Toward an Understanding of Preference for Agile Software Development Methods from a Personality Theory Perspective

This paper presents the results of an exploratory research study that investigates factors contributing to preference for the agile software development approaches. The initial exploration revolves around the Five Factor Model of personality and the premise that these personality factors provide a partial explanation of preference for an agile approach. A survey instrument for measuring the preference for agile methods was developed and validated. The results from the quantitative data collected from the survey study indicate that three out of the five personality factors from the Five Factor Model show a correlation with above average preference for agile methods. These factors are extra version, openness and neuroticism. The first two have a positive relationship with agile preference while neuroticism (emotional instability) has a negative relationship with agile methodology preference. To further investigate the results, an exploratory factor analysis was performed on the data, which identified three factors that may also contribute to a preference for agile methods

On Understanding Preference for Agile Methods Among Software Developers

Agile methods are gaining widespread use in industry. Although management is keen on adopting agile, not all developers exhibit preference for agile methods. The literature is sparse in regard to why developers may show preference for agile. Understanding the factors informing the preference for agile can lead to more effective formation of teams, better training approaches, and optimizing software development efforts by focusing on key desirable components of agile. This study, using a grounded theory methodology, finds a variety of categories of factors that influence software developer preference for agile methods including self-efficacy, affective response, interpersonal response, external contingencies, and personality contingencies. Each of these categories contains multiple dimensions. Preference rationalization for agile methods is the core category that emerges from the data. It informs that while the very essence of agile methods overwhelmingly and positively resonates with software developers, the preference is contingent on external and personality factors as well

Understanding Agile Software Development Assimilation Beyond Acceptance

Agile software development methods represent a departure from the heavily regimented and document-driven procedures of traditional, waterfall approaches. Despite the highly touted benefits of employing agile ISD methods and the growth of agile adoption rates over the past two decades, it is not clear why some organizations fail to routinize agile methods, while others do so and realize their promised benefits. Motivated by the need to understand the factors that influence agile routinization, this study empirically examines the deep contextual factors that impact the extent to which agile methods are proliferated throughout an organization. Findings indicate that project success from initial agile use does not translate to routine agile use. Instead, findings from the study suggest that organizational factors of organizational culture and structure play a pivotal role in the routinization of agile methods

Teaching Theories Underlying Agile Systems Development

Presently Agile methods courses taught in universities focus primarily on providing hands-on experience of the process of development but ignore the evolution of, and theories behind, the Agile practices. “Without theory we are just groping in chaos” (Deming, 1986). Knowing the ‘why” in addition to the “how” of Agile methods will help develop reflective skills and give students an edge as they transition to the rapidly evolving real world of IS. In this article a set of relevant theories that can be included as a module in an Agile method course is outlined. An exposure to theories underlying Agile methods help students appreciate the relevance of the principles and practices of the Agile approach and develop authentic problem solving skills

A discovery and analysis of influencing factors of pair programming

The exploration into the underlying psychosocial links of pair programming. a new and unorthodox programming paradigm in which two programmers share one keyboard and monitor during real-time programming sessions, is undertaken. These complex psychosocial relationships, along with cognitive process exchanges, ultimately mold the programming output as well as determine the level of communication, satisfaction. confidence and compatibility. Laying the framework for this research, a through review of traditional and contemporary paradigms with a special focus on their limitations and a list of current software development problems are presented. Next, a detailed summary of pair programming and related agile software paradigms, such as extreme programming, which lists pair programming as one of its twelve principles, is given. From earlier pair programming studies, a number of programming benefits have been unveiled and these are listed and discussed. However, a lack of formal studies pertaining to the psychosocial aspects of pair programming exists. Given this void, a field survey is administered to a group of professional programmers and a resulting list of influencing factors on pair programming emerges. From the list, the most popular factor, personality, and two other factors, communication and gender, have been selected in order to study their impact on pair programming product outcome and the level of communication, satisfaction, confidence and compatibility. An experiment focusing on these factors is designed and implemented. From the experimental findings, the personality of the two partners in pair programming is found to have a significant impact on the pair programming output. Also, it is discovered that same gender pairs exhibited an unusually high level of communication, satisfaction and compatibility between each other, especially among female-female pairs. A detailed statistical experiment result based on research hypotheses is reported

Studying agile organizational design to sustain innovation.

Innovation is a core part of software development companies, frequently determined by organizational design variables including structure, capacity for learning, for change and adaptation. Agile software methods have evolved as approaches to promote agility and innovativeness in software development organizations. However, little research has examined organizational innovativeness and its relationship with organizational design and adoption of agile methods. In this work, we propose a conceptual framework to characterize innovation?s prone and averse patterns on organizational design in agile companies by measuring diffusion and integration of technologies and practices within individual, team, organizational, and environmental levels

A Theory of Agile Software Development

The Agile Software Development Method (ASDM), in its present form, is guided by the Agile manifesto which consists of an Agile philosophy and a set of 12 principles. Despite the apparent effect of Agile philosophy and principles on the practice of software development around the world, neither its theoretical contribution nor its theoretical base has yet been articulated. In response to calls in literature, in this study we propose and articulate a theory of ASDM to describe and explain its effects. The theory is based on a synthesis of the key concepts underlying Agile principles and is expressed as a model of relationships. The article describes the theory formulation process and elaborates its key propositions. The limitations of the proposed theory and areas of future research are discussed

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