Methodology for Selection of Agile Practices

Abstract

Agile methods have received significant attention in the last ten years and have successfully been applied to many small- to medium-sized projects. They have enjoyed significant popularity amongst developers. Most of the time, the selection of agile methods and practices is based on personal preference or past experience rather than the characteristics of the project at hand. Furthermore, there are no sufficient guidelines for developers to make an appropriate selection. So far, research in this area focuses mainly on specifying the weaknesses and strengths of each method with little analysis of these methods and their practices. It also offers little guidance on how to choose the best-suited practice for a certain project. We believe that finding a way to link project properties and characteristics with the abilities of agile practices is of great importance. In this thesis, we try to find and propose a methodology for developing customized agile approaches by selecting the best agile practices for a given project. We also implement this methodology into an operational model.