Integrating Agile Practices with a Medical Device Software Development Lifecycle

Mc Hugh, Martin and McCaffery, Fergal and Casey, Valentine and Pikkarainen, Minna (2012) Integrating Agile Practices with a Medical Device Software Development Lifecycle. In: European Systems and Software Process Improvement and Innovation Conference, EuroSPI 2012. , 21-25 May 2012, Vienna, Austria.

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Abstract

The rate at which agile software development practices are being adopted is growing rapidly. Agile software development practices and methodologies appear to offer the silver bullet which can solve the problems associated with following plan driven software development lifecycles. Agile software development practices offer the possibility of achieving lower development costs, increased efficiency and improved software quality. However, there is currently a low rate of publicly available information that suggests there is widespread adoption of agile practices within the medical device software domain. This is largely due to the fact that software developed for medical devices includes challenges not faced when developing non safety critical software. As a result of these challenges, medical device software is typically developed using plan driven software development lifecycles. However, such lifecycles are quite rigid and cannot accommodate changes easily. Previous research has revealed that medical device software development projects can benefit from adopting agile practices whilst still maintaining the discipline associated with following plan driven development lifecycles. This paper outlines the challenges faced by developers when developing medical device software and how shortcomings in both agile and plan driven approaches can be resolved by following a mixed method approach to medical device software development.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Medical Device; Agile; Plan Driven; SDLC; XP; Scrum; V-Model; TDD; FDA; MDD; 2007/47/EC; Software Process Improvement
Subjects:	Computer Science Science
Research Centres:	Regulated Software Research Centre
Depositing User:	Concepta Woods
Date Deposited:	23 Aug 2012 12:04
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2014 16:10
URI:	https://eprints.dkit.ie/id/eprint/237

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