Impact of Agile Software Development on Quality within Information Technology Organizations

Quality and an emphasis on quality are must have ingredients for an organization to be successful. Therefore, in the present environment of fast pace software development, quality plays an essential role when it comes to the long term viability of IT organizations. As a result of continuous quality improvement, IT organizations have defined and implemented various quality processes and software development methodologies in order to achieve a higher quality standard. Currently, one of the most popular software development methodology is known as the Agile Software Development Methodology. Some IT organizations have been successful with the implementation of this new framework, while other IT organizations have experienced less success or complete failure. The purpose of this study is to provide some answers to the following thesis question that has not been answered yet by currently available literature related to Agile Software Development: in what ways does the implementation of Agile Software Development Methodology impacts quality within IT organizations? According to Dyba & Dingsoyr (2008, p.14), Agile Software Development, the innovative “movement”, has a considerable impact on organizations specialized in IT software development, and poses several hurdles that ultimately impact quality within IT organizations. This study takes a look at the impact of Agile Software Development on quality within the organizational, methodical, and cultural framework and provides industry standard recommendations to alleviate such impacts.