Conceptual scheduling model and optimized release scheduling for agile environments

ContextRelease scheduling deals with the selection and assignment of deliverable features to a sequence of consecutive product deliveries while several constraints are fulfilled. Although agile software development represents a major approach to software engineering, there is no well-established conceptual definition and sound methodological support of agile release scheduling.ObjectiveTo propose a solution, we present, (1) a conceptual model for agile scheduling, and (2) a novel multiple knapsack-based optimization model with (3) a branch-and-bound optimization algorithm for agile release scheduling.MethodTo evaluate our model simulations were carried out seven real life and several generated data sets.ResultsThe developed algorithm strives to prevent resource overload and resource underload, and mitigates risks of delivery slippage.ConclusionThe results of the experiment suggest that this approach can provide optimized semi-automatic release schedule generations and more informed and established decisions utilizing what-if-analysis on the fly to tailor the best schedule for the specific project context.