Using Guilds to Foster Internal Startups in Large Organizations: A Case Study

Software product innovation in large organizations is fundamentally challenging because of restrained freedom and flexibility to conduct experiments. As a response, large agile companies form internal startups to initiate employ-driven innovation, inspired by Lean startup. This case study investigates how communities of practice support five internal startups in developing new software products within a large organization. We observed six communities of practice meetings, two workshops and conducted ten semi-structured interviews over the course of a year. Our findings show that a community of practice, called the Innovation guild, allowed internal startups to help each other by collectively solving problems, creating shared practices, and sharing knowledge. This study confirms that benefits documented in earlier research into CoPs also hold true in the context of software product innovation in large organizations. Henceforth, we suggest that similar innovation guilds, as described in this paper, can support large companies in the innovation race for new software products.publishedVersio

Boundary Objects and their Use in Agile Systems Engineering

Agile methods are increasingly introduced in automotive companies in the attempt to become more efficient and flexible in the system development. The adoption of agile practices influences communication between stakeholders, but also makes companies rethink the management of artifacts and documentation like requirements, safety compliance documents, and architecture models. Practitioners aim to reduce irrelevant documentation, but face a lack of guidance to determine what artifacts are needed and how they should be managed. This paper presents artifacts, challenges, guidelines, and practices for the continuous management of systems engineering artifacts in automotive based on a theoretical and empirical understanding of the topic. In collaboration with 53 practitioners from six automotive companies, we conducted a design-science study involving interviews, a questionnaire, focus groups, and practical data analysis of a systems engineering tool. The guidelines suggest the distinction between artifacts that are shared among different actors in a company (boundary objects) and those that are used within a team (locally relevant artifacts). We propose an analysis approach to identify boundary objects and three practices to manage systems engineering artifacts in industry

The amorphous nature of agile: no one size fits all

Purpose: This paper investigates the extent to which newly agile organizations followed 2001’s Agile Manifesto, especially in terms of the 12 principles of the agile approach, as included in the Manifesto. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted in-depth case studies of groups in three large business organizations that had recently adopted agile. Two researchers spent one day at each site, attending daily standups and conducting interviews with managers, developers and customers. Findings: Across the three organizations, developers were faithful to two agile principles: the primacy of delivering valuable software continually, and regular reflections on the process with an eye toward improvement. The developers were uniformly unfaithful to the principle that requires face-to-face communication. Each organization varied in their adherence to the remaining nine principles. Obstacles to faithful adoption included the experience of the organization with agile, the extent to which the industry was regulated, and the extent to which developers and customers were physically dispersed. Originality/value: While past research on agile development is extensive, this paper examined perspectives on the method and its adoption through the lens of the original Agile Manifesto and its 12 principles. The principles were grouped into three broader categories – software delivery, people and process – to provide additional insights and to sharpen the analysis

Overview and Guidance on Agile Development in Large Organizations

A continual debate surrounds the effectiveness of agile software development practices. Some organizations adopt agile practices to become more competitive, improve processes, and reduce costs. Other organizations are skeptical about whether agile development is beneficial. Large organizations face an additional challenge in integrating agile practices with existing standards and business processes. To examine the effects of agile development practices in large organizations, we review and integrate scientific literature and theory on agile software development. We further organize our theory and observations into a framework with guidelines for large organizations considering agile methodologies. Based on this framework, we present recommendations that suggest ways large organizations with established processes can successfully implement agile practices. Our analysis of the literature and theory provides new insight for researchers of agile software development and assists practitioners in determining how to adopt agile development in their organizations

Overview and Guidance on Agile Development in Large Organizations

A continual debate surrounds the effectiveness of agile software development practices. Some organizations adopt agile practices to become more competitive, improve processes, and reduce costs. Other organizations are skeptical about whether agile development is beneficial. Large organizations face an additional challenge in integrating agile practices with existing standards and business processes. To examine the effects of agile development practices in large organizations, we review and integrate scientific literature and theory on agile software development. We further organize our theory and observations into a framework with guidelines for large organizations considering agile methodologies. Based on this framework, we present recommendations that suggest ways large organizations with established processes can successfully implement agile practices. Our analysis of the literature and theory provides new insight for researchers of agile software development and assists practitioners in determining how to adopt agile development in their organizations

A Taxonomy of Information System Projects’ Knowledge-sharing Mechanisms

Despite its criticality to the success of information system (IS) projects, knowledge sharing among IS projects is generally ineffective compared to knowledge sharing in IS projects. Although several mechanisms for knowledge sharing exist in the literature, it is difficult to determine which mechanism one should use in a specific context. We lack work that concisely and comprehensively classifies these mechanisms. Based on a literature review, we extracted information from 33 studies and identified twelve mechanisms for sharing knowledge among IS projects. Then, we derived a taxonomy for these mechanisms, which extends previous research by both adapting existing mechanisms and complementing the set of dimensions used for their classification. The results help to systematically structure the fields of knowledge management and IS projects. Both research and practice can use this taxonomy to better understand knowledge in this domain and effectively adopt mechanisms for a particular application

When Agile Means Staying: A Moderated Mediated Model

The design of software development methods focuses on improving task processes, including accommodating changing user requirements and accelerating product delivery. However, there is limited research on how the use of different software development methods impacts IT professionals’ perceptions of organizational mobility. Drawing on concepts from the agile development literature and job characteristics theory, we formulate a moderated mediation model explicating the mechanism and the condition under which agile development use exerts an influence on IT professionals’ intention to stay with their current employer. Specifically, we examine job satisfaction as mediating the effect of using agile development on the intention to stay as well as how the strength of the mediated relationship differs across firms. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 32,389 software developers. We find that job satisfaction fully mediates the effect of using agile development on the intention to stay. The strength of the mediation effect is significantly different for large and small firms