| dc.description.abstract | Large governmental software projects have a dubious track record and numerous of terrifying projects have taken place within the military domain. The software industry is compared to other industries still in its infancy and numerous methodologies have endeavored to solve the inherent uncertainty in the software industry. Agile methods have achieved a lot of attention during the last decades and while some mention it as the new industry standard for software development others are skeptical and perceive the methods as a temporary hype. The Norwegian Armed Forces have accomplished some agile software projects. The heavyweight framework for military project management has still been applied, but vendors have been allowed to use their agile development processes. This thesis seeks to investigate this form of cooperation between the military agency for software acquisition and an agile vendor and the thesis’ problem formulation is “How do the Norwegian Armed Forces and agile vendors approach methodologies for software development”. The thesis starts with a literature review, but while the amounts of literature on agile development are overwhelming, most of it is of a normative character and written by authors who hold a polarized view and who have both feet planted in the agile camp. Reliable research on the methods is yet to be presented. Thus, the literature review is based on the discussions presented in recognized computer journals (IEEE, Computer and Cutter IT) and in addition “Balancing agility and discipline” by Boehm and Turner (2003) have to be mentioned as an important source of theory. The units of analysis are the NDLO ICT which is the agency within the Norwegian Armed Forces which deals with software acquisition and Teleplan Globe, a small actor in the Norwegian defense industry who has implemented agile development. The research suggests that it can be beneficial for the Norwegian Armed Forces to employ agile vendors as the methods seem to have certain benefits compared to traditional development. Agile development involves few personnel and can be cost effective and seems to have an advantage regarding close interaction between users and developers. However, agile methods can be problematic when life-critical systems are developed, when thorough documentation is essential or when a large group of developers have to cooperate. | nb_NO |
