Design requirements to improve adoption of continuous development services
Date
2020-05-21
Authors
Rae, Trevor
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Abstract
The adoption of Continuous Development presents many challenges to users and
organizations. The complexity of Continuous Development adoption is partially
attributable to the diversity of the challenges faced, including technical challenges,
cultural challenges, compliance regulations, and lack of understanding. In this thesis,
I worked with industry partner IBM to improve their Continuous Delivery Pipeline
offering to overcome adoption challenges faced by their users. Following Hevner’s
Three Cycle Design Science Methodology, my research had two distinct stages:
Characterizing Continuous Development Adoption Challenges and Creating
Design Requirements to Aid Organizations Offering Continuous Development
Services. Both stages necessitated involvement from both academic literature and
industry collaboration with IBM. Industry collaboration included interviews, surveys,
developer forum analysis, and collaboration with IBM’s “Continuous Delivery” teams.
The design requirements I developed in this thesis addressed cultural, technical,
compliance, and knowledge gap adoption challenges that were identified during the
problem characterization stage. When tested within the Continuous Development
community, feedback indicated that my design requirements would add value to users’
development process, enabling their Continuous Development adoption. This thesis
provides a foundation of empirical research for future study and a set of guidelines
for industry practitioners.
Description
Keywords
Continuous Development, Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Agile