The impact of Velocity on product quality in distributed Agile Software development: Master's thesis

Timo Sarpola

Research output: ThesisMaster's thesis

Abstract

This diploma thesis studies the impact of velocity on product quality in distributed agile software development. The work is motivated by the current challenges to produce products faster and with better quality. At the same time, projects have to stay on budget and schedule. Projects have problems meeting deadlines and staying on budget. The work focuses on measuring how development speed influences internal quality. After the literature review, the models were tested empirically in case projects. First, the current knowledge on distributed agile development was studied and analysed. Many challenges were found from the collaborative development, and advantages could not always be attained. Next, the product quality definitions and measurements were studied. The requirements of the quality model were specified based on the findings: the model should support all the perspectives which are used to consider product quality. Furthermore, the quality model should support top-down and down-top approaches to measuring quality. Finally, velocity measurement was studied. Measuring is challenging and there is no standard. Selected metrics were realized empirically in case studies. The measuring of the metrics was found to be challenging, and not all the metrics could be collected. Case projects did not suggest any significant differences in quality for small projects performed by junior developers. There were differences in velocity between the case projects though these may have been due to the experience of the developers or the programming language used. Distributed projects reported more problems in communication and integration work than co-located projects. Finally, the product quality in the case projects was similar.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationMaster Degree
Awarding Institution
  • University of Oulu
Place of PublicationOulu
Publisher
Publication statusPublished - 2010
MoE publication typeG2 Master's thesis, polytechnic Master's thesis

Keywords

  • Productivity
  • iterative development
  • project management
  • small-scale software development

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