Julian Michael Bass

University of Salford · Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering

Covers skills in agile software development methods, team working, version control and continuous integration Includes nearly 100 exercises plus hints, tips and further advice for students and early career professionals Addresses significant competencies in the IEEE/ACM Computing Curricula Task Force 2020

Corrosion—degradation in metal structures—is problematic, expensive to rectify, and can be unpredictable in the rate at which it spreads. Traditional preventative maintenance techniques are complemented by human visual inspection, in turn complemented by artificial intelligence vision techniques. The primary objective of this paper was to determine...

The role of software architecture in large-scale Agile development is important because several teams need to work together to release a single software product while helping to maximise teams’ autonomy. Governing and aligning Agile architecture across autonomous squads (i.e., teams), when using the Spotify model, is a challenge because the Spotify...

Web-based business applications commonly experience user request spikes called flash crowds. Flash crowds in web applications might result in resource failure and/or performance degradation. To alleviate these challenges, this class of applications would benefit from a targeted load balancer and deployment architecture of a multi-cloud environment....

Load balancing dynamically optimizes cloud resources and performance, and enhances the performance of applications deployed on cloud. We have chosen to investigate the class of cloud deployed web-based three-tier business applications. There is a problem with load balancing for this class of applications when they suffer from overload due to sudden...

Non-functional requirements define qualities of the software system that ensure effectiveness while embedding any constraints and restrictions on the design. A challenge rises with agile implementation in handling non-function requirements in regulated environments. Thus, a practitioner's perceptions of agile method tailoring are described in relat...

Cybersecurity has been identified as a major challenge confronting the digital world, neglecting cybersecurity techniques during software design and development increases the risk of malicious attacks. Thus, there is a need to make security an integral part of the agile information system development process. In this exploratory study, we empirical...

There is evidence that agile approaches to information system development can improve product quality and developer productivity. However, successful adoption of these approaches appears to depend on adaptation to specific contexts. This research contributes to a broader goal to understand what it means to “be agile” in the presence of adaptations...

Researchers have become interested in agile approaches to information systems development, because of their potential to improve product quality and increase productivity. While often associated with project orchestration in software development, agile methods have a wider potential application within ICT4D. Our interest, in this research, is to ex...

This book presents the collection of papers selected for presentation at the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 9.4 16th International Conference organized under the banner of the Third European Conference on the Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries. The conference was hosted in Manchester,...

Organisations that manage legacy systems at scale, such as those found within large government agencies and commercial enterprises, face a set of unique challenges. They manage complex software landscapes that have evolved over decades. Current conceptual definitions of legacy systems give practitioners limited insights that can inform their daily...

The Large-Scale Agile Development workshop explored the main research challenges in large-scale software development. We considered multi-site organisations with large-scale projects that include a large number of teams adopting agile methods. Such topics include inter-team coordination, knowledge sharing, large project organisation, agile transfor...

Organisations usually tailor Agile methods to fit their needs best. Spotify has developed its own Agile culture to facilitate software development for hundreds of developers across multiple cities. The Spotify model has become influential among agile proponents and hence formed the basis of methods used in other organisations. We have identified a...

Organisations usually tailor Agile methods to fit their needs best. Spotify has developed its own Agile culture to facilitate software development for hundreds of developers across multiple cities. The Spotify model has become influential among agile proponents and hence formed the basis of methods used in other organisations. We have identified a...

Organisations tailor agile methods to fit their specific needs. There are two recognised approaches to agile method tailoring: Contingency Factors and Method Engineering. Spotify has developed its own agile culture, which has become influential among agile proponents. The Spotify model has formed the basis of agile methods used in numerous other or...

This workshop explored the main research challenges in conducting agile software development in large-scale software development. We considered multi-site companies with projects that include a large number of teams which develop sophisticated systems by adopting and using agile methods. Such topics include inter-team coordination, knowledge sharin...

