Bottlenecks in Agile Software Development Identified Using Theory of Constraints (TOC) Principles

Abstract

This master thesis identifies main bottlenecks in agile software development exemplified by research industry partner, the international advanced technology company, Ericsson. Theory of Constraints is used as an analytical tool. The research consists of three phases. First, high level bottlenecks of four agile software development methods: Lean software development, Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, and Feature Driven Development (FDD) are identified. After that, theoretical model for identifying bottlenecks in Lean software development implementations is developed. At the end, this model is verified in a studied unit at Ericsson. Identified bottlenecks narrows down possible issues in agile software development implementations and allows focusing on the core problems. Companies working according to agile methods could benefit from using the results of the thesis to identify bottlenecks in their implementations.