AGILE METHODS AT WORKPLACE

Agile Methods at Workplace

Abstract

Agile method proponents believe that organizational culture has an effect on the extent to which an agile method is used. Research into the relationship between organizational culture and information systems development methodology deployment has been explored by others using the Competing Values Framework (CVF). However this relationship has not been explored with respect to the agile development methodologies. Based on a multi-case study of nine projects we show that specific organizational culture factors correlate with effective use of an agile method. Our results contribute to the literature on organizational culture and system development methodology use.

Agile Methods at Workplace

Introduction

Agile methods are a group of system development methodologies that share a common philosophy, values, and goals. The primary goal of all agile methods is to deliver software products quickly, and to adapt to changes in the process, product, environment, or other project contingencies . Agile methods accommodate this change by employing a rapid iterative and incremental development process with high levels of communication and customer involvement.

While evidence suggests that agile methods have been adopted in a wide variety of organizational settings, such methods are assumed to be more suited to certain organizational environments than others. In order to better understand the relationship between agile methods and organizational setting, we conducted a multi-case study of software development projects. Our study focused specifically on organizational culture, and the relationships between different aspects of organizational culture and the use of agile methods. The research question being investigated in this study was: to what extent is the use of an agile method related to the culture of the organization?

Organizational culture is a major research area in organization studies and is considered important in successful agile method use. We used the Competing Values Framework (CVF) instrument to assess the perception of project leaders as to the organizational culture of their project workplace. We also developed a technique for determining the extent to which agile methods were being used in a particular project. Using non-parametric statistical analysis of the data, we examined the correlations between specific organizational culture factors and the extent of agile method use. (Iivari and Klein 2001 179-218)

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: first we introduce the agile methods followed by a brief review of the literature on studies of system development methodologies and organizational culture. Then we describe the research problem and the case study method used to address the problem. We follow this with our data analysis method, results and a discussion of the results. We address the study limitations; provide a conclusion and indications for future research in this area.

Literature Review

Agile Methods

Initially agile methods were called lightweight methods to distinguish them from traditional "heavyweight" methods; method "heaviness" is a characteristic of prescriptive approaches requiring the production of many non-software artifacts, mainly documentation, during development. Examples of heavyweight methodologies are SSADM , Information Engineering , Unified Software Development Process , and OPEN ...