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An Investigation of Agility Issues in Scrum Teams Using Agility Indicators

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Information Systems Development

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Abstract

Agile software development methods have emerged and become increasingly popular in recent years; yet the issues encountered by software development teams that strive to achieve agility using agile methods are yet to be explored systematically. Built upon a previous study that has established a set of indicators of agility, this study investigates what issues are manifested in software development teams using agile methods. It is focussed on Scrum teams particularly. In other words, the goal of the chapter is to evaluate Scrum teams using agility indicators and therefore to further validate previously presented agility indicators within the additional cases. A multiple case study research method is employed. The findings of the study reveal that the teams using Scrum do not necessarily achieve agility in terms of team autonomy, sharing, stability and embraced uncertainty. The possible reasons include previous organizational plan-driven culture, resistance towards the Scrum roles and changing resources.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported, in part, by the Science Foundation Ireland grant 03/CE2/I303_1 to Lero – the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre (http://www.lero.ie) and TEKES to VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland

    Minna Pikkarainen

  2. Lero, The Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, Limerick, Ireland

    Xiaofeng Wang

Authors
  1. Minna Pikkarainen
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  2. Xiaofeng Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Minna Pikkarainen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom

    William Wei Song

  2. , School of Information Technology, Jiangxi University of Finance and Econom, Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China, People's Republic

    Shenghua Xu

  3. Finance & Economics, School of Information Management, Jiangxi University of, Fenglin Rd., Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China, People's Republic

    Changxuan Wan

  4. UFIDA Software Technology College, Jiangxi University of Finance & Economic, Fenglin Rd., Nanchang, 330013, Jiangxi, China, People's Republic

    Yuansheng Zhong

  5. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Wita Wojtkowski

  6. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Gregory Wojtkowski

  7. Fac. Information Technology, Monash University, Clayton, 3800, Victoria, Australia

    Henry Linger

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Pikkarainen, M., Wang, X. (2011). An Investigation of Agility Issues in Scrum Teams Using Agility Indicators. In: Song, W., et al. Information Systems Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7355-9_38

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7355-9_38

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-7205-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-7355-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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