Software Development and CSCW

Abstract

Identifying which agile methods and processes are most effective depends on the goals and aims of an organisation. Agile development promotes an environment of continuous improvement and trust within self-organising teams. Therefore, it is important to allow teams to have the flexibility to customize and tailor their chosen methods. However, in a large-scale agile deployment, there needs to be a degree of process standardization across the organisation; otherwise, different teams will not be able to effectively share knowledge and best practices. This paper addresses this classic CSCW issue of the tensions that arise between process standardization and flexibility in a large-scale agile deployment at the BBC. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing~Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing • Software and its engineering~Software creation and management

Agile tailoring in distributed large-scale environments using agile frameworks: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Agile Distributed Software Development (ADSD) refers to applying agile practices, methodologies, and techniques on distributed projects [16]. Even though agile practices were initially developed to help colocated teams, numerous studies demonstrate that agile methods can help mitigate DSD problems [13,17,18]. Therefore, agile methods appear to be a viable option for implementing DSD as it is increasingly used in software development globally.…”

“…The one-size-fits-all approach most present in scaling agile frameworks could lead organizations to lack flexibility, have inadequate communication, and limited skills to adapt to changes [13]. Due to this, the research community has started to discuss method tailoring to facilitate the software development process and better suit the context differences among development teams [6].…”

“…Who: Scrum Team, PO, and SM. How: many ways were chosen by the teams and organization to conduct retrospective meetings, including regular retrospective [2,31,62], common retrospectives with all the team [13,17,18,69,70,94], retrospectives every second [56,70,94] or third sprint [57], and even the absence of the practice [56]. In Bass's case study [31], the teams just conducted a regular Scrum Retrospective by the end of each sprint to understand what had been wrong, what was good, and what could be improved.…”

“…It made the team, in high-stress times, keep improving their process and reduced the frustration level by letting them speak and propose solutions. Helena et al [13] study on BBC has presented how closed retrospective meetings were helpful for the crews. It promoted flexibility since the team had dedicated time to gather themselves and honestly reflect on their process and culture.…”

“…Scaling agile frameworks have been developed to address this challenge by providing guidance for companies to apply agile methodologies in distributed and large-scale contexts. However, most of the agile frameworks [7][8][9][10][11][12] choose a one-size-fits-all approach to lead the agile adoption in large-scale scenarios, which may not work since each large-scale project, organization, and the team will have its particularities and needs [13,14]. For handling it better, organizations are considering agile method tailoring for better management of the development process [6].…”