TY - JOUR
T1 - Systematic literature reviews in agile software development
T2 - a tertiary study
AU - Hoda, Rashina
AU - Salleh, Norsaremah
AU - Grundy, John
AU - Tee, Hui Mien
PY - 2017/5
Y1 - 2017/5
N2 - Context A number of systematic literature reviews and mapping studies (SLRs) covering numerous primary research studies on various aspects of agile software development (ASD) exist. Objective The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the SLRs on ASD research topics for software engineering researchers and practitioners. Method We followed the tertiary study guidelines by Kitchenham et al. to find SLRs published between late 1990s to December 2015. Results We found 28 SLRs focusing on ten different ASD research areas: adoption, methods, practices, human and social aspects, CMMI, usability, global software engineering (GSE), organizational agility, embedded systems, and software product line engineering. The number of SLRs on ASD topics, similar to those on software engineering (SE) topics in general, is on the rise. A majority of the SLRs applied standardized guidelines and the quality of these SLRs on ASD topics was found to be slightly higher for journal publications than for conferences. While some individuals and institutions seem to lead this area, the spread of authors and institutions is wide. With respect to prior review recommendations, significant progress was noticed in the area of connecting agile to established domains such as usability, CMMI, and GSE; and considerable progress was observed in focusing on management-oriented approaches as Scrum and sustaining ASD in different contexts such as embedded systems. Conclusion SLRs of ASD studies are on the rise and cover a variety of ASD aspects, ranging from early adoption issues to newer applications of ASD such as in product line engineering. ASD research can benefit from further primary and secondary studies on evaluating benefits and challenges of ASD methods, agile hybrids in large-scale setups, sustainability, motivation, teamwork, and project management; as well as a fresh review of empirical studies in ASD to cover the period post 2008.
AB - Context A number of systematic literature reviews and mapping studies (SLRs) covering numerous primary research studies on various aspects of agile software development (ASD) exist. Objective The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the SLRs on ASD research topics for software engineering researchers and practitioners. Method We followed the tertiary study guidelines by Kitchenham et al. to find SLRs published between late 1990s to December 2015. Results We found 28 SLRs focusing on ten different ASD research areas: adoption, methods, practices, human and social aspects, CMMI, usability, global software engineering (GSE), organizational agility, embedded systems, and software product line engineering. The number of SLRs on ASD topics, similar to those on software engineering (SE) topics in general, is on the rise. A majority of the SLRs applied standardized guidelines and the quality of these SLRs on ASD topics was found to be slightly higher for journal publications than for conferences. While some individuals and institutions seem to lead this area, the spread of authors and institutions is wide. With respect to prior review recommendations, significant progress was noticed in the area of connecting agile to established domains such as usability, CMMI, and GSE; and considerable progress was observed in focusing on management-oriented approaches as Scrum and sustaining ASD in different contexts such as embedded systems. Conclusion SLRs of ASD studies are on the rise and cover a variety of ASD aspects, ranging from early adoption issues to newer applications of ASD such as in product line engineering. ASD research can benefit from further primary and secondary studies on evaluating benefits and challenges of ASD methods, agile hybrids in large-scale setups, sustainability, motivation, teamwork, and project management; as well as a fresh review of empirical studies in ASD to cover the period post 2008.
KW - Agile software development
KW - Mapping study
KW - Systematic literature reviews
KW - Tertiary study
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85009961943&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.infsof.2017.01.007
DO - 10.1016/j.infsof.2017.01.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85009961943
VL - 85
SP - 60
EP - 70
JO - Information and Software Technology
JF - Information and Software Technology
SN - 0950-5849
ER -