Do Agile Managed Information Systems Projects Fail Due to a Lack of Emotional Intelligence?

Abstract

Agile development methodologies (ADM) have become a widely implemented project management approach in Information Systems (IS). Yet, along with its growing popularity, the amount of concerns raised in regard to human related challenges caused by applying ADM are rapidly increasing. Nevertheless, the extant scholarly literature has neglected to identify the primary origins and reasons of these challenges. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine if these human related challenges are related to a lack of Emotional Intelligence (EI) by means of a quantitative approach. From a sample of 194 agile practitioners, EI was found to be significantly correlated to human related challenges in agile teams in terms of anxiety, motivation, mutual trust and communication competence. Hence, these findings offer important new knowledge for IS-scholars, project managers and human resource practitioners, about the vital role of EI for staffing and training of agile managed IS-projects.

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“…one year) in accordance with GDPR regulations (Trocin et al, 2021a ). It is worth mention that emotional intelligence is not part of these systems although understanding how people deal with emotional challenges is crucial for AI systems to emulate human reasoning (Luong et al, 2021 ). Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new challenges and opportunities for digital transformation and innovation.…”

Going Agile, a Post-Pandemic Universal Work Paradigm - A Theoretical Narrative Review

“…A recent study utilized a quantitative approach to determine if these human-related concerns are linked to a lack of emotional intelligence (EI). In a sample of 194 agile practitioners, EI was shown to be highly correlated with human-related issues in agile teams in terms of anxiety, motivation, mutual trust, and communication competence (Luong et al, 2021). As a result, our findings add to the growing body of knowledge among IS academics, project managers, and human resource experts about the essential role of EI in staffing and training agile managed IS projects (Luong et al, 2021).…”

“…In the field of information systems, agile development methods (ADM) have be-come a commonly used project management strategy (IS). However, as ADM's popularity grows, so does the number of those who are concerned about the human health risks associated with its usage (Luong et al, 2021). A recent study utilized a quantitative approach to determine if these human-related concerns are linked to a lack of emotional intelligence (EI).…”

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“…Research into how teams respond emotionally to the requirements changes entailed by Agile practices is scarce. Studies on the role of emotions in Agile development have focused on the role of emotional intelligence in Agile teams, from both the management perspective (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008) and those of practitioners in general (Luong et al, 2019); although some research indicates that negative emotions can arise from misalignment between project goals and individual goals (Cao and Park, 2017), there is little in the way of concrete approaches or tools recommended to mitigate these risks. The tool we have developed, Emotimonitor, aims to better enable managers to monitor the "signs and influence of certain emotions that may lower the team moral [sic]" (Cao and Park, 2017).…”