=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3672/PT-paper1
|storemode=property
|title=Scrum Sustainability Poker: Assessing the Sustainability Effects of User Stories in
Agile Software Development
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3672/PT-paper1.pdf
|volume=Vol-3672
|authors=Peter Bambazek,Thomas Hofer,Iris Groher
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/refsq/BambazekHG24
}}
==Scrum Sustainability Poker: Assessing the Sustainability Effects of User Stories in
Agile Software Development==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3672/PT-paper1.pdf
Scrum Sustainability Poker: Assessing the
Sustainability Effects of User Stories in Agile Software
Development
Peter Bambazek1,*,† , Thomas Hofer1,† and Iris Groher1,†
1
Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU), Linz, Austria
Abstract
[Context and motivation] In recent years, the importance of sustainability in the field of requirements
engineering has increased significantly. Despite this growing interest, the availability of practical method-
ologies and tools for assessing sustainability impacts of software systems remains limited. Furthermore,
while the majority of existing approaches focus on traditional processes, sustainability is also getting
attention within the agile community. [Question/problem] This raises the question, how practitioners can
be supported in both traditional and agile software development processes to increase the sustainability
of software systems. [Principal ideas/results] In this paper, we present the Scrum Sustainability Poker
Tool. Based on the well-known planning poker method, this tool offers a novel approach for estimating
the potential sustainability impacts of requirements and user stories. It also stimulates early discussions
about sustainability in the development process. A preliminary evaluation of the tool has been conducted
with a focus group of practitioners. [Contribution] Beside a novel tool, the main contribution of our
research is an investigation of how requirements engineering knowledge can be effectively integrated
into agile software development practices. [Demo Video] https://youtu.be/z9gDmyswkDA
Keywords
Sustainability, Requirements Engineering, Sustainability Awareness Framework, Agile Software Devel-
opment, Scrum, User Stories, Tool Support
1. Introduction
Requirements Engineering (RE) is recognized as a pivotal phase in the software development
lifecycle that facilitates the creation of sustainable software systems [1]. The RE research
community focusing on new approaches for sustainable software systems is growing since 2010
[2]. In current research, sustainability is understood as a systemic concept encompassing five
dimensions (economical, environmental, social, individual, technical) [3]. The Sustainability
In: D. Mendez, A. Moreira, J. Horkoff, T. Weyer, M. Daneva, M. Unterkalmsteiner, S. Bühne, J. Hehn, B. Penzenstadler, N.
Condori-Fernández, O. Dieste, R. Guizzardi, K. M. Habibullah, A. Perini, A. Susi, S. Abualhaija, C. Arora, D. Dell’Anna, A.
Ferrari, S. Ghanavati, F. Dalpiaz, J. Steghöfer, A. Rachmann, J. Gulden, A. Müller, M. Beck, D. Birkmeier, A. Herrmann,
P. Mennig, K. Schneider. Joint Proceedings of REFSQ-2024 Workshops, Doctoral Symposium, Posters & Tools Track, and
Education and Training Track. Co-located with REFSQ 2024. Winterthur, Switzerland, April 8, 2024.
*
Corresponding author.
†
These authors contributed equally.
$ peter.bambazek@gmail.com (P. Bambazek); thomas.hofer1998@gmail.com (T. Hofer); iris.groher@jku.at
(I. Groher)
0000-0002-4447-3083 (P. Bambazek); 0000-0003-0905-6791 (I. Groher)
© 2024 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
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ISSN 1613-0073
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Workshop ISSN 1613-0073
Proceedings
Awareness Framework (SusAF) as the most mature approach [2], provides a workbook for
practitioners [4] containing a set of guidance questions that assist in identifying the potential
impacts of a software system on these sustainability dimensions.
Agile software development (ASD) is currently the predominant methodology within software
development [5]. Despite the recognized importance of sustainability in ASD by practitioners
[6], there is still a lack of approaches that address sustainable software systems within ASD
[7]. Additionally, there is also a lack of supporting software tools for practitioners in RE [7].
This raises the questions, of what existing RE approaches can be leveraged for ASD, and how
practitioners can be supported by new tools.
The contribution of this paper is a prototype tool inspired by SusAF and the widely recognized
planning poker technique [8]. Its primary objective is to raise sustainability awareness among
both stakeholders and the development team, e.g. during backlog refinement. The tool supports
practitioners, including Scrum teams and stakeholders, in analysing sustainability impacts of
user stories. It facilitates discussions on sustainability and helps to get a shared understanding
of the potential sustainability impacts within the team.
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 outlines the research goal and
provides an overview of the related work in this field. The tool prototype is detailed in Section
3, followed by a preliminary evaluation in Section 4 and a discussion in Section 5. The paper
concludes with Section 6.
