Software development is increasingly heading in the direction of combining agile software development practices and outsourcing software development to external vendors worldwide. The resulting agile global outsourced software development (AGOSD) projects are characterized by applying agile methods to distributed environments, which results in several problems for collaboration and coordination. Specifically, communication between the project participants has been found to be a major challenge in distributed environment. Therefore, our study investigates the problem of improving communication in distributed settings by identifying suitable communication practices for usage within AGOSD projects. Based on an extensive literature review, our study (1) provides an overview of adequate practices for usage in AGOSD and (2) points out differences to traditional communication practices of agile software development (ASD) projects used in collocated, non-distributed environments. research question guides our study: "How do communication practices for agile software development differ from communication practices for usage within agile global outsourced software development projects?"To answer our research question, we conducted a structured and comparative literature review on communication practices within ASD and AGOSD projects based on the guidelines of Webster and Watson [15] and Levy [16]. We analyzed the existing literature on both ASD and AGOSD projects and identified a total set of 42 communication practices for usage within both ASD and AGOSD. After identifying and analyzing the practices, we conducted

Although much is known about the concept of technical debt in software development, less is known about its social counterpart, also known as social debt. Social debt refers to future consequences of decisions related to people and their interactions. Omissions in social interactions or reduction of communication can foster social debt-and in turn result in negative outcomes in the long run. In this paper, we explore what factors drive and mitigate social debt in distributed agile software development teams. Utilizing an exploratory case study approach, we derive insights from two case organizations. We present antecedents and mitigating factors of social debt related to communication, collaboration, and coordination.

Agile software development (ASD) strongly relies on social interaction and teamwork. Team processes and agile practices adopted by team members play an important part for the outcome of software development projects. Agile practices promise teams to be able to respond to change by granting them autonomy. Existing studies, however, imply that these projects can benefit from different elements of control. Our objective is to improve our understanding of how to enact control in agile teams and how these control mechanisms influence team autonomy and team performance. In this paper, we present our findings from four case studies conducted within two insurance companies and two software development firms. We found that it is not a question of 'what' controls should be exercised, but rather 'how' controls are implemented in practice. Our results prompt to the need for further studies on control mechanisms in ASD.

The ability of organizations to sense and respond to changes-defined as organizational agilityis considered by senior executives among their top information technology (IT) concerns as an important ability for organizations on their quest toward sustained competitive advantage.However, every transformation toward agility also comes at a cost, requiring resource commitment and IT landscape changes. We present examples of successful and unsuccessful attempts at achieving agility while leveraging IT. Our presented cases focus on information systems development agility, customer agility, and entrepreneurial agility. Our findings suggest that agility is neither achieved easily, nor is a guarantor for success. Depending on the context and implementation of organizational agility, however, it can significantly improve process and product performance. We develop a three-pronged view consisting of a functional, temporal, and ambidextrous view to resolve these challenges. We end with three recommendations for practitioners that seek to shape their organization's journey toward agility.

Agile Software Development (ASD) projects still draw the attention of the research community. Agile methodologies promise to increase an ASD team's agility in such a way, that these teams are able to respond and react to changing user requirements. Existing studies on flexibility and autonomy in ASD projects, however, imply that these projects potentially can benefit from different elements of control. Our objective is to improve the understanding of how to enact control through agile practices, and how these practices affect either formal or informal control in ASD teams. Based on an extensive literature review, our study (1) provides an overview of adequate control-enacting agile practices and (2) compares the results with our empirical findings, derived from qualitative data.