IS Agility Research: An Assessment and Future Directions

In this paper, we briefly describe IS agility related research in four established IS research areas: IT infrastructure, IS development, IS organization, and IS personnel. We present a systematic literature review of articles published in leading scientific IS journals during the years 1990-2013. The main contribution of the paper is in the summary of research methods and results of agility related research in the four research streams. Our analysis will provide researchers with a foundation of prior research when designing future studies. Additionally, the paper raises concerns that the dominance of two research streams (i.e., flexible IT infrastructures and agile IS development methods), may overshadow the role of IS personnel characteristics and IS organisation design in agility studies. Future IS agility research could also benefit from studies adopting a broader theoretical perspective to integrate concepts and findings across all four research streams

IMPROVING ISD AGILITY IN FAST-MOVING SOFTWARE ORGANIZATIONS

Fast-moving software organizations must respond quickly to changing technological options and mar-ket trends while delivering high-quality services at competitive prices. Improving agility of infor-mation systems development (ISD) may reconcile these inherent tensions, but previous research of agility predominantly focused separately on managing either the individual project or the organiza-tion. Limited research has investigated the management that ties the agility of individual projects with the company agility characterizing fast-moving organizations. This paper reports an action research study on how to improve ISD agility in a fast-moving software organization. The study maps central problems in the ISD management to direct improvements of agility. Our following intervention ad-dressed method improvements in defining types of ISD by customer relations and integrating the method with the task management tool used by the organization. The paper discusses how the action research contributes to our understanding of ISD agility in fast-moving software organizations with a framework for mapping and evaluating improvements of agility. The action research specifically points out that project managers need to attend to the company’s agility in relating to customers, that company agility links to project agility, and that this requires light method and tool support

Understanding Agility in ISD Projects

Since the 2001 publication of the Agile Manifesto, agile information systems development (ISD) methods have enjoyed increasing popularity. Extant research has highlighted critical challenges and key benefits associated with agile methods. Notwithstanding, the contribution of the actions performed by actors involved in an ISD project toward the achievement of agility remains unclear. This issue motivated the present study, which addresses the question of “how do project teams achieve agility in ISD projects? . To answer this question a theoretical lens that accounts for the shared understanding that actors have of the ISD process as well as its actual unfolding is adopted. Building on extant conceptualizations of agility in ISD and its constituting facets, a study of three ISD projects within an organization is conducted. The main expected contribution of the study is to offer insight into the actions that contribute to the achievement of the various facets of agility in ISD

Enterprise architecture as enabler of organizational agility : a municipality case study

Organizational agility is one of the top management concerns as organizations face today increasingly changing environments. Among enterprise architecture (EA) benefits, organizational agility has been claimed as one of them, perceived as a direct or indirect benefit, for example, through business-IT alignment, another top management concern. However, even with reasonable explanations in the EA literature, there is still a lack of empirical evidence to support such claim. Our research looks for that evidence seeking to understand how the development and use of EA may contribute for organizational agility. Having one of the biggest municipalities in the country as the research setting, using a mix-methods approach, a case study was carried out to identify EA artefacts, understand EA at use and examine agility in a specific change situation. In this case, enterprise architecture was not just used but was developed and improved during the change situation to enable organizational agility.PEst-OE/EEI/UI0319/201

ADAPTATION PATTERNS IN AGILE INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT TEAMS

This research draws on team adaptation theory to study how agile information systems development (ISD) teams respond to non-routine events in their work environment. Based on our findings from a qualitative case study of three ISD teams, we identified non-routine events that could be distinguished according to the three categories task volatility, technological disruption, and team instability. In addition, we found three patterns of reacting to these events that differed regarding complexity and team learning. Our results show that the theoretical link between different types of events and adaption patterns depends on the type of event and the reach of the events´ impact as well as on the extent to which the teams followed an iterative development approach. While previous literature either examined ISD team agility as the extent to which agile techniqus and methods are applied, or as a capability to adapt to changes, this research is the first to study how more or less agile teams react to non-routine events. By taking a process view and examining the influnce of iterativeness on the link between events and adaptation patterns, this study helps reconcile the behavioral and capability perspectives on agility that have so far been disconnected

Digital Agility: Conceptualizing Agility for the Digital Era

It goes without saying that digital technologies have been forming an increasingly crucial component of companies’ value offerings in recent times. In many industries, this trend has led to converging markets, where traditional firms compete and collaborate with software firms and digital startups. One central competitive factor in these markets is the ability to capitalize on digital options faster than the competition. Prior research on agility in this context has advanced our knowledge on managerial and employee behaviors, as well as structures supporting such behaviors, to enable agility both in traditional and software firms. The challenge for firms in digitally converging markets is that agility now requires a combination of organizational and IS development agility—perceiving these concepts as separate entities is no longer appropriate or instructive. Building on prior work on agile behaviors and structures, and published cases on digital firms, we develop an integrative conception of digital agility in line with the realities of the digital era

When agility meets a project portfolio: A study of success factors in large organisations

The iterative nature of agile methods combined with high levels of team and customer interactions and continuously changing IT and software development project requirements make the management of agile project portfolios very complex. To date, the mechanisms under which project portfolio management adapts to these complexities and achieves portfolio success have not been thoroughly investigated. This study explores the notion of success and its impacting factors in large organisations\u27 portfolios of agile IT and software development projects. Using a multiple case study design, we analysed the agile project portfolios of seven large organisations. We identified four success criteria and 15 success factors and categorised them into a unique agile portfolio success framework. Some of these criteria and factors are unique to agile project portfolios. The framework contributes to agile and project management literature by conceptualising the notion of success in portfolios of agile projects while revealing a set of factors that affect the relationship between an agile portfolio with its subcomponents and the surrounding environment. The framework supports managers and practitioners in large organisations in reflecting on their agility efforts to achieve higher success rates in their agile portfolios