A paradoxical perspective on contradictions in agile software development

Abstract

An ongoing debate on agile methods focuses on the contradictions in software development, especially responding to change vs. following a plan, and people vs. processes. Unlike the ‘either-or’ perspective adopted in the existing agile literature, this paper introduces a paradoxical view on the contradictions in agile software development and uses two agile processes to illustrate it, arguing that a paradoxical perspective can help to gain a better understanding of the nature of and ways of dealing with the contradictions in agile software development. Taking a paradoxical perspective on responding to change vs. following a plan, and people vs. processes, this paper reveals that an agile process is a planning-driven process geared to responding to change, and it is a process that provides a supporting structure for people to learn and to improve their competences