Improving Software Development Efficiency – How Diversity and Collective Intelligence Shape Agile Team Efficiency

Information system development is largely dependent on social interaction and team work. Team composition, team processes, and behavior among, and agile practices used by team members play an important role for the success of information system development projects. Organizational psychology research found team diversity and collective intelligence to be important factors for team performance. In this research-in-progress paper, we propose a model and research design to investigate the effects of team diversity, collective intelligence, interpersonal relationships, and cognitive styles on team efficiency in agile software development. The proposed model combines recent research in the field of organizational psychology with agile information system research to provide a better understanding of the effects of team diversity, collective intelligence, and team efficiency

Team Performance in Agile Software Development Projects: The Effects of Requirements Changes, Time Pressure, Team Diversity, and Conflict

Information system development has traditionally been accompanied by changing requirements throughout projects. While recent research clarifies how time pressure affects team performance, the interplay between time pressure, requirements changes, and various other important factors such as team diversity is unclear. In this paper, we evaluate a novel and unified model based on extant research explaining the interactions of requirements changes, time pressure, temporal leadership, team diversity, and conflict as well as their effect on team performance. Further, we differentiate between the overall team performance and the team’s ability to respond both efficiently and extensively to requirements changes. The proposed model helps in composing and steering teams to increase their resilience towards requirements changes and time pressure. A first evaluation is based on a quantitative field study in multiple agile software development projects of student teams

Influence of Communication on Client Satisfaction in Information System Projects – A Quantitative Field Study

Divergences between perception and measurement of information system (IS) project success are phenomena known as successful failures or failed successes. Such projects either satisfy stakeholder expectations or are completed according to their plans, but do not succeed in both terms. Based on expectation-confirmation theory, we advance the understanding of project success by observing the role of client-vendor communication regarding the interaction of client expectations, perceptions, and satisfaction. By means of a quantitative field study with managers of IS projects on the client side, we show that perceptions of product performance are more relevant than perceptions of process performance for meeting client expectations in IS projects. Expectations towards the process (i.e., budget and schedule) are revealed to be considerably less relevant, which is a likely consequence of many projects failing to meet such expectations. An avenue for future research resulting from our study is the investigation of differences concerning communication mediums by contrasting agile and non-agile development projects

The Impact of Modes, Styles, and Congruence of Control on Agile Teams: Insights from a Multiple Case Study

Agile software development (ASD) strongly relies on social interaction and teamwork. Team processes and agile practices adopted by team members play an important part for the outcome of software development projects. Agile practices promise teams to be able to respond to change by granting them autonomy. Existing studies, however, imply that these projects can benefit from different elements of control. Our objective is to improve our understanding of how to enact control in agile teams and how these control mechanisms influence team autonomy and team performance. In this paper, we present our findings from four case studies conducted within two insurance companies and two software development firms. We found that it is not a question of ‘what’ controls should be exercised, but rather ‘how’ controls are implemented in practice. Our results prompt to the need for further studies on control mechanisms in ASD

Journey Towards Agility – A Retro- and Prospective Review

After more than 15 years since the Agile Manifesto and extensive research on agile software development (ASD) for nearly three decades, a comprehensive body of knowledge is available and is constantly growing. ASD is considered an effective way for managing software development projects in environments characterized by rapidly changing requirements. This study aims to shed light on the existing knowledge on ASD by applying a structured literature review and computer aided analysis consisting of distinct text mining techniques. We analyzed a sample of 1,376 papers and provide results from articles among relevant information systems research as well as computer science conferences and journals. Based on our approach, we are able to (1) evaluate key articles and journals, (2) analyze the development of ASD research in the last three decades and, most importantly, (3) identify research foci of the past as well as gaps in our knowledge on ASD

Journey towards agility: Three decades of research on agile information systems development

After more than 15 years since the Agile Manifesto and extensive research on agile information systems developmentfor nearly three decades, a comprehensive body of knowledge is available and is constantly growing.Agile information systems developmentis considered an effective way for managing information systems developmentprojects in environments characterized by rapidly changing requirements. This study aims to shed light on the existing knowledge on agile information systems developmentby applying a structured literature review and computer aided analysis consisting of distinct text mining techniques. We analyzed a sample of 775papers and provide results from articles among the Senior Scholars’ Basket, selected information systems conferences,and selected journalsfrom management and computer science. Based on our approach, we are able to (1) evaluate key articles and journals, (2) analyze the development of agile information systems developmentresearch in the last three decades and, most importantly, (3) identify research foci of the past as well asgaps in our knowledge on agile information systems development for further research

Benefits of Augmented Reality in Educational Environments - A Systematic Literature Review

By augmenting the real world with virtual information, Augmented Reality (AR) provides new possibilities for education. Although AR is frequently applied in educational environments, the value of AR applications in these environments is not yet investigated in its entirety. Additionally, educators face different directions of AR applications, which may differ regarding their potential benefits. To help overcome these challenges, we conduct a systematic literature review to synthesize a set of 25 publications. We identify 14 different benefits and cluster these into six different groups. We use the Five Directions of AR in educational environments by Yuen et al. [1] to further detail possible benefits for different directions of AR applications. Our findings indicate that specific directions of AR applications are more likely to lead to certain benefits such as increased motivation. Future research is needed to investigate the causality between benefits and directions of AR in more detail

What Drives Online Repurchase Intention? A Replication of the Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-Commerce Institutional Mechanisms

Online retailing is growing rapidly and customer retention has become increasingly important, especially trust and e-commerce institutional mechanisms such as online credit card guarantees, escrow services, and privacy protection, which have become more significant and the subject of recent research (Fang et al., 2014). We conducted a methodological replication of first insights and a model of the relation between satisfaction, trust, repurchase intention and the perceived effectiveness of such e-commerce institutional mechanisms (PEEIM). As we were unable to support the original findings, we provide an alternative reasoning relevant to today’s role of PEEIM for online repurchases and discuss implications for research and practice

Influence of Communication on Client Satisfaction in Information System Projects: A Quantitative Field Study

This study illuminates the role of client–vendor communication in relation to project performance and client satisfaction in information system projects. Results from a field study with managers on the client side suggest that both process and product performance positively influence the confirmation of expectations; however, process expectations do not, which might be due to the normality of budget and schedule overruns. Furthermore, client–vendor communication wields an important influence on client satisfaction. Future research should address the contributions of different communication mediums and contrast agile and non-agile projects

Measuring the Effect of Team Diversity and Collective Intelligence in Agile Teams on Software Development Efficiency

Information system development is largely dependent on social interaction and team work. Team composition, team processes, and behavior among, as well as agile practices used by team members play an important role for the success of information system development projects. Organizational psychology research found team diversity and collective intelligence to be important factors for team performance. In this paper, I evaluate the constructs and items for a model to investigate the effects of team diversity, collective intelligence, interpersonal relationships, and cognitive styles on team efficiency in agile software development. The evaluation is based upon a substantive validity test and a discriminant validity test