A Countrywide Descriptive Survey of Agile Software Development in Brazil

Abstract

AbstractFor years, industry institutions and academic researchers have been surveying software practitioners on agile software development methods adoption. These surveys have been useful in describing the characteristics, challenges, and impacts of agile adoption, mainly in Europe and North America. Latin American practitioners miss information on the state of agile adoption. This study aims to fill this gap by describing agile software development adoption in Brazil. We collected data from 897 countrywide-distributed practitioners. We used descriptive statistics and machine learning algorithms to understand our dataset. Results show the profile of companies and teams, characteristics of agile usage, perception of success, applied principles and practices, and reasons, challenges and impacts of agile adoption. We also explore the relevance of principles in software process improvements. We contribute by mapping the state-of-the-practice of agile adoption in Brazil and by contrasting our results to previous literature, which points out how we further current knowledge in academia.