Exploring the Experiences of Experts: Sustainability in Agile Software Development -- Insights from the Finnish Software Industry
Hatef Shamshiri, Ashok Tripathi, Shola Oyedeji, Jari Porras
TL;DR
The study investigates sustainability in agile software development within the Finnish software industry by conducting structured expert interviews. It finds Scrum to be the predominant agile method and reveals that sustainability is still emerging, with significant emphasis on energy use, carbon emissions, and the interdependence among technical, environmental, and economic dimensions. The authors propose three roadmap milestones—education in sustainability, development of tools/frameworks, and energy-efficiency measurement of libraries and AI models—to advance sustainable agile practices. These insights aim to shape the Software Engineering Roadmap 2030 and guide practical actions in education, tooling, and policy for sustainable software development.
Abstract
Agile software development is gaining popularity among software developers due to its benefits. As the interest in agile software development grows, there is an increasing focus on investigating sustainability within this field. This study aimed to explore sustainability within agile software development in the Finnish software industry and, through gathered experiences, contribute to the software engineering roadmap 2030. Using an interview approach, we conducted an empirical study within the Finnish software industry to achieve this goal. The findings indicate a growing interest among experts in integrating sustainability into agile software development. The results show that the Scrum methodology is the most popular approach in the Finnish software industry, and addressing different sustainability dimensions can have a ripple effect on each other. The study proposes three key elements to be considered in the software engineering roadmap 2030: integrating sustainability into software engineering education, creating sustainability tools and frameworks, and assessing the energy efficiency of libraries used in software development.