Do As You Want Or Do As You Are Told? Control vs. Autonomy in Agile Software Development Teams

Agile Software Development (ASD) projects still draw the attention of the research community. Agile methodologies promise to increase an ASD team’s agility in such a way, that these teams are able to respond and react to changing user requirements. Existing studies on flexibility and autonomy in ASD projects, however, imply that these projects potentially can benefit from different elements of control. Our objective is to improve the understanding of how to enact control through agile practices, and how these practices affect either formal or informal control in ASD teams. Based on an extensive literature review, our study (1) provides an overview of adequate control-enacting agile practices and (2) compares the results with our empirical findings, derived from qualitative data

Agility in the balance: Control, autonomy, and ambidexterity in agile software development

Agile methodologies for information systems development (ISD) are still drawing the attention of the research community. These methodologies promise to increase an ISD team’s adaptiveness in such a way that ISD teams are able to respond and react to changing user requirements.Existing studies on team autonomy in agile ISD, however, implythat these projects potentially can benefit from different elements of control.Our objective is to improve the understanding of how to enact control throughagilepractices, and how these practices influenceteam autonomy and task performance in successful agile ISD projectsin terms of project performance and project quality. This is achieved by developing a preliminary research model that is based on a solid theoretical foundation. As a theoretical framework, we employ ISD ambidexterityand extend it with context-specific insights from controltheory. In consequence, we suggest several propositions for future testing

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

“The Second Vice is Lying, the First is Running into Debt.” Antecedents and Mitigating Practices of Social Debt: an Exploratory Study in Distributed Software Development Teams

Although much is known about the concept of technical debt in software development, less is known about its social counterpart, also known as social debt. Social debt refers to future consequences of decisions related to people and their interactions. Omissions in social interactions or reduction of communication can foster social debt – and in turn result in negative outcomes in the long run. In this paper, we explore what factors drive and mitigate social debt in distributed agile software development teams. Utilizing an exploratory case study approach, we derive insights from two case organizations. We present antecedents and mitigating factors of social debt related to communication, collaboration, and coordination

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

Beyond the border: A comparative literature review on communication practices for agile global outsourced software development projects

Software development is increasingly heading in the direction of combining agile software development practices and outsourcingsoftware development to external vendors worldwide. The resultingagile global outsourced software development (AGOSD) projects are characterized by applying agile methods to distributed environments, whichresults in several problems for collaboration and coordination. Specifically, communication between the project participantshas been found to be a major challenge in distributed environment. Therefore, our study investigates the problem of improving communication in distributed settings by identifying suitable communication practicesfor usage within AGOSD projects.Based on an extensive literature review,our study (1) provides an overview of adequate practices for usage in AGOSD and (2) points out differences to traditional communication practices ofagile software development(ASD)projects used in collocated, non-distributed environments

A Three-pronged View on Organizational Agility

The ability of organizations to sense and respond to changes–defined as organizational agility–is considered by senior executives among their top information technology (IT) concerns as an important ability for organizations on their quest toward sustained competitive advantage. However, every transformation toward agility also comes at a cost, requiring resource commitment and IT landscape changes. We present examples of successful and unsuccessful attempts at achieving agility while leveraging IT. Our presented cases focus on information systems development agility, customer agility, and entrepreneurial agility. Our findings suggest that agility is neither achieved easily, nor is a guarantor for success. Depending on the context and implementation of organizational agility, however, it can significantly improve process and product performance. We develop a three-pronged view consisting of a functional, temporal, and ambidextrous view to resolve these challenges. We end with three recommendations for practitioners that seek to shape their organization’s journey toward agility

A Three-pronged View on Organizational Agility

The ability of organizations to sense and respond to changes–defined as organizational agility–is considered by senior executives among their top information technology (IT) concerns as an important ability for organizations on their quest toward sustainedcompetitive advantage. However, every transformation toward agility also comes at a cost, requiring resource commitment and IT landscape changes. We present examples of successful and unsuccessful attempts at achieving agility while leveraging IT. Our presented cases focus on information systems development agility, customer agility, and entrepreneurial agility. Our findings suggest that agility is neither achieved easily, nor is a guarantor for success.Depending on the context and implementation of organizational agility, however, it can significantly improve process and product performance. We develop a three-pronged viewconsisting of a functional,temporal,andambidextrous viewtoresolve thesechallenges. We end with three recommendations for practitioners that seek to shape their organization’s journey toward agility

The Impact of Control on Teams in Agile Information Systems Development

Agile information systems development (ISD) methodologies can now look back on almost 30 years of history. However, it is precisely these methodologies that continue to attract the attention of the research community today. Agile ISD strongly relies on social interaction and teamwork. In consequence, team processes and agile practices adopted by team members take an integral part in the success of agile ISD projects. The ability to respond and react to changing or unforeseen user requirements becomes essential and is bolstered by granting higher levels of autonomy within an agile ISD team. However, existing studies on team autonomy in agile ISD imply that these teams not only benefit from team autonomy itself but also from different elements of control. Research suggests that control leads to better performance within a team, even though the exercise of control inevitably imposes certain boundaries on the concept of team autonomy. Yet, research faces an ongoing challenge in constituting a comprehensive understanding of how control should be used in agile ISD and how it affects certain levels along the whole ISD process. The dissertation’s objective is to improve our understanding of the influence of control on agile ISD teams in terms of team autonomy and team performance and how to enact control in agile ISD settings. This is achieved by conducting five independent but interrelated studies, which focus on the development and testing of a research model based on a solid theoretical foundation. As a theoretical framework, control theory is employed and extended with novel insights from the expanded theoretical framework of IS project control. Collectively, these studies substantially extend our knowledge of the matter of control in agile ISD in general, and in particular, how control enactment can be linked to agile practices while considering different control styles, and how different types of control influence autonomy and performance in agile ISD teams