Explaining How Agile Software Development Practices Moderate the Negative Effects of Faultlines in Teams

By viewing organisational usage of enterprise social software (ESS) as one of appropriation, this research-in-progress paper explores the juxtaposed relationship between two practices, that of client and consultant, as they work together to co-design a joint ESS solution for the client’s workplace. Such observations have been made through the lead researcher’s embedded relationship in a case organisation who specialise in ESS. We theorize that through a design and practice-based perspective, the taken-for-granted assumptions of both practices are revealed by practice breakdowns and are subsequently then animated through a type of useful tension as design-based activities unfold. In this regard, a double hermeneutic process is revealed in which the two practices try and understand each other’s understanding of the same project. This is in addition to their own practice’s understanding for how their role contributes to the ESS project

Do I Want to Have Losers In My Team? - A Quantitative Study of Learning from IT Project Failure

This paper is motivated by a lack of research on the learning from failed IT projects of IT professionals. It remains unclear whether they learn from failed projects and conduct more successful projects in the future. We investigate this research gap with a large quantitative dataset from a German IT service provider. We find that IT professionals learn from failed projects and can leverage this knowledge in the future. Therefore, they should not be seen as losers , but as a valuable human resource. Our research contributes to the limited research of learning from failure in IT literature. We show that results that have been obtained in other domains are transferable to the IT domain. Our research is limited by the circumstance, that our dataset comes from only one IT company. This is the first paper that analyzes learning from failure of IT professionals and their performance in future projects

The Role of Work Engagement in Agile Software Development: Investigating Job Demands and Job Resources

Agile software development projects still show a high failure rate. Despite a growing amount of research, underlying reasons for project performance currently remain rare. Drawing on the job demands-resources theory, we propose a theoretical model of work engagement in agile software development teams. Using structural equation modeling, we found that agile practices diminish job demands (perceived workload and role ambiguity) and support job resources (perceived meaningfulness and job autonomy). Job resources have been found to be positively related to work engagement in agile software development teams. Our research contributes to the limited empirical understanding on work engagement in agile software development. For practitioners, our model provides tools to effectively manage team members’ work engagement

Why apply agile? - A literature review on work outcomes in agile information systems development

Agile information systems development (ISD) has become a popular way to manage IT projects. One of the key claims of agile ISD is to increase employees’ work outcomes, such as job satisfaction. However, the research landscape is heterogenous and lacks of a comprehensive overview. In this research, we set out to analyze and synthesize the current state of research on agile ISD and work outcomes by a systematic literature review. Overall, we found a trend of a positive relationship of agile ISD on work outcomes, although there is a variety of constructs that influence this relationship. We propose four directions for future research: perceptions of work, extended quantitative findings, multi-level effects and IT project success

Importance and management of IT project stakeholders

Information technology project success rates remain low despite increased investments in information systems and their importance for contemporary organisations. Both research and practice suggest that stakeholders play a key role in ensuring the successful delivery of projects. The success or failure of a project is significantly influenced by a combination of the stakeholders' needs, and the ability and readiness of the project manager to effectively coordinate and manage these aspects. This research sought to explore and understand the importance and management of IT project stakeholders. A mixed-method approach, using thematic analysis and descriptive statistics was followed. Semi-structured interviews, along with a survey questionnaire, were conducted with a selected sample of IT project managers and IT managers, from various sectors. Results of this study indicate that the project team, technical expert, subject matter expert, and the project sponsor are considered the most important stakeholders on IT projects. Furthermore, the results indicate that supplier/vendor, customer/client and project team are considered to be the stakeholders that cause the most uncertainty and problems on IT projects. Lastly, the results of this study indicate that failure to identify one or more stakeholders on an IT project can have a potential negative impact on overall project delivery. Key themes were also identified which provide context to the results of the findings. The results of this research will prove beneficial to IT project managers as it will assist in providing insight into which stakeholders require greater focus regarding stakeholder management, thereby working toward improving IT project delivery results