First steps in innovative tool support for decision making in agile software development

The fast, unstructured and turbulent nature of decision making in agile software development (ASD) teams at times necessitates software-based support tools (Dabrowski, Acton, Drury, Conboy, and Dabrowska, 2011). The demands on development teams are increasing in terms of delivery expectations, and therefore requires innovation in how decision support tools are used. Decisions in agile teams are intense, with teams iteratively producing customer-focused software in short bursts of time. Decision support tools may facilitate an increased innovative capacity in the team, and by extension, the software development organisation, through the provision of competitive advantage. This paper provides an initial ‘first steps’ exploration of tool support for decision making in agile software development, outlines the major aspects of agile processes requiring such support, and proposes a way forward for future work.