A Decade of Agile Methodologies: from research productivity to team productivity

• Main Authors: Sun-Wen Chuang, 莊孫文
• Other Authors: Hsi-Peng Lu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/krkc53

博士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 管理研究所 === 103 === Agile software development (ASD) has taken the place of the traditional plan-driven software development approach over the past decades and has become more popular and mainstream in the improved, faster, and cheaper delivery of quality software. Transitioning to the agile style of software development has become an inexorable phenomenon among software companies. Framed by this context, we conduct a series of research on agile methodologies. In recent years, the number of scholarly publications on ASD has grown significantly. Study 1 conducted here presents findings on top scholars and publications in the ASD field from 2001 to 2012 based on 221 publications in the Science Citation Index journals. It summarizes the most influential researchers and finds a steady stream of studies on post-adoption after 2008. This leads to the further study of the key initiatives and strategic decisions during agile transition. Numerous studies have reviewed and synthesized the frameworks adopted in transitioning to agile. However, few works have examined how an organization transitions to agile through longitudinal study and from a strategic perspective. Transitioning to ASD as a significant organizational initiative is a strategic decision that should be made in connection with the target organization’s key objectives. A dependable anticipation of how a new methodology is likely to affect strategic objectives helps organization managers select the methodology that maximizes the benefits provided to the organization. Study 2 conducted here presents findings on the initiatives, strategic decisions, and approaches of a Fortune 500 company that transitioned to agile from 2007 to 2013. Moreover, the transition occurred in four phases and considered the impacts on culture, structure, and practice. Agile methods are widely believed to potentially improve the productivity of the software development team. Given the variety of agile practices, agile teams face difficulty in the decision-making process. Study 3 conducted here proposes a multiple criteria decision-making approach to the construction of an objective and effective analytical model of the critical factors that influence agile team productivity. We synthesize ten influential productivity factors across four dimensions from empirical studies. The decision-making process prioritizes the factors so that the decision maker can adopt the Pareto approach: focusing on the 20% strategies that bring 80% of the gain. This thesis can serve as a comprehensive reference for practitioners transitioning to agile or enhancing agile team productivity.