Exploring the Impact of Agile Methodologies in Software Development

The advent of Agile methodologies has revolutionized software development practices globally, offering a flexible framework that promotes rapid iteration, customer collaboration, and adaptive planning. This assignment delves into how these methodologies impact key areas of software projects, from improving product quality to enhancing team dynamics. Through analysis of various Agile practices like Scrum and Kanban, students will assess their effectiveness in responding to the volatile nature of modern software demands while also considering potential challenges such as scalability and integration with traditional models. By exploring literature on customer satisfaction rates, efficiency metrics, and real-world case studies, participants will provide a comprehensive overview of Agile's role in shaping current and future software development landscapes.

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
GRAD 699-90-2017 LATE FALL - GRADUATE THESIS
Nischay Varma Mudida
Harrisburg University of Science and Technology
Assignment submitted to Dr. Stanley Nwoji in Fulfillment of GRAD 699

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Abstract
As companies invest huge amounts of money on developing software, it is important to
recognize the effective methodology to save money while improving the quality of the software
product (Permana, Bali, 2015). Successful software development has various factors impacting
the development. Every methodology has tried to address these factors which also help in the
success. (Avison and Fitzgerald 1998; Hirschheim et al. 1995). For this study, Constructivism
would be used, and the gathered data would be further analyzed to validate the impact of Scrum
Methodology on factors like software quality, operation costs, and project success. For this
research using a more quantitative approach will give the expected results. The collected data
will be recorded, measured and analyzed to display the variables used in this research. This
action would be a research method which makes use of surveys, questionnaires, interviews along
with numerical data, statistics to come to a quantitative result. This research paper would be
helpful in deciding for the companies across the industry willing to consider implementing
Scrum methodology in their organization.
Keywords: Software development, Agile methodology, Scrum

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................5
Problem Statement.....................................................................................................................................5
Purpose Statement......................................................................................................................................5
Research questions:....................................................................................................................................6
Research objectives.....................................................................................................................................6
Theoretical Framework...............................................................................................................................7
Hypothesis...................................................................................................................................................7
Significance of study....................................................................................................................................7
Definition of terms......................................................................................................................................8
Ethical Considerations.................................................................................................................................8
Delimitations...............................................................................................................................................8
Limitations...................................................................................................................................................9
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................9
Methodologies for Software Development...............................................................................................12
Factors affecting Software Development..................................................................................................14
Research Design and Methodology...........................................................................................................15
Research Worldview..................................................................................................................................15
Research Design........................................................................................................................................15

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Research Strategy......................................................................................................................................16
Method of Data Collection........................................................................................................................16
Method of Data Analyses..........................................................................................................................17
Population (Unit of Analysis).....................................................................................................................17
Sample.......................................................................................................................................................17
Results.......................................................................................................................................................18
Descriptive analysis...................................................................................................................................18
Inferential statistics...................................................................................................................................20
Discussion..................................................................................................................................................21
Scrum methodologies................................................................................................................................21
Traditional methodologies........................................................................................................................24
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................26
Recommendation......................................................................................................................................27
References.................................................................................................................................................28

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
The software industry has always been implementing various software development
methodologies to ensure efficient development, optimizing resources, time and money. Since the
origin of software technology, many popular methods like Traditional Waterfall methodology,
Agile methods have been adopted by companies (Livermore, 2007). Scrum methodology, since
its introduction, has been proving that it is the efficient methodology in various terms. Some
companies implemented Scrum methodology by making suitable changes to meet the
organizational processes. (Tripp, 2012)
Problem Statement
Businesses intend to develop any software with the highest quality while keeping
operating costs low. Many development methodologies have been created to achieve the same,
but have failed in meeting the quality and budgets. (Permana, Bali, 2015). Waterfall being the
traditional methodology, many companies have been reluctant to change and are still
implementing Waterfall, with which there might be loss economically. (Altameem, 2015). But
since Scrum Methodology is responsive to change and is economically viable, implementing
Scrum Methodology has been widespread, (Ambler 2009; Schwaber and Fichera 2005). As per
reports, more than 50% of businesses have been adopting Scrum Methodology (West and Grant
2010). The goal of this paper is to prove that developing software's using Scrum Methodology is
far efficient, both for quality and budget, then using Waterfall Methodology.
Purpose Statement
Any developed software should be of high quality and businesses intend to achieve this
within a limited budget. (Permana, Bali, 2015). Since early stages of software development,
many methodologies were created with the same intention, but each of them had their limitations

