A Systematic Literature Review of the Application of Agile Applied to Large-Scale, Safety-Critical, Cyber-Physical Systems
Robin J. Yeman, Yashwant K. Malaiya · 2024
The application of Agile methodologies to large-scale, safety-critical cyber-physical systems (LS/SC/CPS) has shown significant interest over the last 5 years. Although there has been limited research into each of the individual attributes for de-velopment projects that are large-scale, safety-critical, or cyber-physical systems, there is a scarcity of research when all three attributes exist simultaneously in a development endeavor. This systematic literature review explores the extent of Agile adoption in projects where all three attributes are present. It begins by examining the extent of Agile adoption by domain, identifying the drivers for change, reviewing the challenges encountered, and investigating the augmentations used to address these challenges. The findings indicate that there has been growth in adoption across the medical, aerospace, automotive, and robotics indus-tries, with limited adoption in energy and transportation. Key drivers include speed, adaptability, and cost. Several challenges have been identified, with regulatory/compliance requirements being the most significant. Multiple augmentations to Agile have been applied to overcome the identified challenges, ranging from incorporating safety frameworks and specialized artifacts to leveraging modeling and simulation, as well as reimagining pro-grammatics. This review highlights industry efforts to apply Agile to LS/SC/CPS, while identifying several gaps in the literature. The largest gap is empirical validation in real-world settings. Future research should focus on improving the existing Agile scaling frameworks with guidance and resources to help achieve the benefits of Agile in LS/SC/CPS development while ensuring regulatory and safety compliance.