Quality attribute driven agile development

Agile development methods are being recognized as popular and efficient approaches to the development of software systems that have features such as a short delivery period and unclear requirements. They emphasize customer satisfaction, fast response to changes, and release in less time. According to a recent survey, SCRUM is one of the most popular methods that are currently being used. Some backlogs, especially high priority backlogs that are functional requirements of customers, are developed repeatedly at each sprint period. Despite the known advantages of SCRUM, however, its backlogs focus only on functional features. Thus, it is difficult to effectively reflect the softwares quality attributes. As known, the failure of a software project is caused by the non-satisfaction not of functional features but of quality attributes, such as performance, usability, and reliability. This paper introduces the ACRUM1 that is a quality attribute driven agile development method. The main characteristic of the proposed solution is that it is derived from values and practices of SCRUM to be compatible with the SCRUM process and to keep its agility intact. The effect of ACRUM was evaluated through an agile process evaluation checklist and applying it into a commercial project of Samsung Electronics. The results showed that ACRUM is more efficient than the legacy agile development process.