Organisations tend to tailor agile methods to scale employed practices to have cross-functional autonomous teams while promoting sustainable creative and productive development at a constant pace. Thus, it is important to investigate how organisations tailor agile practices to get the balance right between teams’ autonomy and alignment. Spotify mod...

Agile software development has become increasingly common in the context of large-scale organisations. Typically, software organisations tailor agile methods to fit their needs and ultimately maximise success. The size of the organisation, business goals, and operative models are some examples of factors for which agile methods are tailored. Spot...

Organisations tend to tailor agile methods to scale employed practices to have cross-functional autonomous teams while promoting sustainable creative and productive development at a constant pace. Thus, it is important to investigate how organisations tailor agile practices to get the balance right between teams’ autonomy and alignment. Spotify mod...

This paper suggests that the dominance of northern research paradigms in ICT4D may be viewed as a continuation of colonial sway over the endeavors of the global South. The notion of Southern Theory - as introduced in the work of Raewyn Connell, the Comaroffs, and others - may be a route by which researchers in the global South can reclaim the intel...

Agile information system development methods have been adopted by most software development organizations due to their proven benefits in terms of flexibility, reliability, and responsiveness. However, companies face significant challenges in adopting these approaches. Specifically, this research investigates challenges faced by software developmen...

Agile is sometimes seen as an approach that’s best suited to small project and small teams. Julian M. Bass FBCS shows how, through methods and practice, Agile can work equally well on global scale projects too.

Abstract One of the challenges of deploying multitenant cloud-hosted services that are designed to use (or be integrated with) several components is how to implement the required degree of isolation between the components when there is a change in the workload. Achieving the highest degree of isolation implies deploying a component exclusively for...

Agile software development methods are being used on larger projects thus the study of inter-team communication are becoming an important topic of interest for researchers. This research addresses inter-team communication by exploring the tools and three different boundaries, inter-team, team and customers, and geographically separated teams. In th...

A challenge, when implementing multi-tenancy in a cloud-hosted software service, is how to ensure that the performance and resource consumption of one tenant does not adversely affect other tenants. Software designers and architects must achieve an optimal degree of tenant isolation for their chosen application requirements. The objective of this r...

In large-scale agile projects, product owners undertake a range of challenging and varied activities beyond those conventionally associated with that role. Using in-depth research interviews from 93 practitioners working in cross-border teams, from 21 organisations, our rich empirical data offers a unique international perspective into product owne...

Changing the development process of an organization is one of the toughest and riskiest decisions. This is particularly true if the known experiences and practices of the new considered ways of working are relative and subject to contextual assumptions. Spotify engineering culture is deemed as a new agile software development method which increasin...

In May 2018, Prof Steve Furber CBE spoke to Manchester Branch BCS, about how Acorn RISC machines evolved into the Spiking Neural Network Architecture. Julian M. Bass FBCS reports.

Changing the development process of an organization is one of the toughest and riskiest decisions. This is particularly true if the known experiences and practices of the new considered ways of working are relative and subject to contextual assumptions. Spotify engineering culture is deemed as a new agile software development method which increasin...

This article describes the tailored product innovation processes used in a partnership between Add Latent Ltd., an asset integrity and maintenance management consulting services provider in the energy sector and University of Salford. The challenge faced by the company is to make their in-house expertise more readily available to a worldwide audien...

Context: Case studies are a useful approach for conducting empirical studies of software engineering, in part because they allow a phenomenon to be studied in its real-world context. However, given that there are several kinds of case studies, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, researchers need to know how to choose which kind to employ fo...

The Product Owner (PO) is critical for translating business needs into a software implementation by gathering and prioritizing requirements, and assessing whether features have met the definition of "done." There is a paucity of detail about how POs achieve this daunting task in practice with potential negative consequences for project success. In...

High staff turnover has a negative impact on software development productivity and product quality. Further, offshore outsourcing has a widely held reputation for particularly poor employee retention. Interestingly, in-house sites (regardless of location) do not suffer such high levels of staff turnover. We want to understand the factors affecting...