2. Research Goal and Related Work
The primary objective of our research is to support practitioners in developing sustainable
software systems. Hence, our goal is to enhance practitioners’ awareness of sustainability
impacts and provide them with practitioners with innovative methods to facilitate informed
decision-making. This is particularly relevant in the context of managing and prioritizing the
product backlog within ASD. As part of our ongoing work in this area, we conducted a mapping
study and observed that only seven out of 55 publications offered tool support through the
development of a prototype [7]. The most relevant works in relation to our work are as follows:
Alharthi et al. [9] introduce the SuSoftPro methodology along with a web-based tool designed
for requirements engineers. This tool aids in analyzing the impacts of requirements on the
sustainability of software systems. Basmer et al. [10] present SusApp, a web-based tool that
supports practitioners applying SusAF. This tool facilitates the documentation and visualization
of sustainability effects. Albuquerque et al. [11] introduce a sustainability catalog, which has
been realized in the form of a web-based tool. Saputri and Lee [12] offer a semi-automated
tool to assess the sustainability effects of software artifacts based on defined sustainability
requirements. Finally, in a recent publication [2], we introduce a plugin for the Jira project
management tool, which facilitates the documentation of sustainability impacts of user stories
in ASD processes.
3. Scrum Sustainability Poker Tool
In this section, we outline the user interface, the architecture and the practical application of
our tool.
3.1. Users and Use Cases
The main objective of our research is to create a software tool that facilitates Scrum team
members in evaluating the sustainability impact of user stories across various dimensions. This
tool is an extension of our earlier study where we explored the integration of sustainability
in Scrum practices [6]. Our findings indicated that product backlog refinement and sprint
review are the most suitable events for incorporating sustainability considerations, as perceived
by practitioners. In these processes, stakeholders and the product owner play a central role.
They are crucial in conducting an early analysis of sustainability impacts, in collaboration
with the development team. Moreover, the tool is based on the widely-recognized planning
poker technique [8] traditionally used for estimating the complexity or effort required for
new user stories. We propose an enhancement to the backlog refinement event to include
sustainability assessments, supported by our tool. Alternatively, we suggest the introduction
of specific sustainability-focused events, in collaboration with stakeholders, as a part of the
existing development processes [2].
3.2. User Interface
To assess the impact of user stories on sustainability dimensions in a team setting, practitioners
can establish dedicated virtual rooms. In these rooms, estimations based on user stories are
conducted. Team members can access a room through a distinct link. Within a room, user
stories can be organized by either importing them as a CSV file, or by manually creating them.
This setup allows for a systematic evaluation of the influence of these user stories on various
sustainability dimensions.
As shown in Figure 1a, participants in each room are able to provide their estimations for
each dimension using a slider. To aid in this process, an overlay featuring the SusAF guidance
questions [4] can be activated for additional support. Shifting the slider to the left indicates that
the user story being evaluated has a negative impact on the specific sustainability dimension.
Moving the slider to the right indicates a positive impact on the corresponding sustainability
dimension. The slider’s initial central position denotes a neutral impact. For more accuracy, the
impact can be quantified on a scale ranging from 1 to 5, representing the intensity of both positive
and negative impacts. Additionally, participants have the option to refrain from estimating a
dimension’s impact, particularly in cases of uncertainty or when limited information about the
dimension in question is available for the user story.
After finishing a voting round for a user story, the aggregated results are shown to the
participants, as illustrated in Figure 1b. The display includes the count of participants who have
selected each scale value for every dimension. Moreover, the median for each dimension is
represented visually on the slider. This presentation of the results aims to foster discussions
among participants, thereby enhancing awareness of potential sustainability impacts. This in
(a) Voting view (b) Result view
Figure 1: Voting board to estimate the effects of a user story (left) and the result view after a voting
round has been completed (right)
turn should assist practitioners in making more accurate evaluations of the product backlog in
terms of sustainability considerations.
3.3. Implementation
The prototype was developed as a single-page web application to facilitate smooth operation
across various platforms, with a focus on browser compatibility and independence from specific
platforms. For the user interface, Angular1 was chosen as web application framework. Addition-
ally, Firebase2 was integrated to manage data storage and user authentication. The following
provides a detailed overview of the core components of the prototype tool.
Modules: The tool is divided into distinct modules to enhance maintainability, testability,
and performance. This modular architecture aims to provide a clear and coherent organization
of the application, simplifying the development process. Each module is responsible for specific
functionalities that align closely with the primary features of the prototype.
UI Components: The functionalities were further categorized into Angular components.
Each of these components encapsulates a specific part of the UI and its associated logic. These
components are designed to be highly modular, which facilitates ease of integration, testing,
and maintenance. A key aspect of the components is their reusability, supporting a uniform
user experience throughout the prototype.
Services: Angular services were used to implement and encapsulate the business logic, data
retrieval, and state management. To manage states, Reactive Extensions for JavaScript (RxJS)
were used, streamlining the handling of asynchronous events and data streams. The use of
observable streams in this context provided an effective approach for managing states. This
1
https://angular.io/, last accessed March 2024
2
https://firebase.google.com/, last accessed March 2024
technique ensures clear control over data flows and simplifies the management of state changes.
