University of Twente Student Theses
The software development landscape : A rationalization of agile software development as a strategy in the face of organizational complexity
Braams, S.M. (2020) The software development landscape : A rationalization of agile software development as a strategy in the face of organizational complexity.
|
PDF
4MB |
| Abstract: | Drawing from fields like Philosophy of Science and Complexity Science in my thesis I show how the implicit rationale behind Agile can be articulated. The main research question that guided the research is: “Based on the founding documents, what is the insight at the core of Agile methodology and how can it be rationalized to be understandable without software development experience?” The rationalization takes place through the synthesis of a number of concepts, including David Snowden’s Cynefin Complexity framework and Weisberg and Muldoon’s epistemic landscape model. The landscape metaphor demonstrates that the appropriateness of approaches like Waterfall (plan-driven, linear) and Agile (iterative, incremental) depends on the epistemological conditions under which they are used. Therefore, the main conclusion of the research is that it is useful to understand Agile as a reaction to, and strategy for dealing with, the inherent uncertainty present in organizational environments such as IT-projects. The implications of the rise of Agile for PSTS could be significant. If a new approach needed to be found to develop software, might there be a similar need for a new approach to understanding software? This thesis offers some of the groundwork needed to pull these kinds of questions into view and enabling them to be explored. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 08 philosophy, 85 business administration, organizational science |
| Programme: | Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society MSc (60024) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/80784 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
Show download statistics for this publication
Show download statistics for this publicationRepository Staff Only: item control page