Optimizing the Self-Organizing Team Size Using a Genetic Algorithm in Agile Practices
Wael Almadhoun, Mohammad Hamdan · Journal of Intelligent Systems · 2018
Abstract In agile software processes, the issue of team size is an important one. In this work we look at how to find the optimal, or near optimal, self-organizing team size using a genetic algorithm (GA) which considers team communication efforts. Communication, authority, roles, and learning are the team’s performance characteristics. The GA has been developed according to performance characteristics. A survey was used to evaluate the communication weight factors, which were qualitatively assessed and used in the algorithm’s objective function. The GA experiments were performed in different stages: each stage results were tested and compared with the previous results. The results show that self-organizing teams of sizes ranged from five to nine members scored more. The model can be improved by adding other team characteristics, i.e. software development efforts and costs.