Understanding Decision-Making in Agile Software Development: A Case-study

A challenge with introducing agile software development is changing the way decisions are made. In this paper, we discuss the decision making processes used in Scrum teams. We found that a prerequisite for introducing Scrum is the alignment of decisions on a strategic, tactical and operational level. In addition, specialisation can be a barrier for the decision-making process on the operational level, and that daily meetings are important for preventing decision-hijacking. Also removing the hold-up problem makes it easier for developers to participate in the decision-making process.

[1]  Dana E. Sims,et al.  Is there a “Big Five” in Teamwork? , 2005 .

[2]  Mike Cohn,et al.  Introducing an Agile Process to an Organization , 2003, Computer.

[3]  A. Cockburn,et al.  Agile Software Development: The People Factor , 2001, Computer.

[4]  Tore Dybå,et al.  Empirical studies of agile software development: A systematic review , 2008, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[5]  K. Beck,et al.  Extreme Programming Explained , 2002 .

[6]  Mark Fenton-O ' Creevy.  Employee involvement and the middle manager: evidence from a survey of organizations , 1998 .

[7]  R. Anthony,et al.  Planning and Control Systems: A Framework for Analysis , 1965 .

[8]  Pekka Abrahamsson,et al.  New directions on agile methods: a comparative analysis , 2003, 25th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2003. Proceedings..

[9]  Lore Neumann-Alkier.  Think Globally, Act Locally - Does IT Follow the Rule in Multinational Corporations? , 1997, ECIS.

[10]  R. Freeland,et al.  Creating Holdup Through Vertical Integration: Fisher Body Revisited* , 2000, The Journal of Law and Economics.

[11]  Claes Wohlin,et al.  A Value-Based Approach in Requirements Engineering: Explaining Some of the Fundamental Concepts , 2007, REFSQ.

[12]  Kent Beck,et al.  Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change (2nd Edition) , 2004 .

[13]  Mark Fenton-O'Creevy,et al.  Employee involvement and the middle manager: evidence from a survey of organizations , 1998 .

[14]  Claes Wohlin,et al.  Aligning Software Project Decisions: a Case Study , 2006, Int. J. Softw. Eng. Knowl. Eng..

[15]  Venugopal Balijepally,et al.  Theoretical reflections on agile development methodologies , 2007, Commun. ACM.

[16]  Richard A. Guzzo,et al.  Teams in organizations: recent research on performance and effectiveness. , 1996, Annual review of psychology.

[17]  Mikael Lindvall,et al.  An introduction to agile methods , 2004, Adv. Comput..

[18]  George Mangalaraj,et al.  Challenges of migrating to agile methodologies , 2005, CACM.

[19]  Laurie A. Williams,et al.  Agile software development: it's about feedback and change , 2003, Computer.

[20]  J. Tata,et al.  Team Self-Management, Organizational Structure, and Judgments of Team Effectiveness , 2004 .

[21]  Kent L. Beck,et al.  Extreme programming explained - embrace change , 1990 .

[22]  D. Jorgensen.  Participant Observation: A Methodology for Human Studies , 1989 .