On the Characteristics of Internal Software Startups

In recent years, more attention has been given to internal software startups in practice and in research alike, yet the concept is not fully understood. Nor is it clear whether or not it significantly differs from stand-alone software startup, and if yes, then how. In this position paper, we propose to conceptualize internal software startups as a hybrid of two related concepts: stand-alone software startup and internal corporate venture (ICV). We derive characteristics of the both concepts from the earlier literature and use our previous research on internal software startups to uncover the differences and the similarities across the three concepts.publishedVersio

Psychological Safety in Agile Software Development Teams: Work Design Antecedents and Performance Consequences

Psychological safety has been postulated as a key factor for the success of agile software development teams, yet there is a lack of empirical studies investigating the role of psychological safety in this context. This study examines how work design characteristics of software development teams (autonomy, task interdependence and role clarity) influence psychological safety and further how psychological safety impacts team performance, either directly or indirectly through team reflexivity. We test our model using survey data from 236 team members in 43 software development teams in Norway. Our results show that autonomy boosts psychological safety in software teams and that psychological safety again has positive effect on team reflexivity and a direct effect on team performance

Work Engagement in Agile Teams: The Missing Link Between Team Autonomy, Trust, and Performance?

To have engaged and high-performing agile teams are what most organizations strive for. At the same time, there is little research on the drivers of team work engagement in the software context. Team autonomy and trust are crucial for agile teams and are suggested as potential boosters of team work engagement and performance. In this study, we apply the Job Demands-Resources model to examine the role of autonomy and trust and their impact on work engagement and team performance in agile teams. We analyze quantitative survey data from 236 team members in 43 agile teams to examine how team autonomy and trust relate to team work engagement and how engagement mediates the relationship between these factors and performance. Our results show that while both autonomy and trust are positively related to team work engagement, team trust plays a more critical role than team autonomy. Teams with high team trust showed higher engagement, which enhanced team performance. Our results highlight the importance of social factors such as trust in creating conditions for high performance in agile teams through its effect on team work engagement.publishedVersio

The Agile Coach Role: Coaching for Agile Performance Impact

It is increasingly common to introduce agile coaches to help gain speed and advantage in agile companies. Following the success of Spotify, the role of the agile coach has branched out in terms of tasks and responsibilities, but little research has been conducted to examine how this role is practiced. This paper examines the role of the agile coach through 19 semi-structured interviews with agile coaches from ten different companies. We describe the role in terms of the tasks the coach has in agile projects, valuable traits, skills, tools, and the enablers of agile coaching. Our findings indicate that agile coaches perform at the team and organizational levels. They affect effort, strategies, knowledge, and skills of the agile teams. The most essential traits of an agile coach are being emphatic, people-oriented, able to listen, diplomatic, and persistent. We suggest empirically based advice for agile coaching, for example companies giving their agile coaches the authority to implement the required organizational changes within and outside the teams

Knowns and Unknowns: An Experience Report on Discovering Tacit Knowledge of Maritime Surveyors

Context: Requirements elicitation is an essential activity to ensure that systems provide the necessary functionality to users, and that they are fit for purpose. In addition to traditional `reductionist' techniques, the use of observations and ethnography-style techniques have been proposed to identify requirements. Research Problem: One frequently heard issue with observational techniques is that they are costly to use, as developers would lose considerable time to partake, and also depend on luck in identifying requirements. Very few experience reports exist to evaluate observational techniques in practice. Results: In this experience report, we draw on several data sources, covering insights from both developers and users. The data were collected through 9 interviews with users and developers, and over 80 hours of observation of prospective users in the maritime domain. We capture `knowns' and `unknowns' from both developers and users, and highlight the importance of observational studies. Contribution: While observational techniques are costly to use, we conclude that essential information is uncovered, which is key for developers to understand system users and their concerns.Comment: Accepted to the International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. Springer, Cham, 2023. Barcelona, 17.-20. Apri

Managing Competing Concerns in Digital Innovation: A Case Study of an Incumbent Maritime Company

The need for new digitally enhanced solutions has led companies in traditionally non-digital industries to explore the potential of digital innovation. Various process frameworks claim their ability to support this endeavor by facilitating the digital innovation process. However, such frame-works alone may not be sufficient because digital innovation in established firms tends to involve numerous actors with competing interests. This introduces the need to manage the competing concerns in order to orchestrate the digital innovation process. Knowledge about how the organizational actors negotiate, agree, and collectively drive the innovation process forward thus becomes crucial. This interpretive case study describes how participants of a digital innovation program in an established maritime company manage their competing concerns through four negotiation episodes: Mobilizing of internal stakeholders, Developing capacity for faster decision-making, Pricing new digital services, and Establishing a connection between business and development. The results indicate that negotiating competing concerns is necessary for the incumbents to move forward with their digital innovation and that communities of practice can facilitate such negotiations. We conclude that recombination of the established processes as an outcome of such negotiations is necessary to succeed with digital innovation in incumbent firms.publishedVersio

Managing Competing Concerns in Digital Innovation: A Case Study of an Incumbent Maritime Company

The need for new digitally enhanced solutions has led companies in traditionally non-digital industries to explore the potential of digital innovation. Various process frameworks claim their ability to support this endeavor by facilitating the digital innovation process. However, such frame-works alone may not be sufficient because digital innovation in established firms tends to involve numerous actors with competing interests. This introduces the need to manage the competing concerns in order to orchestrate the digital innovation process. Knowledge about how the organizational actors negotiate, agree, and collectively drive the innovation process forward thus becomes crucial. This interpretive case study describes how participants of a digital innovation program in an established maritime company manage their competing concerns through four negotiation episodes: Mobilizing of internal stakeholders, Developing capacity for faster decision-making, Pricing new digital services, and Establishing a connection between business and development. The results indicate that negotiating competing concerns is necessary for the incumbents to move forward with their digital innovation and that communities of practice can facilitate such negotiations. We conclude that recombination of the established processes as an outcome of such negotiations is necessary to succeed with digital innovation in incumbent firms

What Happens to Psychological Safety When Going Remote?

Psychological safety is a precondition for learning and success in software teams. But what happens to psychological safety when work becomes remote? In this article, we explore how Norwegian software developers experienced remote work under the pandemic and after restrictions were waved and describe simple behaviors and attitudes related to psychological safety. We pay special attention to work arrangements in which team members alternate days in the office with days working remotely. Our key takeaway is that psychological safety is enabled by spontaneous interaction, which is easy to facilitate in the office and hard to facilitate remotely. Our findings lead us to recommend that team members align their work modes to increase chances for spontaneous interaction in the office while benefiting from the increased focus associated with working remotely.publishedVersio

Understanding Barriers to Internal Startups in Large Organizations: Evidence from a Globally Distributed Company

Large global companies need to speed up their innovation activities to increase competitive advantage. However, such companies' organizational structures impede their ability to capture trends they are well aware of due to bureaucracy, slow decision-making, distributed departments, and distributed processes. One way to strengthen the innovation capability is through fostering internal startups. We report findings from an embedded multiple-case study of five internal startups in a globally distributed company to identify barriers for software product innovation: late involvement of software developers, executive sponsor is missing or not clarified, yearly budgeting and planning, unclear decision-making authority, lack of digital infrastructure for experimentation and access to data from external actors. Drawing on the framework of continuous software engineering proposed by Fitzgerald and Stol, we discuss the role of BizDev in software product innovation. We suggest that lack of continuity, rather than the lack of speed, is an ultimate challenge for internal startups in large global companies.acceptedVersio