A Human Factors Study of Risk Management of Complex Agile Scrum Projects in Large Enterprises

Agile Project Management methods have gained phenomenal success in the IT software world in managing projects of high complexity and uncertainty. However, Agile projects come with their unique set of risks. This paper seeks to explore the risks posed by human factors to complex Agile Scrum projects in large enterprises. Project Risk Management is crucial in determining the future performance of a complex project. Increasing project complexity makes it more and more difficult to anticipate potential events that could affect the project and to make effective decisions to reduce project risk exposure. This is even more true for Agile projects that promote immediate and frequent visibility of risk factors and distributed decision making in projects. A dominant reason for failure of complex Agile projects are the risks caused by human and organization factors. This paper will analyze the delivery risks posed by human factors and the traditionally hierarchical decision making in large enterprise systems

Agility and Resilience as Sources of Competitive Advantages a Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

Today’s hypercompetitive global climate makes lasting competitive edge unsuitable. Firms face increasing complexity due to the rapid entry and growth of internationalizing firms from emerging markets, technological breakthroughs, discontinuous innovation, and the uncertainties surrounding unexpected shocks transmitted across world markets, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. In this research, I examine how firms have built and applied two adaptive abilities (agility and resilience) to respond to environmental changes and disruptions to create sustainable competitive advantage. An agile organization is simultaneously a resilient organization. Despite agility’s increased relevance in the academy and practitioners\u27 publications, its epistemological and ontological analyses are superficial at best. Specifically, supported by inductive and deductive analysis, I bring clarity to agility’s concept and its boundary conditions. Thus, I propose an integrative multilevel framework of the antecedents, the enablers, and the outcomes of the process of agility performance. Moreover, through in-depth interviews with executives, I explore how agility and resilience manifested in emerging market multinational firms (EMNEs) enhance their competitiveness by using both adaptive abilities in their international operations. The findings reveal that all organizations possess some degrees of agility and resilience simultaneously as two faces of the same coin. Furthermore, agility and resilience are interdependent, comprising five common domains

The fallacies of non-agility: Approaching organizational agility through a dialectical practice perspective

Complexity, paradox, tension, and contradiction are increasingly seen as permeating all aspects of organizational life. Yet despite ongoing advancement, both our understanding of the nature of complexity as well as how to use this increased appreciation of it in practice are still developing. In this spirit, this paper considers organizational agility and how to achieve it. Here, current discussions of organizational agility have failed to sufficiently address the fundamental tensions inherent in learning stemming from conflicting goals and incentives, evident in an ongoing discussion of theory-informed approaches for bringing about organizational agility. In this paper, we claim that incorporating a dialectical perspective of learning would provide a means of understanding the successes and failures of practices aimed at bringing about agility. We consider the maligned dialectic, four fallacious ways of thinking that hinder agility, and the extent to which these can be overcome. As evidence, we present a case of Agile implementation in which one of the authors acted as a consultant and involving a large-scale social change. Considering this from a dialectical perspective, we discuss ways that dysfunction in achieving agility might be reduced through disruptive interventions like Agile

The fallacies of non-agility: Approaching organizational agility through a dialectical practice perspective

Complexity, paradox, tension, and contradiction are increasingly seen as permeating all aspects of organizational life. Yet despite ongoing advancement, both our understanding of the nature of complexity as well as how to use this increased appreciation of it in practice are still developing. In this spirit, this paper considers organizational agility and how to achieve it. Here, current discussions of organizational agility have failed to sufficiently address the fundamental tensions inherent in learning stemming from conflicting goals and incentives, evident in an ongoing discussion of theory-informed approaches for bringing about organizational agility. In this paper, we claim that incorporating a dialectical perspective of learning would provide a means of understanding the successes and failures of practices aimed at bringing about agility. We consider the maligned dialectic, four fallacious ways of thinking that hinder agility, and the extent to which these can be overcome. As evidence, we present a case of Agile implementation in which one of the authors acted as a consultant and involving a large-scale social change. Considering this from a dialectical perspective, we discuss ways that dysfunction in achieving agility might be reduced through disruptive interventions like Agile

Towards a situated media practice: Reflections on the implementation of project-led problem-based learning

In the field of media practice education, project-based learning is utilized as a major pedagogic paradigm with the aim of mirroring professional practice within the curriculum. However, if the use of project-based learning is to be considered as more than just a way of administrating student activity, then educators need a critical understanding of how problem encounters order practice within the life cycle of a project. The drawing together of practice-based, project-based and problem-based approaches allows us to see the overlapping nature of these approaches and also differentiate them as unique pedagogies in their own right. It is argued here that this tension between similarity and difference requires a new way of thinking about mirroring professional practice within higher education, one which offers a theory of project-based learning as a productive pedagogy which places problem encounters at its heart

Agile Knowledge Management; A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension to Military Applications

The purpose of this research is to explore the conceptual background of agility in knowledge management, re-conceptualize it and extend it to military applications with a special focus on Counterinsurgency (COIN). An initial qualitative exploration of agility in knowledge management was performed. Three different concepts and their interrelationships were analyzed: (1) knowledge management, (2) agility in operations, and (3) military organizations in the COIN environment. Findings from this initial qualitative analysis were used to inductively redefine, re-conceptualize and extend the concept of Agile Knowledge Management (AKM), as well as, to compare and adapt the AKM concept to the military environment of COIN. An additional qualitative analysis was performed to validate the extended concept of AKM. While this study is mainly focused on AKM in dynamic multinational and joint military environment of COIN, conclusions may be applicable in a broader context. The results of this research can be used by engineering managers and knowledge management practitioners and academics with particular focus on the military environment as foundation for (a) further research and development in agile knowledge management (b) developing customized agile knowledge management education programs and (c) extending the concept of AKM and its application to other environments

Uncertainty in software development: a threat and a possibility

Uncertainty is a pervasive and inevitable phenomenon in software development. It affects most if not all stakeholders in software projects in different ways. Mostly uncertainty is seen as a risk or threat that is one of the causes behind the failures of software projects. But there are also possibilities or opportunities that can be found from uncertainty. Uncertainty has been researched in academia, but not often from the viewpoint of software development. Understanding the causes and effects of uncertainty is needed to be able to mitigate the negative and to increase the positive aspects. Understanding the subject may also help in coping with the effects of inevitable uncertainties. This thesis explores the subject by conducting a literature review. The aim of this work is to increase understanding of causes and effects of uncertainty and how uncertainty can be managed in software development projects. This thesis discusses different types and sources of uncertainty that affect software development projects. The type represents what the uncertainty is about, and the source represents what causes the uncertainty. The presented types include for example requirements, stakeholders, and situation. The examined sources contain ambiguity, complexity, and lack of trust among other things. The effects of uncertainty on development projects and individual developers are dis-cussed as well. The effects on projects include for example delays in schedule, decreased product quality, and poor estimates, while the effects on developers include stress, feelings of inadequacy, or increased motivation among other things. Discussion of uncertainty management is divided into reducing uncertainty and coping with uncertainty. The former can be achieved for example by maintaining continuous and direct communication with stakeholders and by doing the development of the project in short, repeated iterations that builds the project in small steps. Coping with uncertainty can be facilitated by high autonomy of the team and trust between project members among other things. Also, the suitability of different software development processes in relation to uncertainty are discussed with the conclusion being that project type is a major factor in what software development process should be used