Exploring software development at the very large-scale: a revelatory case study and research agenda for agile method adaptation

Abstract

Agile development methods were believed to best suit small, co-located teams, but the success in small teams has inspired use in large and very large-scale software development. However, fundamental assumptions of agile development are challenged when applying the methods at a very large scale. An interpretative revelatory case study on one of the largest software development programmes in Norway shows how agile methods were adapted and complemented with practices from traditional methods to handle the scale. The programme ran over four years with 12 colocated development teams and a total of 175 people involved. The case study was conducted retrospectively using group interviews with 24 participants and documents. Findings on key challenging areas are reported: customer involvement, software architecture, and inter-team coordination. The revelatory study also suggests refinements of a research agenda for very large-scale agile development. Empir Software Eng (2018) 23:490-520

Inter-team Coordination in Large-Scale Agile Development: A Case Study of Three Enabling Mechanisms

“…The empirical data in this study was gathered in a previous study, described in detail by Dingsøyr et al [11]. The case was chosen since it was characterised as the most successful large-scale programme in Norway at the time, with extensive use of agile methods.…”

“…Large-scale agile development can be found in practice in at least two distinct forms: (1) in the case of large-scale software development project or program [11] as part of a temporal organisation, and (2) as part of a standing organisation where an IT department engages in ongoing software development embedded in a portfolio management approach [12]. In the following we use the first understanding of large-scale:…”

“…A third study describes chains of Scrum teams in case organisations with 150, 34 and 5 teams [16]. Further, Bass [17] investigates method tailoring in large-scale offshore development and Dingsøyr et al [11] describe architectural work, customer involvement and inter-team coordination in a large development program. Scheerer et al [7] describe large-scale agile development as a multiteam system, and discuss theoretically how coordination can be achieved in this domain.…”

“…Hence, cross-team processes appear to predict multiteam performance more than within-team processes [26]. The study by Dingsøyr et al [11] describes practices for inter-team coordination and found that the case program established far more arenas for coordination than what is recommended in agile frameworks, that these arenas changed over time, and that program participants emphasised the importance of an open-office landscape.…”

“…Our findings are based on material from one of the largest software development programmes in Norway, which is described in an exploratory case study [11]. We explore coordination by using three mechanisms proposed by Salas et al [6], namely Shared Mental Models, Closed-loop Communication and Trust, and by identifying practices that supported the mechanisms in our case.…”