Exploring Data Management Challenges and Solutions in Agile Software Development: A Literature Review and Practitioner Survey

TL;DR

This paper reviews data management challenges in agile software development through literature and practitioner insights, highlighting key issues and solutions to improve data integration, quality, and real-time decision-making.

Contribution

It combines a systematic literature review with practitioner surveys to identify challenges and practical solutions in data management for agile projects.

Findings

Major challenges include data integration and real-time analysis

Solutions involve automation tools and ontology-based approaches

Enhanced data quality and decision-making capabilities

Abstract

Context: Managing data related to a software product and its development poses significant challenges for software projects and agile development teams. These include integrating data from diverse sources and ensuring data quality amidst continuous change and adaptation. Objective: The paper systematically explores data management challenges and potential solutions in agile projects, aiming to provide insights into data management challenges and solutions for both researchers and practitioners. Method: We employed a mixed-methods approach, including a systematic literature review (SLR) to understand the state-of-research followed by a survey with practitioners to reflect on the state-of-practice. The SLR reviewed 45 studies, identifying and categorizing data management aspects along with their associated challenges and solutions. The practitioner survey captured practical experiences and solutions from 32 industry practitioners who were significantly involved in data management to complement the findings from the SLR. Results: Our findings identified major data management challenges in practice, such as managing data integration processes, capturing diverse data, automating data collection, and meeting real-time analysis requirements. To address the challenges, solutions such as automation tools, decentralized data management practices, and ontology-based approaches have been identified. The solutions enhance data integration, improve data quality, and enable real-time decision-making by providing flexible frameworks tailored to agile project needs. Conclusion: The study pinpointed significant challenges and actionable solutions in data management for agile software development. Our findings provide practical implications for practitioners and researchers, emphasizing the development of effective data management practices and tools to address those challenges and improve project success.