TY - JOUR
T1 - Introducing continuous experimentation in large software-intensive product and service organisations
AU - Yaman, Sezin Gizem
AU - Munezero, Myriam
AU - Münch, Jürgen
AU - Fagerholm, Fabian
AU - Syd, Ossi
AU - Aaltola, Mika
AU - Palmu, Christina
AU - Männistö, Tomi
PY - 2017/11/1
Y1 - 2017/11/1
N2 - Software development in highly dynamic environments imposes high risks to development organizations. One such risk is that the developed software may be of only little or no value to customers, wasting the invested development efforts. Continuous experimentation, as an experiment-driven development approach, may reduce such development risks by iteratively testing product and service assumptions that are critical to the success of the software. Although several experiment-driven development approaches are available, there is little guidance available on how to introduce continuous experimentation into an organization. This article presents a multiple-case study that aims at better understanding the process of introducing continuous experimentation into an organization with an already established development process. The results from the study show that companies are open to adopting such an approach and learning throughout the introduction process. Several benefits were obtained, such as reduced development efforts, deeper customer insights, and better support for development decisions. Challenges included complex stakeholder structures, difficulties in defining success criteria, and building experimentation skills. Our findings indicate that organizational factors may limit the benefits of experimentation. Moreover, introducing continuous experimentation requires fundamental changes in how companies operate, and a systematic introduction process can increase the chances of a successful start.
AB - Software development in highly dynamic environments imposes high risks to development organizations. One such risk is that the developed software may be of only little or no value to customers, wasting the invested development efforts. Continuous experimentation, as an experiment-driven development approach, may reduce such development risks by iteratively testing product and service assumptions that are critical to the success of the software. Although several experiment-driven development approaches are available, there is little guidance available on how to introduce continuous experimentation into an organization. This article presents a multiple-case study that aims at better understanding the process of introducing continuous experimentation into an organization with an already established development process. The results from the study show that companies are open to adopting such an approach and learning throughout the introduction process. Several benefits were obtained, such as reduced development efforts, deeper customer insights, and better support for development decisions. Challenges included complex stakeholder structures, difficulties in defining success criteria, and building experimentation skills. Our findings indicate that organizational factors may limit the benefits of experimentation. Moreover, introducing continuous experimentation requires fundamental changes in how companies operate, and a systematic introduction process can increase the chances of a successful start.
KW - Agile software development
KW - Continuous experimentation
KW - Experiment-driven software development
KW - Lean software development
KW - Lean startup
KW - Product management
U2 - 10.1016/j.jss.2017.07.009
DO - 10.1016/j.jss.2017.07.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85025679495
VL - 133
SP - 195
EP - 211
JO - Journal of Systems and Software
JF - Journal of Systems and Software
SN - 0164-1212
ER -