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Cited by 56Software Engineering Techniques and PracticesSoftware Engineering ResearchAdvanced Software Engineering Methodologies

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How Scrum adds value to achieving software quality?

Open access
Alami, Adam, Krancher, Oliver·2022·Empirical Software Engineering
DOI 10.1007/s10664-022-10208-4PMC PMC9486782
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Abstract

Scrum remains the most popular agile software development method implementation for a variety of reasons; one important motive is to improve software quality. Yet many organizations fail to achieve quality improvements through the use of Scrum, and existing research sheds little light on the value-add of Scrum for software quality. More specifically, (1) how notions of software quality among Scrum practitioners relate to established quality perspectives, (2) how Scrum helps teams to achieve higher software quality and (3) why some teams fail to meet the objective of higher quality. We addressed these gaps through a two-phased qualitative study based on 39 interviews and two in-depth case studies. We find that Scrum practitioners emphasize established notions of external quality comprising of conformity to business needs and absence of defects, while they also value internal quality, especially sustainable software design. Our results show that Scrum helps teams achieve both dimensions of quality by promoting some social antecedents (collaboration, psychological safety, accountability, transparency) and process-induced advantages (iterative development, formal inspection, and adaptation). Our findings unveil how these factors contribute to achieving software quality and under what conditions their effects can fail to materialize. These conditions include inconsistent Scrum implementations, cultural constraints, team tensions, and inaccessibility of end-users. In addition, the complexity of the project aggravates the impact of these conditions. Taken together, these findings show that Scrum can complement established quality assurance and software engineering practices by promoting a social environment that is conducive to creating high-quality software. Based on our findings, we provide specific recommendations for how practitioners can create such an environment.

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Metadata

Authors
Alami, A., & Krancher, O.
Affiliations
  • Aalborg University (DK)
  • IT University of Copenhagen (DK)
Corresponding author
  • Alami, Adam
  • Krancher, Oliver
ORCID
Venue
Empirical Software Engineering
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2022-09-20
Volume
27
Issue
7
Pages
165-165
ISSN
  • 1382-3256 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-7616
DOI
10.1007/s10664-022-10208-4
PMC
PMC9486782
OpenAlex
W4296396451
Cited by
56
References
10
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 2
FWCI
10.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Empirical Software Engineering (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • VBN Forskningsportal (Aalborg Universitet) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • IT University Of Copenhagen (IT University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Software › Advanced Software Engineering Methodologies
Keywords
Scrum, software quality, agile software development, external quality, internal quality, psychological safety, collaboration, accountability, transparency, iterative development, quality assurance, organizational culture, project complexity

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