Agility from first principles : reconstructing the concept of agility in information systems development

Awareness and use of agile methods has grown rapidly among the information systems development (ISD) community in recent years. Like most previous methods, the development and promotion of these methods have been almost entirely driven by practitioners and consultants, with little participation from the research community during the early stages of evolution. While these methods are now the focus of more and more research efforts, most studies are still based on XP, Scrum, and other industry-driven foundations, with little or no conceptual studies of ISD agility in existence. As a result, this study proposes that there are a number of significant conceptual shortcomings with agile methods and the associated literature in its current state, including a lack of clarity, theoretical glue, parsimony, limited applicability, and naivety regarding the evolution of the concept of agility in fields outside systems development. Furthermore, this has significant implications for practitioners, rendering agile method comparison and many other activities very difficult, especially in instances such as distributed development and large teams that are not conducive to many of the commercial agile methods. This study develops a definition and formative taxonomy of agility in an ISD context, based on a structured literature review of agility across a number of disciplines, including manufacturing and management where the concept originated, matured, and has been applied and tested thoroughly over time. The application of the texonomy in practice is then demonstrated through a series of thought trials conducted in a large multinational organization. The intention is that the definition and taxonomy can then be used as a starting point to study ISD method agility regardless of whether the method is XP or Scrum, agile or traditional, complete or fragmented, out-of-the-box or in-house, used as is or tailored to suit the project context

Factors affecting the adoption of cloud computing: an exploratory study

While it is widely acknowledged that cloud computing has the potential to transform a large part of the IT industry, issues surrounding the adoption of cloud computing have received relatively little attention. Drawing on three case studies of service providers and their customers, this study will contribute to the existing cloud technologies literature that does not address the complex and multifaceted nature of adoption. The findings are analyzed using the adoption of innovation literature as a lens to reveal how technological, organizational and environmental factors impact cloud adoption. Our conclusions reveal that factors impacting cloud adoption tend to be psychological as well as technical, and some recommendations are put forward for future research

Toward a conceptual framework of agile methods: a study of agility in different disciplines

Since the software crisis of the 1960’s, numerous methodologies have been developed to impose a disciplined process upon software development. It is now widely accepted that these methodologies are unsuccessful and unpopular due to their increasingly bureaucratic nature. Many researchers and practitioners are calling for these heavyweight methodologies to be replaced by agile methods. The Agile Manifesto was put forward in 2001, and several method instantiations, such as XP, SCRUM and Crystal exist. Each adheres to some principles of the Agile Manifesto and disregards others. This paper proposes that these Agile Manifesto principles are insufficiently grounded in theory, and are largely naïve to the concept of agility outside the field of software development. This paper aims to develop a comprehensive framework of software development agility, through a thorough review of agility across many disciplines. We then elaborate and evaluate the framework in a software development context, through a review of software related research over the last 30 years

Method and developer characteristics for effective agile method tailoring:a study of XP expert opinion

It has long been acknowledged that software methods should be tailored if they are to achieve optimum effect.However comparatively little research has been carried out to date on this topic in general, and more notably, on agile methods in particular. This dearth of evidence in the case of agile methods is especially significant in that it is reasonable to expect that such methods would particularly lend themselves to tailoring. In this research we present a framework based on interviews with 20 senior software development researchers and a review of the extant literature. The framework is comprised of two sets of factors – characteristics of the method, and developer practices – that can improve method tailoring effectiveness. Drawing on the framework, we then interviewed 16 expert XP practitioners to examine the current state and effectiveness of XP tailoring efforts, and to shed light on issues the framework identified as being important. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for research and practice that would advance our understanding of the method tailoring area

Cost estimation in agile software development.