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
(Avison and Fitzgerald 1998; Hirschheim et al. 1995). For this study, Constructivism would be
used, and the gathered data would be further analyzed. This will help in validating the impact
Scrum Methodology has on software development regarding software quality, operation costs,
and project success. For this research using a more quantitative approach will give the expected
results. Many variables will be taken into consideration and will be used to perform the research.
These variables will be recorded, measured and analyzed to finally obtain a report which will
solve the purpose of the research. Also, non-experimental research strategy can be used to
approach this research. This research method makes use of surveys, questionnaires, interviews
along with numerical data, statistics to come to a quantitative result. For conducting research
using the quantitative approach, the questions should be very specific, mathematical.
Research questions:
The questions about this research are listed below:
 How does traditional Waterfall Methodology differ from Scrum Methodology?
 What are the factors that affect software development?
 How effective is Scrum Methodology in developing software?
Research objectives
The objectives of the research are listed below:
 To identify the factors that affect software development
 To understand and scrutinize how these factors affect the software development
 Compare the factors of Scrum and Waterfall methodology
 Recommend solution based on the outcome

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Theoretical Framework
The above diagram only depicts the fact that Scrum methodology is very efficient than Waterfall.
If any company adopts waterfall, then it is an inefficient methodology to implement and whereas
any company taking Scrum will have a successful implementation.
Hypothesis
H0: Implementing Scrum methodology has no impact: as there are other methodologies
which may be efficient based on the organizational needs, Scrum may have no impact
Ha: Implementing Scrum methodology has an impact: As Scrum methodology is efficient in
saving time and resources, this will have an impact on organizations implementing it.
Significance of study
Several software methodologies have been implemented and have been emerging since
last four decades. Every methodology has been implemented to address issues related to growing
systems and complexity (Hirschheim et al. 1995). These methodologies haven’t been able to
reduce the failure rates of projects. The failure rates continue to increase. (Standish Group,
2009). To overcome this, Scrum methodology has been introduced. This scrum methodology
takes into consideration, a variety of factors that are negatively affected by Waterfall. (Beck and
Andres 2004; Conboy 2009). Implementing Scrum methodology has not only increased project

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
success ratio but also positively impacted many factors. And companies implementing this
methodology have been able to complete projects on time and saved time and resources in the
process. (Boehm and Turner 2004; Cockburn 2001; Highsmith 2002; Schwaber 1996).
So, this study will help many companies which haven’t moved to Scrum methodology, in
making their organizational change decision.
Definition of terms
Scrum Methodology: “Scrum is an agile information systems and software development
method with a strong focus on project management, which was formalized and tested by
Schwaber and Sutherland in the mid 1990ties” (Schwaber & Beedle 2002, Schwaber 2004).
Software Development: "Software development methodology is a process of organizing a set of
method and notation convention which has been defined to develop software" (Johannesson,
2003)
Ethical Considerations
In the process of conducting research, no human subjects are involved in this research. But the
participant's privacy, confidential information will be secured consistent with ethical measures.
All participants consent will be obtained from the data collection. The process of data collection
is transparent, and measures are taken to ensure participants safety. The research data doesn't
comprise any personal information.
Delimitations
As for the boundaries, this research doesn’t take into consideration all the other software
development methodologies except Scrum and Waterfall. This research is only focused on
research questions stated above, and any other questions are not covered in this research. Also,

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
this research doesn't consider data collected by other means of collection techniques. As this
research adopted a research design which uses interviews, surveys, and questionnaires with 50
human participants, the analysis is limited to the data from these and any additional data will not
be part of the analysis.
Limitations
As Scrum methodology is being implemented on a large scale only for the past five years, only
certain factors have to be chosen for comparison as there are very few similarities in factors
between Waterfall and Scrum methodologies. Also, the researcher has certain limitations
regarding time and budget. The research had to be completed within 15 weeks. This implies that
the researcher had to limit the data collection methods to survey, questionnaires and interviews.
And as this research uses human participants, the quality of data is dependent on knowledge and
responsiveness of the participant. This may result in questionable and misleading responses.
Literature Review
This research is mainly focused on the Impact of Scrum Methodology, while there are many
other methodologies like XP, FDD, TDD, etc. Hence this literature review is only focused on
Scrum Methodology and not in other Agile Methodologies. This limited the sources for this
research which performed their research on Scrum Methodology. As for finding appropriate
sources keywords such as ‘Scrum Methodology,' ‘Impact of Scrum Methodology,'
‘Implementing Scrum Methodology' etc. were used. This search led to finding five relevant
articles which are dealing with similar research. Also, several other articles related to Agile
Methodologies have been reviewed for this research.