Utility-like computing has emerged as the future of computing for many organizations seeking to remain competitive in today's business environment. Promising features such as rapid elasticity, low cost provisioning, pay-as-use model, layered security, measured service, resource pooling, are the reasons companies are opting for this technology. Clou...

Multi-tenancy in cloud computing describes the extent to which resources can be shared while guaranteeing isolation among components (tenants) using these resources. There are three multi-tenancy patterns: shared, tenant-isolated and dedicated component patterns. These patterns have not previously been formally specified. In order to create a preci...

Multitenancy allows multiple tenants to access a single instance of a cloud offering. While several approaches exist for implementing multitenancy, little attention has been paid to implementing the required degree of isolation since there are varying degrees of isolation that can be implemented for each tenant. This paper presents a framework for...

Multitenancy allows multiple tenants to access a single instance of a cloud offering. While several approaches exist for implementing multitenancy, little attention has been paid to implementing the required degree of isolation since there are varying degrees of isolation that can be implemented for each tenant. This paper presents a framework for...

Scrum is an increasingly common approach to software development adopted by organizations around the world. However, as organizations transition from traditional plan-driven development to agile development with Scrum, the question arises as to which Scrum role (Product Owner, Scrum Master, or Scrum Team Member) corresponds to a Project Manager, or...

This paper describes the innovation processes used in a partnership between a company that provides asset integrity and maintenance management consulting services in the energy sector and a university. The challenge faced by the company is to make their in-house expertise more readily available to a worldwide audience. A longitudinal embedded case...

Software as a Service (SaaS) has become one of de facto approach for deploying cloud base services or applications for many businesses. At the core of SaaS is Multi-tenancy; multi-tenancy gives customers (i.e. tenants) and software provider vast opportunities to leverage the power of cloud infrastructure by consolidating operational entities. The d...

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th IFIP WG 9.4 International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, ICT4D 2017, held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in May 2017. The 60 revised full papers and 8 short papers presented together with 3 keynotes were carefully reviewed and selected from 118 submissio...

This paper provides empirical evidence of agile method adoption in smaller companies in Ethiopia. Agile methods are emerging as best practice for software development in the global north. So, is there evidence that agile methods are being used in Ethiopia? A Grounded Theory approach was adopted using face-to-face interviews with 17 software profess...

This paper explores the emergence and adoption of cloud computing by enterprises in subSaharan Africa. Several studies have shown the benefits of cloud technologies for enterprises. Using qualitative techniques we obtained and analyzed data from nine enterprises regarding the adoption of cloud computing as an IT strategy. These enterprises span the...

This paper explores information system insourcing in selected government agencies in Malaysia and discusses the challenges and barriers that have impeded its implementation. The paucity of similar projects and limited literature has resulted in this study that considers a post outsourcing context following the decision to insource a major Malaysian...

The sharing of components of a cloud-hosted application and the underlying cloud resources between tenants have the potential to reduce resource consumption and running cost per tenant. However, this sharing may allow the behaviour of one component to affect the performance, resource consumption and access privileges of other components, for exampl...

Linux containers showed great superiority when compared to virtual machines and hypervisors in terms of networking, disk and memory management, start-up and compilation speed, and overall processing performance. In this research, we are questioning whether it is more secure to run services inside Linux containers than running them directly on a hos...

Key points Concepts from lean manufacturing and Kanban production can usefully be applied to writing for academic publication. Value and pull focus the author's attention on the needs of reviewers, editors, and readers. Value stream and flow emphasize an end-to-end process of prioritization, writing, editing, revision, resubmission, and publication...

Implementing the required degree of isolation between tenants is one of the significant challenges for deploying a multitenant application on the cloud. In this paper, we applied COMITRE (COmponent-based approach to Multitenancy Isolation Through request RE-routing) to empirically evaluate the degree of isolation between tenants enabled by three mu...

This paper uses empirical data to compare large-scale agile method tailoring in two types of global software development programme: offshore outsourced services and offshore captive development centres. This research forms part of a larger study and uses data collected from face-to-face semi-structured open-ended interviews with over 50 practitione...

