Agility in a Large-Scale System Engineering Project: A Case-Study of an Advanced Communication System Project

In this paper we describe the application of the agile software development approach in system engineering projects. We describe the main characteristics of system projects, highlighting the challenges that the application of agility in such cases raises. Such challenges emerge due to the unique characteristics of system projects, which include the multidisciplinary nature of such projects, which encompasses, in addition to the software teams, also hardware, firmware, algorithms, and mechanics teams; the significant importance of including the project management in the process; the multiple kinds of integration tasks; the need for high-level and skilled human resources; and finally, the actual software development process, which in many system projects is embedded real-time software. Though agile development is an accepted development methodology in software projects, many questions are still unanswered when agility is applied to system projects. This paper aims to partially close this gap by addressing the application of agility in an advanced communication system project.