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
As Toer & Torgier (2008) stated, Scrum Methodology is widely implemented as it is more
responsive to change. Scrum Methodology also introduces some new roles around which the
entire methodology is based on.
Mike (2014) argues that Scrum Methodology gains its popularity because it acts as a “wrapper”
for all other Software Methodologies while being supported by rest of Agile Methodologies.
Mike (2014) also identifies the importance of Product Owner, as developers work closely with
Product Owner in this methodology, to prioritize the product backlog and develop the
functionality accordingly.
Sserena (2007) describes the product backlog and product owner in depth. The product backlog
contains all the requirements for the software in the form of epics, features and user stories. The
product owner is responsible for managing this product backlog. Based on the priorities set by
the Product Owner, developers set the complexity and estimate the time it takes to develop the
shippable product increments. The team further decides either to add new items or make changes
that help them in taking further steps.
Ambler (2010) identifies the emphasis on lean software development which is designed to
develop the software is small chunks while reviewing it, to improve the quality of end product.
This way certain important features can be delivered with the highest efficiency. This is
discussed in depth by Moran (2014), who emphasize the importance of developing software in
small increments. This way the process involved in development is review constantly while
providing communication between developers and business. Instant feedback only helps the
quality of the end product. The risk is always analyzed in the process, ensuring risk management
processes in place.

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Yoong & Sidney (2007) identifies that traditional software methodologies have many limitations
and replacing them with Scrum Methodology has benefits. Scrum Methodology also enhances
trust between involved individuals. This only helps them to perform their roles efficiently. This
method also emphasizes on developers working closely with the business to satisfy the business
need of developing a product which has a competitive advantage in the market. Fergus (2012)
accurately identifies that Scrum Methodology involves a lot of retrospection of the developed
product from iteration to iteration. This helps the team in identifying the errors in code and
correcting them to ensure the product works as per design. Scrum Methodology encourages
developers to be independent. This helps in creating a good environment in the workplace, where
a developer can perform their daily activities with motivation.
Software development
Brunetti, G discusses the current trends in the software industry, which there has been in a
massive rise in software packages that are being developed. Johannesson (2003) defines the steps
involved in Software Development. The development usually involves collecting requirements,
coding the software, testing it and then rolling into production. There can be other aspects of
software development besides these two. But these are the major steps/pieces that have to be
included while developing a software. This is called Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
As discussed by Langer (2012), the development can be anywhere from 3 months to several
years, based on various factors like software size, team size, resources, budget, etc. But every
software that is being developed has to go through various phases like Inception, Requirements,
Development, Testing, Roll-out to be a finished product. The various phases as explained by
Langer (2012) are described below:

Running Head: IMPACT OF SCRUM METHODOLOGY ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
 Inception: This phase usually is when the business decides to develop an idea and will
perform various types of analysis to develop the software.
 Requirements: When developing the software is deemed feasible, the requirements
around the features of the software are collected, analyzed and documented. This phase
will help the business understand what is to be built. This phase is critical to
development. Many artifacts are created during this phase, which will be used in the
subsequent phases for reference.
 Development: The requirements need to be developed into working software. So in this
phase, the various modules/features will be designed and have to be developed which
reflects the requirements.
 Testing: The developed software has to be developed to make sure that the requirements
have been met. Various kinds of testing will be done to make sure the software is robust
and can work as intended.
 Roll-out: The developed and tested software will be required to roll out as planned. The
rollout has to be done in a manner that would allow the software to be used by the
intended users.
These different phases have to be done with precision to achieve the goals in developing
software.
Methodologies for Software Development
As Brunetti, G discusses, the software development industry has been using several
methodologies which suit their organizational needs to achieve the goal. Every company has
been choosing to either implement an existing methodology or adopt and modify it to suit their
organizational needs. There might also be various methods implemented which are created by