Large-scale offshore software development programmes are complex, with challenging deadlines and a high risk of failure. Agile methods are being adopted, despite the challenges of coordinating multiple development teams. Agile processes are tailored to support team coordination. Artefacts are tangible products of the software development process, i...

Software development teams in large scale offshore enterprise development programmes are often under intense pressure to deliver high quality software within challenging time contraints. Project failures can attract adverse publicity and damage corporate reputations. Agile methods have been advocated to reduce project risks, improving both producti...

Multi-tenancy is a vital cloud computing property that enables multiple tenants of an application to be served concurrently while guaranteeing isolation between the tenants. Current cloud deployment patterns catalogue for implementing multi-tenancy lack details which make it difficult to use in deploying applications to the cloud. This paper applie...

One of the key concerns of implementing multitenancy (i.e., serving multiple tenants with a single instance of an application) on the cloud is how to enable the required degree of isolation between tenants, so that the required performance of one tenant does not affect other tenants. There is little research which provides empirical evidence on the...

Cloud computing provides scalable and reliable computing services that can be beneficial to software organizations that intend to migrate their existing or new applications to the cloud. However, migration is potentially complex, so cloud computing deployment patterns are proposed to support the migration process. This research compares the format,...

This paper explores the emergence and adoption of cloud computing by enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa. Several studies have shown the benefits of cloud technologies for enterprises. Using qualitative techniques we obtained and analyzed data from nine enterprises on adoption of cloud computing as an IT strategy. These enterprises span the finance,...

One of the key concerns of implementing multitenancy (i.e., serving multiple tenants with a single instance of an application) on the cloud is how to enable the required degree of isolation between tenants, so that the required performance of one tenant does not affect other tenants. There is little research which provides empirical evidence on the...

Cloud computing can provide remote access to computing resources via the internet. It has the potential to transform economic activities considering its inherent pay-per usage model, flexibility and scalability features. This paper uses a socio-technical framework that maximizes selected development impact factors to analyze the use of Software-as-...

Cloud computing can provide remote access to computing resources via the internet. This paper analyses and compares the adoption of cloud computing by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the United Kingdom (UK) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SS-Africa). A cloud adoption model theoretically grounded in the Technological, Organisational, and Enviro...

Software development has become increasingly globalized because of technological innovation, the evolution of work and business processes, as well as prevailing educational systems and national policies [1]. This paper addresses the challenges faced when creating realistic opportunities for students to participate in team working on a globally dist...

This paper explores the emergence and adoption of cloud computing by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and points towards its implications for developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Several studies have shown the importance of technologies to SMEs and the potentials of SMEs for economic growth. Using qualitative techniques we obtained...

Overcoming shortages of teachers or teachers with required skills and experience is a major challenge in rural schools in the global south. We investigate a classroom video conference multi-casting project under development by the Nepal Wireless Networking Project. Our case study draws on one-to-one interviews and focus group discussions from three...

We investigate the use and tailoring of agile methods in a highly disciplined CMMI Level 5 organization. We explore gaps between traditional agile practices and those required for enhanced levels of governance required by CMMI appraisal. We conducted a case study with recorded interviews from practitioners at NIIT Technology Ltd. The interviews wer...

This paper explores practitioner descriptions of agile method tailoring in large-scale offshore or outsourced enterprise projects. Specifically, tailoring of the product owner role is discussed. The product owner identifies and prioritizes customer requirements. But in globalized projects, the product owner must reconcile large numbers competing bu...

This paper explores the emergence and adoption of cloud computing by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and points towards its implications for developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Several studies have shown the importance of technologies to SMEs and the potentials of SMEs for economic growth. Using qualitative techniques we obtained...

Institutional theory and the capability approach have grown influential in development research and practice. Both theories offer analytical tools for interpreting and guiding information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) interventions. In this article, we propose an analytical framework that applies institutional theory and the...