Abstract
In recent decades, “agile” software development methodologies have been put forth as an alternative to traditional “waterfall” methodologies. These agile methods advance a fundamentally different approach to software development. Empirical evidence indicates differences between the two with respect to outcomes and development experience. Yet little is known to what extent the actual development practices based on either agile or traditional life cycle methodologies differ. In the current study we examine the variation in performative routines during software development by contrasting agile and traditional lifecycle process models using event sequencing method for detecting activity variations among recorded performative processes in the selected projects. Our analysis shows that performative enactment of waterfall and agile ostensive routines do differ in terms of activity types carried out in the early requirements steps. However, performative routines did show conformance to ostensive specifications in iterations, affordance types, and design objects used.
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Grants: VOSS-0943157 and
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hirschheim, R., Klein, H., Lyytinen, K.: Information systems development and data modeling: conceptual and philosophical foundations. Cambridge Univ. Pr., Cambridge (1995)
Wynekoop, J., Russo, N.: Studying system development methodologies: an examination of research methods. Information Systems Journal 7(1), 47–65 (1997)
Gordon, V., Bieman, J.: Reported effects of rapid prototyping on industrial software quality. Software Quality Journal 2(2), 93–108 (1993)
Cockburn, A., Highsmith, J.: Agile software development, the people factor. Computer 34(11), 131–133 (2002)
Lindvall, M., Basili, V., Boehm, B., Costa, P., Dangle, K., Shull, F., et al.: Empirical findings in agile methods. In: Wells, D., Williams, L. (eds.) XP 2002. LNCS, vol. 2418, pp. 197–207. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Berente, N., Lyytinen, K.: Iteration in systems analysis and design: Cognitive processes and representational artifacts. Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Environments, Systems and Organizations 5(4), 178–197 (2005)
Parnas, D., Clements, P.: A rational design process: How and why to fake it. In: Formal Methods and Software Development, pp. 80–100 (1985)
Brown, J., Duguid, P.: Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organization Science 2(1), 40–57 (1991)
Feldman, M., Pentland, B.: Reconceptualizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change. Administrative Science Quarterly 48(1), 94–121 (2003)
Suchman, L.: Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communication. Cambridge UP, Cambridge (1987)
Curtis, B., Krasner, H., Iscoe, N.: A field study of the software design process for large systems. Communications of the ACM 31(11), 1268–1287 (1988)
Russo, N., Wynekoop, J.: The use and adaptation of system development methodologies. In: Managing Information & Communications in a Changing Global Environment. Idea Group Publishing, PA (1995)
Smolander, K., Tahvanainen, V., Lyytinen, K.: How to combine tools and methods in practice—a field study (1990)
Berente, N., Lyytinen, K.: What is being iterated? Reflections on iteration in information system engineering processes. In: Conceptual Modelling in Information Systems Engineering, pp. 261–278 (2007)
Gaskin, J., Lyytinen, K., Thummadi, V., Schutz, D., Yoo, Y., Weiss, A., et al.: Sequencing Design DNA: A Set of Methodological Artifacts for Sequencing Socio-Technical Design Routines. In: International Conference on Information Systems, St. Louis (2010)
Abbott, A.: Sequence Analysis: New Methods for Old Ideas. Annual Review of Sociology 21(1), 93 (1995)
Abbott, A.: A Primer on Sequence Methods. Organization Science 1(4), 375–392 (1990)
Pentland, B.T.: Sequential Variety in Work Processes. Organization Science 14(5), 528–540 (2003)
Sommerville, I.: Software process models. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 28(1), 269–271 (1996)
Fitzgerald, B.: Systems development methodologies: the problem of tenses. Information Technology & People 13(3), 174–185 (2000)
Royce, W.: Managing the development of large software systems (1970)
Lyytinen, K.: A taxonomic perspective of information systems development: theoretical constructs and recommendations (1987)
Boehm, B., Turner, R.: Balancing agility and discipline: A guide for the perplexed. Addison-Wesley Professional, Reading (2003)
Graham, D.: Incremental development and delivery for large software systems (2002)
Mathiassen, L., Seewaldt, T., Stage, J.: Prototyping and specifying: principles and practices of a mixed approach. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems 7(1), 55–72 (1995)
Boehm, B.: A spiral model of software development and enhancement. Computer 21(5), 61–72 (1988)
Paetsch, F., Eberlein, A., Maurer, F.: Requirements engineering and agile software development (2003)
Tomayko, J.: Engineering of unstable requirements using agile methods (2002)
Laplante, P., Neill, C.: Opinion: The demise of the waterfall model is imminent. Queue 1(10), 10–15 (2004)
Shoval, N., Isaacson, M.: Sequence Alignment as a Method for Human Activity Analysis in Space and Time. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97(2), 282–297 (2007)
Wilson, C.: Activity Patterns of Canadian Women: Application of ClustalG Sequence Alignment Software. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board 1777(-1), 55–67 (2001)
Wilson, C.: Reliability of Sequence-alignment Analysis of Social Processes: Monte Carlo Tests of ClustalG Software. Environment and Planning A 38(1), 187 (2006)
Durbin, R., Eddy, S., Krogh, A., Mitchison, G.: Biological sequence analysis. Cambridge university Press, Cambridge (2002)
Abbott, A., Hrycak, A.: Measuring resemblance in sequence data: An optimal matching analysis of musicians’ careers. American Journal of Sociology 96(1), 144–185 (1990)
Leonardi, P.M., Barley, S.R.: Materiality and Change: Challenges to Building Better Theory about Technology and Organizing. Information and Organization 18(3), 159–176 (2008)
Orlikowski, W.J., Scott, S.V.: Chapter 10: Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization. The Academy of Management Annals 2, 433–474 (2008)
Tolvanen, J., Rossi, M.: MetaEdit+: defining and using domain-specific modeling languages and code generators (2003)
Wilson, C., Harvey, A., Thompson, J.: Clustalg: Software for analysis of activities and sequential events. Paper Presented at the Workshop on Sequence Alignment Methods, Halifax (October 2005)
Shadish, W., Cook, T., Campbell, D.: Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference (2002)
Markus, M.L., Silver, M.S.: A Foundation for the Study of IT Effects: A New Look at DeSanctis and Poole’s Concepts of Structural Features and Spirit. Journal of the Association for Information Systems 9(10), 5 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Thummadi, B.V., Shiv, O., Berente, N., Lyytinen, K. (2011). Enacted Software Development Routines Based on Waterfall and Agile Software Methods: Socio-Technical Event Sequence Study. In: Jain, H., Sinha, A.P., Vitharana, P. (eds) Service-Oriented Perspectives in Design Science Research. DESRIST 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6629. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20633-7_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20633-7_15
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-20632-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-20633-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)