Towards improving the organization of hybrid development approaches

Abstract

Agile methods were proposed to address the problems of traditional or plan-based software development, e.g., late customer feedback or resistance to change. However, unlike plan-based methods, they are not designed for long-term planning or to cope with large projects. Software companies want the ability of a fast reaction to changes but also the ability of long-term planning. To profit from the strength of both approaches, software companies often use a combination of agile and plan-based methods, called hybrid development approaches. These approaches depend on the respective context of each company. Therefore, the companies have to properly arrange and connect the phases, activities, roles, and artifacts from plan-based and agile approaches individually in their hybrid development approach. This is considered as the organization of hybrid development approaches. However, the organization of hybrid approaches is often difficult for the companies. Until now, research considers only the chosen development methods without the organization of hybrid development approaches. With my work, I want to strengthen the understanding of how hybrid approaches are organized and get a detailed picture of the challenges when organizing hybrid approaches. Based on my findings, I want to develop measures to support practitioners while organizing their development approach.