Solving Agile Software Development Problems with Swarm Intelligence Algorithms

Abstract

This paper outlines a short overview of swarm intelligence algorithms that are used within the software engineering area. Swarm intelligence algorithms have been used in many software engineering tasks, e.g., grammatical inference or mutation testing. However, their presence in the agile software development field is still awakening. As there are some promising results of solving different problems of agile software development with swarm intelligence, this paper discusses such problems and the proposed solutions within the last decade. Based on the results we propose a systematic classification of swarm intelligence algorithms according to problems within agile software development, i.e., next release problem, risk, software design, software cost estimation, and software effort estimation. Afterwards, we present papers that fall in the scope of the proposed classification, and provide highlights of each paper for researchers, conducting research in this and associated fields. In this manner, we provide some conclusions for each of the classified problem groups, and, in the end, we review the guidelines for the future.