A intenção do Comandante e a iniciativa dos subordinados nos baixos escalões do Exército Português em contexto de treino operacional

Este estudo de investigação surge com o objectivo de conhecer os factores que potenciam e/ou condicionam o desenvolvimento da Iniciativa dos Subordinados nos baixos escalões do Exército Português em contexto de treino operacional. O objectivo do estudo consiste em identificar e descrever os factores que potenciam e/ou condicionam o desenvolvimento da Iniciativa dos Subordinados nos baixos escalões do Exército Português, neste caso no escalão companhia, em contexto de treino operacional. A constatação prévia de que a Intenção do Comandante poderia ser um factor potenciador e/ou condicionante da Iniciativa dos Subordinados conduziu, ainda, ao objectivo de identificar e descrever o contributo da compreensão da Intenção do Comandante para a Iniciativa dos Subordinados nos baixos escalões do Exército Português em contexto de treino operacional. O estudo é qualitativo de nível de conhecimentos I, exploratório-descritivo. A recolha de dados foi realizada por meio de entrevista semi-dirigida, a doze militares de uma unidade de escalão de companhia, em contexto de treino operacional e os resultados obtidos foram examinados pelo método de análise de discurso. Do estudo concluiu-se que os entrevistados consideram como principais condicionantes ao desenvolvimento da Iniciativa dos Subordinados a ausência de doutrina, a deficiente formação, a falta de experiência, a incompreensão entre comandantes e subordinados, a falta de motivação, a limitação da liberdade de acção por parte do escalão superior, o medo de errar e a desconfiança entre pares. Como principais potenciadores é de realçar a motivação, a confiança, a tolerância de erro, liberdade de acção, expressão e a participação no planeamento de actividades. O contributo da Intenção do Comandante para a Iniciativa dos Subordinados foi pouco identificado, chegando a existir uma incompreensão do conceito. Denotou-se ainda que os entrevistados não fazem muito uso da Intenção do Comandante, dando mais valor ao Conceito de Operações. Este estudo é um importante contributo para as áreas disciplinares de táctica e liderança, uma vez que os resultados obtidos pelo mesmo permitem a reflexão sobre a prática da Intenção do Comandante e a Iniciativa dos Subordinados.Abstract This investigation study appears with the objective to know the factors that potentiate and / or stipulate the development of the Initiative of the Subordinates in the lowest levels of the Portuguese Army in context of operational training. The objective of the study consists in identifying and describing the factors that potentiate and / or stipulate the development of the Initiative of the Subordinates in the lowest levels of the Portuguese Army, in this case the level company, in context of operational training. The prior observation of which the Commander’s Intent might be a factor enablers and / or restriction of the Initiative of the Subordinates led, still, to the objective to identify and to describe the contribution of the understanding of the Commander’s Intent for the Initiative of the Subordinates in the lowest levels of the Portuguese Army in operational context. The study is qualitative of knowledge level I, exploratory-descriptive. The data gathering was carried out through semi-directed interview, to twelve soldiers of one unity of level of company, in operational context and the obtained results they were examined by the method of analysis of speech. Of the study it was ended that the interviewed ones consider how principal restrictions to the development of the Initiative of the Subordinates the absence of doctrine, the defective formation, the lack of experience, the incomprehension between commanders and subordinates, the lack of motivation, the limitation of the freedom of action for part of the superior level, the fear of wandering and the suspicion between couples. Like principals enablers of highlighting the motivation, the confidence, the tolerance of mistake, freedom of action, expression and the participation in the activities planning. The contribution of the Commander’s Intent for the Initiative of the Subordinates was little identified it was still shown that the interviewed ones do not do great use of the Commander’s Intent, valuing more the Concept of Operations. This study is an important contribution for the disciplinal areas of tactics and leadership, as soon as the results obtained by the same thing allow the reflection on the practice of the Commander’s Intent and the Initiative of the Subordinates

The impact of communication on trust in agile methods

This thesis was submitted for the award of Master of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonBackground: With the increasing reliance on software, software engineering continues to face many challenges. Previous studies suggest that human factors are as difficult to get right as technical factors, and that trust is one of the human factors that directly influences the way people work. This research looks at how a variety of communication channels can be helpful in achieving trust. The literature suggests that trust is an explicit requirement in Agile Methods. An important element of such interactions between individuals is trust. Individuals and their interactions is one of the key principals of any agile developmental methodology. Aim: This research aims to investigate the importance of trust between individuals using Agile Methods. The investigation focuses on how trust is improved with communication. Forms of communication are analysed. In the first study the impact of face-to-face communication is compared to no communication. The second study compared face-to-face communication with instant messaging to further analyse trust. Method: To investigate the impact of communication on trust, this research used Game Theory in a simulated agile development environment. During the initial study 28 iterated games with 56 practitioners and student participants were conducted. Stand-up meetings are used as the communication intervention. Levels of trust in games using stand-up meetings as a communication channels are compared to games where no stand-up meetings(no communication) are used. This research then investigates the importance of trust via synchronous communication channels in Agile Methods with 20 iterated games with 40 participants used in a final study. Stand-up meetings are again used as the communication intervention. Levels of trust in games using face-to-face stand-up meetings are compared to games where instant messaging is used. Results: The findings of this research are that increased communication has a large positive effect upon the level of trust between team members in an Agile setting. This suggests that communication improves trust in development teams. This research also suggests that face-to-face communication has a particularly positive effect upon the level of trust between team members in an Agile setting. However, this research also suggests that instant messaging communication does also create trust. Conclusion: This research suggests that trust is an important factor in the software development process. Communication is an important trust building factor. Some forms of communication are better in building trust compared to others. The main contribution to knowledge this research makes is that the use of Game Theory is an effective method by which to investigate trust as it allows the simulation of behaviour in relation to trust and the direct observation that behaviour. Game Theory also enabled the behaviour observed to be analysed objectively. This research also contributes to understanding of the value of trust in relation to communication and provides evidence that opportunities for communication should be built into development processes

Organisational rhetoric and leadership in agile : a Wittgensteinian inquiry.

