Personality Traits of Scrum Roles in Agile Software Development Teams - A Qualitative Analysis

Software development teams must be able to react rapidly to changing customer requirements. Therefore, agile software development methodologies have evolved in the last decades. Interpersonal and social skills, which are influenced by personality traits, are of fundamental importance for a successful agile software development. While the significance of the human factor is widely acknowledged, scant studies investigate the impact of personality factors on software development success and those few studies report contradictory results. Hence, we conducted interviews with eleven Scrum team members from seven different companies to investigate which personal characteristics are important for agile software development success. We use the five-factor model as a theoretical basis for our investigation, more specifically, we have applied the facets developed by Costa and McCrae. This more detailed approach enables us to give an explanation of the conflicting outcomes of prior investigations. Our study contributes to existing research by suggesting that the most important facets for single Developers are altruism, compliance, tender-mindedness, dutifulness and openness to values. The Scrum Master needs tender-mindedness, assertiveness, dutifulness, achievement striving and stability. In contrast, straightforwardness, compliance, modesty, order and assertiveness are important for the Product Owner

Roles and responsibilities in agile ICT for development

This paper examines the different roles in designing interactive software in a ICT for development context. Using experiences from a participatory action research project, in which we used agile methods to design and deploy an system to support ‘agricultural information flow’ for a co-operative of small farmers in rural India, we identify points of difference between the roles in standard descriptions of agile software methods and the roles as they emerged in our project. A key finding is the critical role played by a ‘Development Project Manager’ in facilitating dialogue, orchestrating the activities of other actors and in building the capabilities and confidence of all the participants in joint action

Evolving a software development methodology for commercial ICTD projects

This article discusses the evolution of a “DistRibuted Agile Methodology Addressing Technical Ictd in Commercial Settings” (DRAMATICS) that was developed in a global software corporation to support ICTD projects from initial team setup through ICT system design, development, and prototyping, to scaling up and transitioning, to sustainable commercial models. We developed the methodology using an iterative Action Research approach in a series of commercial ICTD projects over a period of more than six years. Our learning is reflected in distinctive methodology features that support the development of contextually adapted ICT systems, collaboration with local partners, involvement of end users in design, and the transition from research prototypes to scalable, long-term solutions. We offer DRAMATICS as an approach that others can appropriate and adapt to their particular project contexts. We report on the methodology evolution and provide evidence of its effectiveness in the projects where it has been used

Agility in Information Systems – A Literature Review on Terms and Definitions

Agility is a term used in many works in the context of information systems. When studying the concept closer, it became obvious that there is a terminological heterogeneity preventing a common definition whilst at the same time not preventing the frequent use of the term. In order to approach the term in a structured way, the following two paths were chosen. Firstly, the term was traced back to its roots which showed its first appearance in organisational theory. Secondly, the major IS conferences (ECIS and ICIS) and the requirements engineering conference as a major computer science conference were analysed from 2001 when the agile manifesto was published which led to a wave of works on agility. The descriptive results are presented in the paper

Agile Implementation for Inventory (Case study: Business Unit of Private University)

Koperasi Karyawan dan Dosen Unitomo yang berada di kota Surabaya Indonesia memiliki beberapa per-masalahan yang timbul dari implementasi sistem manual berupa paper-based systemyang berpotensi mengakibatkan: 1) Risiko kehilangan dan kerusakan data; 2) Ketidakefektifan dan rawan kesalahan da-lam pembuatan laporan; 3) Peningkatan risiko human error seiring meningkatnya volume transaksi ka-rena kelelahan, kurangnya primary key, dan ketidakintegrasian data; 4) Proses yang memakan waktu, akses terbatas, dan ketidakefisienan kolaborasi karena buku besar hanya dapat diakses oleh satu orang pada satu waktu. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mengatasi permasalahan tersebut dengan mengem-bangkan sistem pencatatan inventory menggunakan pendekatan Agile dengan framework Scrum, PHPdengan framework Slim 3, MySQL, pengujian blackbox, dan penambahan fitur pendapatan dan penjualan sebagai perbedaan dari penelitian sebelumnya. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa sistem yang dikembangkan berhasil membantu Koperasi karyawandan dosenUnitomo mengatasi permasala-han mereka, khususnya dalam memantau jumlah stok persediaan. Sistem yang diusulkan memiliki fitur pencatatan transaksi barang masuk dan keluar, serta laporan penjualan dan pendapatan. Penggunaan metode Agile Scrum dalam pengembangan softwaremembantu tim dalam perencanaan proyek dan pemantauan kemajuan seluruh proses perancangan

IT Governance Mechanisms for DevOps Teams - How Incumbent Companies Achieve Competitive Advantages

More and more organizations are deciding to move from traditional, plan-driven software development to agile approaches in order to stay competitive. Therefore, the IT functions have been deciding to implement cross-functional DevOps teams. To enable collaboration within DevOps teams, incumbent companies have to implement mechanisms to govern dynamic and agile environments. The present research investigates which IT governance mechanisms are helpful for the implementation of DevOps teams. For this purpose, we conducted a qualitative research study and interviewed team members in six companies that have already implemented DevOps-oriented teams. We describe which IT governance mechanisms-”in the form of structure, processes, and relational mechanisms-”are important for DevOps teams to achieve competitive advantages. Our findings show that agile roles and responsibilities, hybrid or decentralized organizational structures, as well as communications and knowledge-sharing models are conducive to the government of a DevOps team

Agile or Fragile? - The Depleting Effects of Agile Methodologies for Software Developers

Despite the increasing diffusion of agile software development methodologies (ASDM) in firms, aca-demic studies in this field – though rising in number – are largely missing out on the implications for the individual software developer. The application of agile methodologies in software development projects has significant impact on the individual developer’s way of working. While some empirical research evaluated the advantages of ASDM for individuals, potential negative consequences for de-velopers, who have to cope with multiple draining demands in their daily work, remains largely unex-plored. Using resource depletion theory as a lens, we develop a research model to examine how the use of ASDM potentially decreases individual job satisfaction and increases turnover intention. We suggest that the effect is mediated by developers’ level of depletion expressed by psychological strain. In addition, we aim to determine who is more or less affected by depletion in an agile context intro-ducing the capacity for self-control as a moderator. To test our model, we plan to conduct a cross-sectional field survey among software developers working in agile teams. Drawing attention to under-represented negative implications on an individual level, we want to contribute to a more balanced picture of ASDM use in theory and practice

Personality Traits and Ambidextrous Work Environments in IT Organizations – A Person-Job Fit Perspective

Driven by dynamic competitive conditions, companies’ information technology (IT) functions adopt agile practices and build ambidextrous organizational structures, which, in turn, affect the work environment of individual IT employees. Based on the fundamental assumption of person-environment fit theory that people seek out environments which allow them to behaviorally manifest their traits, this research aims to shift the focus in organizational design choices towards an individual-level perspective. We study whether and how personality traits and work environment characteristics, measured at the individual level of ambidexterity, relate and impact person-job fit (P-J fit). The results of a survey of 279 IT workers show that personality traits (operationalized by the Five Factor Model) significantly differ across exploitative and explorative work environments. Furthermore, the data suggests that the relationship between extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience on P-J fit is moderated by the level of ambidexterity