Catching up with Method and Process Practice: An Industry-Informed Baseline for Researchers

Abstract

Software development methods are usually not ap- plied by the book. Companies are under pressure to continuously

deploy software products that meet market needs and stakehold- ers’ requests. To implement efficient and effective development

processes, companies utilize multiple frameworks, methods and practices, and combine these into hybrid methods. A common combination contains a rich management framework to organize and steer projects complemented with a number of smaller practices providing the development teams with tools to complete their tasks. In this paper, based on 732 data points collected

through an international survey, we study the software develop- ment process use in practice. Our results show that 76.8% of

the companies implement hybrid methods. Company size as well as the strategy in devising and evolving hybrid methods affect the suitability of the chosen process to reach company or project goals. Our findings show that companies that combine planned improvement programs with process evolution can increase their process’ suitability by up to 5%.