods have become established in software engineering, documentation in projects is rare. Employing a theoretical model of information and documentation, our paper analyzes documentation practices in agile software projects in their entirety. Our analysis uses method triangulation: partly-structured interviews, observation and online survey. We demonstrate the correlation between satisfaction with information searches and the amount of documentation that exists for most types of information as an example. Also digital searches demand nearly twice as much time as documentation. In the conclusion, we provide recommendations on the use of supporting methods or tools to shape agile documentation.
- Abrahamsson, P., Babar, M. A., and Kruchten, P. 2010. Agility and Architecture: Can They Coexist? IEEE Softw. 27, 2, 16--22. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Choo, C. W. 1998. The knowing organization. How organizations use information to construct meaning, create knowledge, and make decisions. Oxford Univ. Press, N.Y.Google Scholar
- de Souza, Sergio Cozzetti B., Anquetil, N., and Oliveira, K. M. de. A study of the documentation essential to software maintenance. In the 23rd annual international conference on Design of communication documenting & designing for pervasive information - SIGDOC '05, 68. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Dingsøyr, T., Nerur, S., Balijepally, V., and Moe, N. B. 2012. A decade of agile methodologies. Towards explaining agile software development. Journal of Systems and Software 85, 6, 1213--1221. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Dybå, T. and Dingsøyr, T. 2008. Empirical studies of agile software development. A systematic review. Information and Software Technology 50, 9-10, 833--859. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Glass, R. L. 2001. Agile versus traditional: Make love, not war! Cutter IT Journal 14, 12, 12--18.Google Scholar
- Hadar, I., Sherman, S., Hadar, E., and Harrison, J. J. 2013. Less is more: Architecture documentation for agile development. In 2013 6th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE), 121--124.Google Scholar
- Hoda, R., Noble, J., and Marshall, S. 2012. Documentation strategies on agile software development projects. IJAESD 1, 1, 23. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kanwal, F., Bashir, K., and Ali, A. H. 2014. Documentation Practices for Offshore Agile Software Development. Life Science Journal 10, 11, 70--73.Google Scholar
- Komus, A. (2015): Studie Status Quo Agile 2014. Ergebnisbericht. www.status-quo-agile.de, 20 June 2016.Google Scholar
- Kuhlthau, C. C. 2004. Seeking Meaning:. A Process Approach to Library and Information Services. Libraries Unlimited.Google Scholar
- Myklebust, T., Stålhaneb, T., Hanssena, G. K., Wienc, T., and Haugseta, B. 2014. Scrum, documentation and the IEC 61508-3:2010 software standard. In PSAM12 Proceedings.Google Scholar
- Perlow, L. A. 1999. The Time Famine: Toward a Sociology of Work Time. Administrative Science Quarterly 44, 1, 57.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Prause, C. R. and Durdik, Z. 2012. Architectural design and documentation: Waste in agile development? In 2012 International Conference on Software and System Process (ICSSP), 130--134. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rubin, E. and Rubin, H. 2011. Supporting agile software development through active documentation. Requirements Eng 16, 2, 117--132. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Selic, B. 2009. Agile Documentation, Anyone? IEEE Softw. 26, 6, 11--12. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Stettina, C. J. and Heijstek, W. 2011. Necessary and neglected? an empirical study of internal documentation in agile software development teams. In SIGDOC '11 Proceedings of the 29th ACM international conference on Design of communication, 159--166. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Stettina, C. J., Heijstek, W., and Faegri, T. E. 2012. Documentation Work in Agile Teams: The Role of Documentation Formalism in Achieving a Sustainable Practice. In 2012 Agile Conference, 31--40. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Stettina, C. J. and Kroon, E. 2013. Is there an Agile Handover? An Empirical Study of Documentation and Project Handover Practices Across Agile Software Teams. In 19th International ICE-IEEE ITMC Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE).Google Scholar
- Tidline, T. J. 2006. Dervin's Sense-Making. In Theories of information behavior, K. E. Fisher, S. Erdelez and McKechnie, L. E. F., Eds. ASIST monograph series. Information Today, Medford, NJ, 113--117.Google Scholar
- Tripathi, V. and Goyal, A. K. 2014. A Document Driven Approach for Agile Software Development. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering (IJARCSSE) 4, 4, 1085--1090.Google Scholar
- Uikey, N., Suman, U., and Ramani, A. K. 2011. A Documented Approach in Agile Software Development. International Journal of Software Engineering (IJSE), 2, 13--22.Google Scholar
Recommendations
Supporting agile software development through active documentation
Agile development processes are adaptive rather than predictive. Therefore, agile processes emphasize operational system code rather than its documentation. To overcome the absence of comprehensive documentation artifacts, agile methods require constant ...
Documentation strategies on agile software development projects
Agile software development methods and their proponents suggest 'just enough' documentation on agile projects. However, for practitioners of these methods it remains unclear how much is 'just enough' documentation. Based on a grounded ...
Documentation Work in Agile Teams: The Role of Documentation Formalism in Achieving a Sustainable Practice
AGILE '12: Proceedings of the 2012 Agile ConferenceAs its second guiding principle, agile software development promotes working software over comprehensive documentation. In this paper we investigate alignment between two different documentation practices and agile development. We report upon an ...
Comments