The Change in Communication Patterns in Teams Implementing Lean

Team dynamics in companies implementing the Lean production paradigm are not clearly understood, and overlooked as success factors for the implementation of such systems. In this paper it is argued that the parameters describing communication networks change dramatically as a number of teams embark on a Lean transformation. This exploratory paper presents data from multiple sites that show that indeed, business units succeeding in their implementation of Lean undergo a drastic transformation in their teams\u27 communication patterns, and this change is more pronounced in more successful cases. Conclusions from the exploratory phase of the study suggest that in order to support successful implementations of Lean, management need to facilitate the changes in team network dynamics that are associated with rapid evolution towards a Lean enterprise

Riscos Da Perda De Conhecimento Em Emprsas Intensivas Em Vinculados Aos Fatores Humanos: Um Estudo De Casos Múltiplos

Atualmente os ativos intang veis s o recursos fundamentais para as organiza es especialmente na garantia de vantagem competitiva sustent vel Dentre eles o conhecimento fator determinante para o sucesso e sustentabilidade organizacional especialmente para as Empresas Intensivas em Conhecimento como as empresas de tecnologia Por isto a perda de conhecimento considerado um risco s organiza es especialmente quando relacionada aos fatores humanos Reter e captar os profissionais uma necessidade s organiza es as quais precisam atuar de forma proativa e preditiva revendo sua postura frente estes novos desafios Ou seja mitigar a perda de conhecimento fundamental para sobreviv ncia das mesmas Desta forma o objetivo desta pesquisa compreender os riscos da perda de conhecimento para Empresas Intensivas em Conhecimento relacionado aos fatores humanos Para tanto foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa atrav s de estudo de caso m ltiplos para identificar as causas da perda de conhecimento identificar os impactos e apresentar as estrat gias de mitiga

Agile Ways of Working: A Team Maturity Perspective

With the agile approach to managing software development projects comes an increased dependability on well functioning teams, since many of the practices are built on teamwork. The objective of this study was to investigate if, and how, team development from a group psychological perspective is related to some work practices of agile teams. Data were collected from 34 agile teams (200 individuals) from six software development organizations and one university in both Brazil and Sweden using the Group Development Questionnaire (Scale IV) and the Perceptive Agile Measurement (PAM). The result indicates a strong correlation between levels of group maturity and the two agile practices \emph{iterative development} and \emph{retrospectives}. We, therefore, conclude that agile teams at different group development stages adopt parts of team agility differently, thus confirming previous studies but with more data and by investigating concrete and applied agile practices. We thereby add evidence to the hypothesis that an agile implementation and management of agile projects need to be adapted to the group maturity levels of the agile teams

Changes in Communication Patterns When Implementing Lean

Purpose: This paper explores the changes in communication patterns when companies implement Lean, and how those changes relate to Lean implementation success. Design/methodology/approach: This is a multiple site case study involving four business units of a manufacturing company in South America, including two repeated measurement instances separated 24 months for approximately 600 direct workers and 65 supervisors. The analytical models include Social Network Analysis measures and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression. Findings: When implementing Lean: 1) teams have a higher frequency of communication among members. 2) Teams become more decentralized 3) Teams communicate more with supervisors and 4) Supervisors communicate more amongst themselves and collaborate more. Also, 5) Better performing teams change more pronouncedly. Research limitations/implications: The study contains data for four business units but within only one company, limiting the external validity of the conclusions. The sample was predominantly male. Participant attrition and other potential covariates not included in the study can be additional limitations. Practical implications: Lean implementations could be practically helped by managers by embracing and supporting the more intense communication patterns associated with lean success, and alternatively they could proactively detect barriers to communication by measuring how these patterns change or fail to change and try to unlock communication by working on those barriers, and supply communications infrastructure and opportunities for collaboration to try to boost the chances of success. Originality/value: This is to our knowledge the first study measuring communication networks from the point of view of team members and low-level supervisors in Lean implementations. This is also the first study showing that communication patterns change more rapidly in more successful teams, and that communication pattern changes when implementing Lean can be an indicator of success

Exploratory Factor Analysis for Software Development Projects in Mexico

Timeand riskmanagementhavealwaysbeenmajorconcernsin acontinouslygrowingnumber ofprocessesand methodologies used to develop all kinds of useful products and services. Softwarelike any other industry not only needs the most appropriate development methodology but also an efficient project management strategy that is capable of estimatingandmanagingdevelopmenttimesandanypotentialrisksasbestaspossibleinordertodeliverhighqualitysoftwareproducts and services on time. Hence, the success or failure of software development projects depends on the efficiency by which several key factors such as cost, time, and risks are managed and how other software development factors influenced them. This paper presents an exploratory factor analysis to study the effects produced primarily on time planning caused by common factors observed in outsourced software development projects such as communication, teamwork, personnel training, among others. In our work, we also build a structural model in which we analyze the relationships between sets of dependent and independent variables derived from the responses of a survey applied to 32 Mexican organizations that subcontracted their software development projects to outsourcing providers. The results are presented and the reliability of our model was validated using the SmartPLS software

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

Towards understanding the influence of personality and team behaviors on requirements engineering activities

Requirements engineers play an important role in the development of software products and services. The nature of requirements engineering (RE) is multifaceted and influences the quality, success, or failure of software products. In gathering software requirements, engineers commonly work in a team, particularly when dealing with the customers or modeling the requirements, hence the team behavior may influence the RE activities. The investigation of requirements engineers’ personality and their team behavior associated with RE activities is still an open area in which research is still developing. This study aims to investigate the personality and team behavior of requirements engineers involved in RE activities using a systematic literature review approach. We included 64 primary studies that addressed the association between personality and team behavior of requirements engineers on the effectiveness of RE activities. The result shows that among personality dimensions, extraversion and conscientiousness were found to be the predominant personality traits that positively affect RE activities. Furthermore, team behavior of requirements engineers such as flexibility, collaboration, creativity, innovation, and norms were discovered as factors that influence the RE process, performance, and success. The findings of this study contribute to the body of knowledge and practice of RE by providing empirical evidence on the influence of requirements engineers’ personality and team behavior on the effectiveness of RE activities