Agile improvement practices in software organizations

Inspired by the chasm between early adopters and early majority in diffusion of technological innovations, this paper investigates how agile improvement practices can help software organizations successfully implement new processes. An action research-based improvement initiative implemented a new change-request process and tool at the telecom company Ericsson AB in Gothenburg, Sweden. The study identifies a ‘guerilla tactic’ that change agents can use in software organizations to cross the chasm, and it discusses lessons learned in relation to literature on diffusion of innovation and software agility. The contribution of the study is that the guerrilla tactic supports agile improvement practices and facilitates successful implementation.

[1]  J. Whitney.  Case Study Research , 1999 .

[2]  Robert B. Grady,et al.  Successful Software Process Improvement , 1997 .

[3]  Linda Levine.  Reflections on Software Agility and Agile Methods: Challenges, Dilemmas, and the Way Ahead , 2005, Business Agility and Information Technology Diffusion.

[4]  Mark A. Ardis,et al.  Diffusing Software Product and Process Innovations , 2001, IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing.

[5]  Gerald M. Weinberg,et al.  Quality software management: volume 4: anticipating change , 1997 .

[6]  Chris F. Kemerer,et al.  The Illusory Diffusion of Innovation: An Examination of Assimilation Gaps , 1999, Inf. Syst. Res..

[7]  Karlheinz Kautz,et al.  Understanding and Changing Software Organizations , 2001, Diffusing Software Products and Process Innovations.

[8]  G. Susman,et al.  An Assessment of the Scientific Merits of Action Research. , 1978 .

[9]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  The Disruptive Nature of Information Technology Innovations: The Case of Internet Computing in Systems Development Organizations , 2003, MIS Q..

[10]  Karlheinz Kautz,et al.  Understanding and Changing Software Organizations: An Exploration of Four Perspectives on Software Process Improvement , 2001, Scand. J. Inf. Syst..

[11]  Ephraim R. McLean,et al.  Information Systems Success: The Quest for the Dependent Variable , 1992, Inf. Syst. Res..

[12]  BörjessonAnna,et al.  Agile improvement practices in software organizations , 2006 .

[13]  Bob McFeeley,et al.  IDEAL: A User's Guide for Software Process Improvement. , 1996 .

[14]  Peter B. Seddon,et al.  A Partial Test and Development of Delone and Mclean's Model of IS Success , 1996, Australas. J. Inf. Syst..

[15]  Mark C. Paulk,et al.  Structured Approaches to Managing Change , 1999 .

[16]  Jan Pries-Heje,et al.  Diffusion and Adoption of IT Products and Processes in a Danish Bank , 2001, Diffusing Software Products and Process Innovations.

[17]  Adrian J. Slywotzky,et al.  Adaptive Enterprise: Creating and Leading Sense-And-Respond Organizations , 1999 .

[18]  Agile Manifesto,et al.  Manifesto for Agile Software Development , 2001 .

[19]  Stephen H. Haeckel.  Adaptive enterprise design: The sense‐and‐respond model , 1995 .

[20]  Jean Hartley,et al.  Case study research , 2004 .

[21]  Geoffrey A. Moore,et al.  Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge , 1995 .

[22]  Erja Mustonen-Ollila,et al.  How organizations adopt information system process innovations: a longitudinal analysis , 2004, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[23]  Linda Levine,et al.  Technology Transition Pull: A Case Study of Rate Monotonic Analysis (Part 2). , 1995 .

[24]  Susan A. Brown,et al.  Do I really have to? User acceptance of mandated technology , 2002, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[25]  Anna Börjesson Sandberg.  Improve by improving software process improvers , 2006, Int. J. Bus. Inf. Syst..

[26]  Watts S. Humphrey,et al.  Managing the software process , 1989, The SEI series in software engineering.

[27]  Lars Mathiassen,et al.  Collaborative Practice Research , 2000, Scand. J. Inf. Syst..

[28]  R. Zmud.  An Examination of Push-Pull Theory Applied to Process Innovation in Knowledge Work , 1984 .

[29]  Robert M. Davison,et al.  Principles of canonical action research , 2004, Inf. Syst. J..

[30]  Pekka Abrahamsson,et al.  Rethinking the Concept of Commitment in Software Process Improvement , 2001, Scand. J. Inf. Syst..

[31]  Geoffrey A. Moore.  Crossing the chasm : marketing and selling technology products to mainstream customers , 1991 .

[32]  J. Bartunek,et al.  Insider/outsider team research , 1996 .

[33]  Jan Pries-Heje,et al.  Grounded action research: a method for understanding IT in practice , 1999 .

[34]  R. Yin.  Yin, Robert K., Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 2nd ed. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1994. , 1994 .

[35]  L. Mathiassen,et al.  Survival Patterns in Fast-Moving Software Organizations , 2001, IEEE Softw..

[36]  Jan Pries-Heje,et al.  How Internet software companies negotiate quality , 2001, Computer.

[37]  Paul Ati ' Ewell.  TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING: THE CASE OF BUSINESS COMPUTING* , 1992 .

[38]  Lars Mathiassen,et al.  Improving software organizations: agility challenges and implications , 2005, Inf. Technol. People.

[39]  Rick Dove,et al.  Response Ability: The Language, Structure, and Culture of the Agile Enterprise , 2001 .

[40]  Lars Mathiassen,et al.  Successful process implementation , 2004, IEEE Software.

[41]  Jan Pries-Heje.  Role Model for the Organisational IT Diffusion Process , 2003, Diffusion and Adoption of Networked Information Technologies.