Data storage: The prototype uses Firebase Firestore as the primary data storage solution,
a NoSQL cloud database that provides a robust and scalable foundation for managing the
prototype data. Firestore provides a flexible, schemaless data model that allows structured data
to be stored and retrieved, but also realtime data synchronization capabilities, that immediately
reflect any changes in the user interface.
Authentication: In this tool prototype, Firebase’s anonymous authentication has been
implemented for user identification, which provides a secure way to identify users without
requiring them to create accounts or the provision of sensitive personal information.
4. Preliminary Evaluation
This section describes the results of an initial evaluation of the prototype. Five employees of an
Austrian IT services company participated in a focus group to give feedback on the usefulness
of the tool. All participants were experienced software development practitioners, but none of
them had specifically engaged with sustainability in their field prior to this. A key observation
they made was the challenge in achieving a consensus on the concept of sustainability and
the proposed sustainability dimensions. However, they recognized, that the tool highlights
different perspectives and fosters discussion through its graphical display of estimation results.
This visual representation was particularly appreciated for providing clarity in situations where
there was a significant divergence of opinions regarding a specific dimension.
Another important finding from the focus group participants was the emphasis on the need
for a clear benefit from using the tool, justifying the investment of effort and time required
to analyze user stories for sustainability considerations. The focus group highlighted, for the
sake of time efficiency, that the analysis of sustainability effects should ideally be integrated
with complexity and effort estimations. This integration is suggested to occur during backlog
refinement sessions, where user stories are typically examined in depth.
The participants also observed that the outcomes of the tool’s analysis might not directly result
in the reprioritization of backlog items, but rather serve as additional information for decision-
making processes. In this regard, they suggested the inclusion of stakeholders, particularly
those with decision-making authority, in the estimation process. Furthermore, they noted that
the involvement of diverse stakeholders could introduce new potential sustainability effects
through new perspectives.
Overall, the prototype was described as user-friendly and intuitive. However, some partic-
ipants noted that the tool should be integrated with existing planning poker tools used for
complexity and effort estimations. Managing user stories across separate tools, in addition to a
primary project management tool like Atlassian Jira is seen as cumbersome.
Additionally, there was a proposal to introduce an overarching sustainability score, rather
than having separate scores for different dimensions. This would simplify the process of
comparing various user stories in terms of their overall sustainability impacts.
Finally, the participants agreed that the tool effectively raises the awareness about sustain-
ability in software development, if there is a willingness and openness among the development
team and the stakeholders to engage with sustainability concerns.
5. Discussion
Our proposed tool should serve as a facilitator for project teams intending to adopt sustainable
development practices. Therefore, the tool should primarily foster discourse concerning the
diverse impacts that specific software requirements can have on the different sustainability
dimensions. Reaching consensus during the development process is thus only a secondary
objective.
In a previous study, practitioners highlighted the importance of incorporating sustainability
aspects within ASD, listing various strategies for integrating sustainability considerations in
agile processes, especially Scrum [6]. This consideration applies not only to the refinement of
the product backlog but also to the sprint review phase.
The extent to which stakeholders can take part a sustainability assessment largely depends on
the characteristics of the organizations involved and the structure of the development process.
Ideally, stakeholders would actively participate in evaluating sustainability and discussions
regarding the potential sustainability impacts of user stories. They can potentially provide
additional perspectives on sustainability for specific software requirements, most likely with
respect to the economical dimension. In our previous work [2] we presented a tool that supports
the documentation of sustainability impacts and also generates a report for stakeholders. It is
crucial that the advantages of dedicating time and resources are made evident to ensure not
only stakeholder engagement but also to motivate the development team itself.
A still open question is whether participants require training on sustainability issues be-
fore conducting sustainability assessments or if there is a need for external expertise from a
sustainability expert.
The conducted evaluation was a first step to get initial feedback and of course, it undoubtedly
requires a more comprehensive assessment over an extended duration (spanning at least several
sprints) within a real-world project context. In this scenario, it has to be evaluated how sustain-
ability awareness and understanding evolve over time, and the impact additional sustainability
assessments have on the agility of the development process.
6. Conclusion and Future Work
In this paper, we introduced a novel tool designed for integration into agile software develop-
ment processes, aimed at assisting practitioners in creating more sustainable software systems.
Findings from a focus group assessment have already provided valuable insights for enhance-
ments and the development of new features. We are currently planning a more comprehensive
evaluation involving a broader range of software development teams across different industries
to get deeper insights into the tool’s adaptability and impact on promoting sustainable practices.
Following the principles of open science, the source code of our tool is accessible on GitHub3
and is available for complimentary use4 . We encourage both researchers and practitioners to
use our tool, share their insights, and contribute towards its enhancement.
3
https://github.com/peter1123581321/scrum-sustainability-poker, last accessed March 2024
4
https://www.sustainabilitypoker.app/, last accessed March 2024
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