Hasso-Plattner-Institut
Prof. Dr. h.c. mult. Hasso Plattner
 

Christoph Matthies

Research Assistant & PhD Student

Phone:+49 (331) 5509-1329
Email:christoph.matthies(at)hpi.de
Address:August-Bebel-Str. 88, 14482 Potsdam
Room:V-2.02
Links:dblp, Google Scholar, arXiv, ResearchGate, Publons,
ACM Digital Library, SpeakerDeck

 

Research Area: Enterprise Software Engineering

Research

My research focuses on Data-Informed Agile Software Process Improvement
I investigate how project data created by development teams can enable process insights
so that development teams may use their own data to enact process improvements

Research Abstract

Modern software is built by collaborating teams. Team members need to practice and uphold an effective development process that enables project success. In popular Agile process frameworks, such as Scrum, work processes are maintained through iterative process improvement cycles and retrospection meetings. However, the details of how improvement steps can be implemented, tracked and evaluated are not specified. This requires teams to rely on their subjective perceptions and experiences. It is, therefore, challenging to assess the impact of applied improvement actions, such as switching project management software or trying a new development practice.

We tackle these challenges by supplementing existing Agile methods with improvement approaches based on software engineering team data. Our approach includes gathering empirical data on the perceptions of team members, as well as deriving insights from teams’ project data. This data, such as commits or work documentation, are already being produced during regular development work. By aggregating, linking and analyzing the available data, we enable teams to gain actionable insights into their own development processes.

This additional view of the executed process can be used proactively in Agile process improvement approaches. It paves the way for more data-informed Agile development processes based on self-organizing teams.

Teaching Activities

  • Winter Term 2022/23 - Scalable Software Engineering
    • Two parallel hands-on development projects with >80 participants overall
    • Students take the roles of Product Owner, Scrum Master, Project Management and Dev Team
    • We introduced multiple interactive student workshops
    • We featured guest lectures from idealo internet, SAP Signavio, Ambrosys & mobile.de
  • Winter Term 2021/22 - Scalable Software Engineering
    • Two parallel development projects with ~80 participants overall, supported by a group of five tutors
    • We employed both online and in-person course formats
    • We featured guest lectures from mobile.dePlanetScaleSAP & DigitalService4Germany
  • Winter Term 2020/21 - SWT II - Agile Software Development in Large Teams
    • Converted the course to an entirely virtual setup for this year
    • We featured guest lectures from GitHub, eBay Classifieds Group, SAP & Babbel
    • We summarized our tips & best practices for new Scrum Coaches and Tutors
    • We provided an overview of digital Kanban board solutions
    • We prepared for the exam with virtual software development Jeopardy!
  • Winter Term 2019/20 - SWT II - Agile Software Development in Large Teams
  • Winter Term 2018/19 - SWT II - Agile Software Development in Large Teams

Supervised Master Theses

Publications

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