An Empirical Study: Understanding Factors and Barriers for Implementing Agile Methods in Malaysia

Asnawi, Ani Liza, Gravell, Andrew and Wills, Gary (2010) An Empirical Study: Understanding Factors and Barriers for Implementing Agile Methods in Malaysia. 5th International Doctoral Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (IDoESE), Bolzano-Bozen, Italy.

Abstract

This paper focuses on empirical work for a doctoral research. We investigate factors that can bring about the adoption or rejection of agile methods in Malaysia. As part of this research our initial work involved the identification of the current levels of usage and perception of the methodology in the country. A pilot study using a questionnaire was conducted in two languages, English and Malay. Our initial results indicate that of the 79 respondents more than 50% do not have an awareness of agile methods. Despite their unawareness, most of the respondents believe in agile values. The awareness of agile methods is also found to have a significant association with the language respondents used and two aspects of organisational structure asked from the questionnaire. This findings provides a promising environment for the application of agile methods in the country. It was also identified that the respondents perceived both aspects (social and technical) to be equally important in delivering the benefits of agile methods. The contribution from this study is used to provide guidelines relating to the factors concerning, and barriers facing the adoption of agile in the country, where little knowledge and studies regarding the methods can be found. The results are also used to fill the research gap of inconclusive evidence found from previous studies.

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Contributors

Author: Gary Wills

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