How Agile Is Hybrid Agile? An Analysis of the HELENA Data

John Noll, Sarah Beecham

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Context: Many researchers advocate “tailoring” agile methods to suit a project’s or company’s specific environment and needs. This includes combining agile methods with more traditional “plan driven” practices. Objective: This study aims to assess to what extent projects actually combine agile and traditional practices. Method: Data from the HELENA survey of nearly 700 projects were examined to assess how many projects combine agile methods and traditional methods, and also to what extent they used different software development practices. Results: The data show that, overall, two-thirds of the projects in the survey combine agile and traditional methods to some extent. However, projects that combine agile and traditional methods are significantly less likely to use agile practices than projects that solely use agile methods. Conclusions: We hypothesize that the mindset of an organization, rather than technical necessity, determines whether a project will adopt a hybrid vs. purely agile approach.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProduct-Focused Software Process Improvement - 20th International Conference, PROFES 2019, Proceedings
EditorsXavier Franch, Tomi Männistö, Silverio Martínez-Fernández
PublisherSpringer
Pages341-349
Number of pages9
ISBN (Print)9783030353322
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Event20th International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, PROFES 2019 - Barcelona, Spain
Duration: 27 Nov 201929 Nov 2019

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume11915 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference20th International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement, PROFES 2019
Country/TerritorySpain
CityBarcelona
Period27/11/1929/11/19

Keywords

  • Agile development methods
  • Empirical Software engineering
  • Hybrid agile development

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'How Agile Is Hybrid Agile? An Analysis of the HELENA Data'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this