The focal point of this research has been the unpicking of reported experience versus rhetoric around a neo-bureaucratic approach to project management, referred to as “Agile”. This monolithic entity consists of many distinct methodologies, with an overlapping conceptual core. An understanding of Agile discourse is established through the data analysed as an object of comparison. The research findings speak to the space of legitimated expression and action, the depth grammar, of Agile organisation. The research was undertaken from a perspective of leadership agnosticism, in that the term was sceptically treated and included only in an emic capacity. The research is a coding-based analysis which runs across three strands of linguistic “metafunction”, as defined by Michael Halliday’s “Systemic Functional Grammar”. A total of 35 Agile experience reports were analysed through this process. The codes derived in this first pass were aggregated into groupings based on the perceived relation of events captured, termed manifestations. These manifestations were then themselves aggregated into a smaller set of categories. In practice, this meant a reduction from 138 codes, grouping similar exemplars, to 16 manifestations and then 6 categories. These categories establish the core concepts around which the depth grammar is presented through the first discussion chapter. This research has two primary contributions to Agile and another relating to leadership. In leadership studies, this research stands as an early empirical demonstration of the value in leadership agnosticism. Relating to Agile, a much needed description of the focal points of organisational talk in Agile practice is provided. Furthermore, it is argued that concepts of leadership had a significant role to play in disguising the continued operation of power in Agile contexts. This thesis, then, represents a contribution to Agile literature by providing a fuller exploration of the empirical challenges facing Agile’s idealised “Santa’s workshop” or “Hollywood/Disneyland” template.The focal point of this research has been the unpicking of reported experience versus rhetoric around a neo-bureaucratic approach to project management, referred to as “Agile”. This monolithic entity consists of many distinct methodologies, with an overlapping conceptual core. An understanding of Agile discourse is established through the data analysed as an object of comparison. The research findings speak to the space of legitimated expression and action, the depth grammar, of Agile organisation. The research was undertaken from a perspective of leadership agnosticism, in that the term was sceptically treated and included only in an emic capacity. The research is a coding-based analysis which runs across three strands of linguistic “metafunction”, as defined by Michael Halliday’s “Systemic Functional Grammar”. A total of 35 Agile experience reports were analysed through this process. The codes derived in this first pass were aggregated into groupings based on the perceived relation of events captured, termed manifestations. These manifestations were then themselves aggregated into a smaller set of categories. In practice, this meant a reduction from 138 codes, grouping similar exemplars, to 16 manifestations and then 6 categories. These categories establish the core concepts around which the depth grammar is presented through the first discussion chapter. This research has two primary contributions to Agile and another relating to leadership. In leadership studies, this research stands as an early empirical demonstration of the value in leadership agnosticism. Relating to Agile, a much needed description of the focal points of organisational talk in Agile practice is provided. Furthermore, it is argued that concepts of leadership had a significant role to play in disguising the continued operation of power in Agile contexts. This thesis, then, represents a contribution to Agile literature by providing a fuller exploration of the empirical challenges facing Agile’s idealised “Santa’s workshop” or “Hollywood/Disneyland” template

Human factors and cultural influences in implementing agile philosophy and agility in global software development

As software becomes increasingly important to all aspects of industry, developers should be encouraged to adopt best practice and hence improve the quality of the processes used, and achieve targets relating to time, budget and quality. In the software industry, several software methodologies have been used to address software development problems; however some of these processes may be too bureaucratic. The Agile Alliance formed in 2001, sought to address this problem; accordingly, they developed a manifesto and twelve principles, to which all agile software methods adhere. The purpose of the manifesto and its principles is to uncover better ways of developing software. Agile software development methods seem to address the software development industry’s need for more agile processes that are responsive to changes during software development. Agile values and principles require a major cultural change for software managers, e.g. collective team responsibility and self-organisation, especially in large organisations with a strong culture of planning and centralised power. In large global organisations, this issue is likely to be exacerbated by cultural diversity. The objective of this thesis is to analyse the possibility, of using agile methods or practices in different cultures, and study what changes are required, to adapt agile approaches to different global application development issues. The study found that certain agile practices can be useful in different cultures and some practices required major cultural adaptation. A study of suitable practices for different cultures such as Australia, India and the United Kingdom and the associated suggested changes required are the main areas of study. Human factors have been identified by researchers and practitioners to impact on software development projects. Similarly, cultural differences may also be influential in a global market. The principles of agile software development focus on iterative adaptation and improvement of the activities of individual software development teams to increase effectiveness. This research programme focused specifically on national culture based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Hall’s cultural dimensions and the relationships between different aspects of national culture and the implementation of agile methods. To investigate this aspect of software development, a set of cultural dimensions and consolidated cultural agile attributes were developed, that are considered necessary for implementing agile methods. Based on relevancy, cultural dimensions such as Individualism/Collectivism, Power distance index, Uncertainty avoidance index, Time and Context were selected and studied. Some of cultural agile attributes studied include Transparency, Dedicated team, Decision making, Tolerance for change, Time keeping and Authoritative. This set was identified from a literature review on culture for agile methods, a detailed analysis of relevant commonly used agile methods and from feedback from agile experts. This thesis involves qualitative interviews conducted in Australia, India, and the UK using an interpretive paradigm and aims to identify cultural dimensions to implement agile methods in the software engineering community. The results of this research programme provide an analytical comparative framework for implementing agile methods in different cultures, and insight into how cultural differences may affect a software project and how these challenges can be addressed through agile principles