Understanding the Effect of Agile Practice Quality on Software Product Quality

TL;DR

This study investigates how the quality of agile practices influences software product quality through an analysis of student projects, highlighting key practices and challenges affecting outcomes.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into the specific agile practices that correlate with software quality and identifies challenges faced during agile implementation.

Findings

Good coding practices and quality management improve product quality

Requirements scoping, team planning, and communication predict quality

Technical skills and time management are major challenges

Abstract

Agile methods and associated practices have been held to deliver value to software developers and customers. Research studies have reported team productivity and software quality benefits. While such insights are helpful for understanding how agile methods add value during software development, there is need for understanding the intersection of useful practices and outcomes over project duration. This study addresses this opportunity and conducted an observation study of student projects that was complemented by the analysis of demographics data and open responses about the challenges encountered during the use of agile practices. Data from 22 student teams comprising 85 responses were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative approaches, where among our findings we observed that the use of good coding practices and quality management techniques were positively correlated with all dimensions of product quality (e.g., functionality scope and software packaging). Outcomes also reveal that software product quality was predicted by requirements scoping, team planning and communication, and coding practice. However, high levels of team planning and communication were not necessary for all software development activities. When examining project challenges, it was observed that lack of technical skills and poor time management present most challenges to project success. While these challenges may be mitigated by agile practices, such practices may themselves create unease, requiring balance during project implementation.