Developing support for agile and plan-driven methods

Abstract: Software development processes provide means to develop software in a structured and disciplined way. Although these processes provide support for how to develop software, there is still a challenge to successfully apply them in practice. Thus, there is a need to support management of software development processes so that their use generate as good results as possible. The thesis presents support for agile and plan-driven methods, which represent different approaches for developing software.The support for agile methods was developed after performing a case study and a survey, in order to gather empirical data. The support for plan-driven methods was developed after applying a combination of research methods such as a controlled experiment, grounded theory and theoretical analysis.The developed support for managing agile and plan-driven methods is based on the results from an extensive empirical basis consisting of five studies, with both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The developed support for agile methods consists of a set of guidelines for organizations to consider when introducing agile methods. The developed support for plan-driven methods concerns support for the Business Process Analyst role to manage its work in a software development context. Further, the Personal Software Process is allocated to several roles in order to increase its applicability.