Role of Agile Methodologies for Ensuring Quality in Complex Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

In software development, the selection of a software process model set the base for the success of a software product. An inappropriate selection may lead to a delay in project release, introduce defects and make the project difficult to update. This lack of quality characteristics may lead to the risk of losing customer expectations as well as the failure of the project itself. In the case of complex systems, the problems become more severe. To meet such expectations, agile methodologies are used to ensure quality in software and meet customers’ expectations. There is currently no literature that gives insights into the role of agile methodologies in ensuring quality in complex systems. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness and the impact of agile methodology in achieving the quality of complex systems. For this, we perform a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and define a review protocol. By performing a thorough search and screening, we selected 39 papers related to agile methods and complex systems. Our analysis shows that complex systems have various requirements of quality attributes some of the complex systems mainly focus on security, reliability, and efficiency whereas other emphasizes safety, response time, and maintainability. Our analysis also shows that agile methodologies are widely used for the development of complex systems because ensuring the quality requirements of complex systems is not possible with the use of traditional methods of software development.