Exploring Workflow Mechanisms and Task Allocation Strategies in Agile Software Teams

Task allocation is considered an important activity in software project management. However, the process of allocating tasks in agile software development teams has not received much attention in empirical research. Through a pilot study involving mixed open-ended and closed-ended interviews questions with 11 agile software practitioners working within a software development organization in India, we explain the process of task allocation as including three different mechanisms of workflow across teams: team-independent, team-dependent, and hybrid workflow; and five types of task allocation strategies: manager-driven, team-driven, individual-driven, manager-assisted and team-assisted. Knowing these workflow mechanisms and task allocation strategies will help software teams and project managers make more effective decisions around workflow and task allocation.

[1]  Adriano Bessa Albuquerque,et al.  Task Allocation Approaches in Distributed Agile Software Development: A Quasi-systematic Review , 2015, CSOC.

[2]  Robert K. Yin,et al.  Applications of case study research , 1993 .

[3]  Yasnitsky Leonid.  Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing , 2019 .

[4]  Tore Dybå,et al.  Understanding Self-Organizing Teams in Agile Software Development , 2008, 19th Australian Conference on Software Engineering (aswec 2008).

[5]  W. R. Howard.  Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products , 2010 .

[6]  James Noble,et al.  Agile Project Management , 2008 .

[7]  Salma Imtiaz,et al.  Dynamics of task allocation in global software development , 2017, J. Softw. Evol. Process..

[8]  J. Hart.  [Qualitative methods]. , 2000, Recherche en soins infirmiers.

[9]  James Noble,et al.  Becoming Agile: A Grounded Theory of Agile Transitions in Practice , 2017, 2017 IEEE/ACM 39th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE).

[10]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Self-organization of teams for free/libre open source software development , 2007, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[11]  Philippe Kruchten,et al.  Task Coordination in an Agile Distributed Software Development Environment , 2006, 2006 Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering.

[12]  Jürgen Münch,et al.  A Survey on the State of the Practice in Distributed Software Development: Criteria for Task Allocation , 2009, 2009 Fourth IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering.

[13]  Rashina Hoda,et al.  Multi-level agile project management challenges: A self-organizing team perspective , 2016, J. Syst. Softw..

[14]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Bug Fixing Practices within Free/Libre Open Source Software Development Teams , 2008, J. Database Manag..

[15]  Kieran Conboy,et al.  Obstacles to decision making in Agile software development teams , 2012, J. Syst. Softw..