One of the key measures of the resilience of a project is its ability to reach completion on time and on budget, regardless of the turbulent and uncertain environment it may operate within. Cost estimation and tracking are therefore paramount when developing a system. Cost estimation has long been a difficult task in systems development, and although much research has focused on traditional methods, little is known about estimation in the agile method arena. This is ironic given that the reduction of cost and development time is the driving force behind the emergence of the agile method paradigm. This study investigates the applicability of current estimation techniques to more agile development approaches by focusing on four case studies of agile method use across different organisations. The study revealed that estimation inaccuracy was a less frequent occurrence for these companies. The frequency with which estimates are required on agile projects, typically at the beginning of each iteration, meant that the companies found estimation easier than when traditional approaches were used. The main estimation techniques used were expert knowledge and analogy to past projects. A number of recommendations can be drawn from the research: estimation models are not a necessary component of the process; fixed price budgets can prove beneficial for both developers and customers; and experience and past project data should be documented and used to aid the estimation of subsequent projects

Understanding agility in software development through a complex adaptive systems perspective

Agile software development methods have emerged in recent years and have become increasingly popular since the start of the century. While much research claims to study agile methods, the meaning of agility itself in software development is yet to be fully understood. Agility is viewed by some as the antithesis of plan, structure discipline and bureaucracy. This study aims to develop a better understanding of agility, using the key concepts of Complex Adaptive Systems as a theoretical lens. The study explores agility from several different angles, including autonomous team, stability and uncertainty, and team learning. A multiple case study research method was employed. The findings of the study emphasize that agility is manifested as stability and discipline, which are just as desirable as flexibility, and context sharing is of the same value and importance as knowledge sharing. In addition, the collective nature of learning is underlined

Value creation in the cloud: understanding business model factors affecting value of cloud computing

Despite the rapid emergence of cloud technology, its prevalence and accessibility to all types of organizations and its potential to predominantly shift competitive landscapes by providing a new platform for creating and delivering business value, empirical research on the business value of cloud computing, and in particular how service providers create value for their customers, is quite limited. Of what little research exists to date, most focuses on technical issues. This paper aims to address this research gap by exploring how cloud technologies are used to create business value and identifying factors that may impact the realization of business value. Drawing on four case studies that considers the perspective of both service provider and customer, this study takes a more comprehensive perspective of the business model concept in examining business value than has been done to date in the cloud domain, thus contributing to the limited literature surrounding the area

Combining open innovation and agile approaches : implications for IS project managers

This paper describes a research-in-progress that explores the applicability and implications of open innovation in a multiple-project environment that employs agile approaches to information systems development. In doing so, it seeks to reveal any resemblance the open innovation model has with the agile process, while simultaneously investigating the challenges of such an approach for project management. This paper argues for a different perspective of project management that goes beyond single and multiple project management to scrutinise the open space of innovation that includes collaboration and knowledge-sharing with other business units, customers, partners, competitors and other relevant stakeholders outside the boundaries of the firm

People over process: the implications of agile for IS skills and human resource management

Agile approaches to information systems development have become increasingly popular in recent years, as more and more IS organisations are eager to capitalise on the alleged opportunities and benefits they provide. However, transition to these approaches is often far from trivial, and can be extremely problematic. Our study of 20 organisations will focus on the skill gaps caused by the emergence of agile and will identify the top ten key distinctive skills required in an agile environment. Our study will also identify the major strategic human resource challenges and practices to address skill needs and career development in today’s agile environments e.g. recruitment, training and performance evaluation. Particular emphasis will be placed on the distinctive implications of global, and thus distributed, systems development on these challenges. This will be particularly relevant in the coming years as agile approaches cross the chasm from small, co-located project teams to large-scale, multiorganisation, multi-site development across many countries and time zones

The views of experts on the current state of agile method tailoring

As stated in the conference theme, the failure of information systems and information technology projects remains stubbornly high. Agile methods have recently emerged as a new and seemingly popular alternative approach to systems development. Purveyors of these methods claim they solve many of the problems that have plagued the field for over 40 years, and there is now anecdotal evidence to suggest that these benefits are being realized and that diffusion of agile methods is rapidly increasing. However, a key factor in the diffusion of any technology or method is its ability to be customized. Innovative customization, tailoring, and fragmentation of systems development methods are viewed by many as a necessary step to avoid project failure like so many projects in the past. The ability to tailor any method is considered critically important given the complex and unique nature of each and every ISD environment, and in particular, one would logically expect that a method labeled as agile should be malleable. However, it is still unclear whether agile methods are amenable to tailoring. On one hand, purveyors of these methods advocate and often recommend tailoring. On the other hand, however, tailoring of agile methods has been described as a potential minefield due to the fact that their practices are interconnected, synergistic, and socially embedded in the development effort. This study develops a better understanding of agile method tailoring in practice through semi-structured delphi