Rashina Hoda

Rashina is a PhD in Computer Science candidate at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her area of research is Agile Project Management and her supervisors are Prof. James Noble and Dr. Stuart Marshall. After completing her Masters part one at Victoria, Rashina was accepted to the direct PhD program in 2006. She completed her Bachelors in Computer Science with Honors Distinction (GPA: 3.93/4.00) from Louisiana State University, USA in 2003. She is also a Certified Scrum Master (2009).

PhD Research: Self-Organizing Agile Teams

Agile Software Development has gained tremendous popularity in the Software Industry over the last couple of decades. It is fast becoming the standard way of software development as more and more organizations across the world adopt Agile. These include, but are not limited to, software giants IBM, Google, Yahoo, GE, Microsoft, SAP, Motorola, Siemens, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Cisco, and Lockheed Martin.

There is no derth of material describing the advantages of Agile software development but there is very limited research focusing on the challenges of working with Agile methodologies. It is our aim to uncover the real-life practical challenges of working in Agile projects and the strategies used by Agile practitioners to overcome these challenges. In this pursuit, Rashina has interviewed and observed Agile practitioners from different organizations in New Zealand, India, USA, and Canada.

Using the rigorous constant comparative method of Grounded Theory, she has analyzed the data collected from these interviews and observations. The main categories emerging as a result of the analysis include: Negotiating Contracts (XP2009), Lack of Customer Involvement (Agile2009 Research Stage, XP2010), Organizational Culture and Influence of Upper Management, the formation of Self-organizing Agile Teams (ICSE2010, CHASE2010), and Agile Transitioning or Adoption (Agile2008 Research Stage). With further data collection and analysis, she is progressing towards generating a grounded theory.

If you would like more information or would like to participate in our research, please contact us at: rashina@ecs.vuw.ac.nz

Research Diary

Publications

Work Experience

Rashina has been involved in the preparation, delivery, and evaluation of several Software Engineering/Computer Science courses such as COMP102 (Intro to Computer Program Design), COMP205 (Software Design and Engineering), COMP311 (User Interface Design), and most recently worked as an Agile Coach for SWEN302 (Agile Methods course) at the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, VUW, NZ.

As Senior Tutor at School of Information Management, VUW, Rashina managed course content website and provided student advice and assistance. She also engaged in selecting and allocating tutors for the course, as well as managing the tutorials and workshops. She was involved with 100-level courses such as INFO101 (Foundations of Information Systems) and INFO102 (Business Application Programming).

As a summer intern at Deloitte IT Consulting, Rashina gained valuable experience of engaging in real life IT/software consulting. During the internship she designed and created a relational database and query tool using MS Access for an Auckland based client. She also conducted data analysis and created graphical representations for a prominent Deloitte client.

Rashina successfully completed several software projects while working at Ebookers, a UK-Based Online Travel Agency, in New Delhi India. She implemented and integrated CRM (customer relationship management) Interaction advisor into the Ebookers websites under the supervision of CRM head, London. She successfully completed several web development projects and implemented complete restructing of hotels' booking engine. She interacted directly with customers from 12 European countries, interface development teams, quality assurance, CRM teams, and the Management.

As a part of her doctoral research, Rashina has studied over 20 different software projects and interviewed over 60 software professionals specializing in Agile projects. She has also observed several Agile practices first hand, such as daily stand-ups, distributed daily stand-ups, release planning meetings, demos, and general team interaction. This exposure to real life software projects has deepened her understanding and consolidated her theoretical concepts.

Achievements, Awards, and Scholarship

Rashina has been awarded the prestigious BuildIT PhD Scholarship for emerging IT researchers, NZ 2009. She was awarded the Agile Alliance research grant by the Agile Alliance (USA) to conduct research on Agile projects. She has received faculty strategic research grants. Rashina was also short-listed for the Google Anita Borg scholarship (2008).

During her bachelor's degree at Louisiana State University, Rashina received the Andrea Martin Memorial scholarship 2003 and Chevron Scholarship for Outstanding student 2002. She was also on the Dean's list and Chancellor's Honor Roll for all four years of her Bachelors study.

Other Interests

Rashina likes designing websites, painting, and writing poems and articles. She is also a member of the Elvis Software Engineering Group at VUW, IEEE Computer Society, Agile Alliance, Scrum Alliance, and the APN (Agile Professionas Network) New Zealand chapter.