Dependency Management in Large-Scale Agile: A Case Study of DevOps Teams

Journal of Systems and Software

2020

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Given the relevance of coordination in the field of global software engineering, this work was carried out to further understand coordination mechanisms. Specifically, we investigated meetings and the collaboration tool Slack. We conducted a longitudinal case study using a mixed-methods approach with surveys, observations, interviews, and chat logs. Our quantitative results show that employees in global projects spend 7 hours 45 minutes per week on average in scheduled meetings and 8 hours 54 minutes in unscheduled meetings. Furthermore, distributed teams were significantly larger than co-located teams, and people working in distributed teams spent somewhat more time in meetings per day. We found that low availability of key people, absence of organizational support for unscheduled meetings and unbalanced activity from team members in meetings and on Slack were barriers for effective coordination across sites. The positive aspects of using collaboration tools in distributed teams were increased team awareness and informal communication and reduced the need for e-mail. Our study emphasizes the importance of reflecting on how global software engineering teams use meetings and collaboration tools to coordinate. We provide practical advice for conducting better meetings and give suggestions for more efficient use of collaboration tools in global projects.

Section: Slack As a Collaboration Tool For Mutual Adjustmentmentioning

confidence: 95%

Understanding coordination in global software engineering: A mixed-methods study on the use of meetings and Slack

Stray

Journal of Systems and Software

2020

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“…We believe that our study has the following main implications for PO coordination. First, we recommend focusing more on unscheduled meetings rather than scheduled, time-consuming meetings, as also suggested by other research on large-scale agile [22,28]. Established frameworks such as the Scaled Agile Framework and Large-Scale Scrum recommend a rather fixed meeting structure [16,17].…”

Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Inter-team coordination is one mechanism for managing dependencies in largescale agile. Dingsøyr et al [6] described 14 inter-team coordination mechanisms in a large-scale software project, while Stray et al [28] identified 20 mechanisms (11 synchronization activities and nine synchronization artifacts). Paasivaara et al [24] found that the product owner (PO) and the PO team were critical in assisting with interteam coordination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Product Owner in Large-Scale Agile: An Empirical Study Through the Lens of Relational Coordination Theory

Berntzen

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing

Stray

2019

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In agile software development, a core responsibility of the product owner (PO) is to communicate business needs to the development team. In large-scale agile software development projects, many teams work toward an overall outcome, but they also need to manage interdependencies and coordinate efficiently. In such settings, POs need to coordinate knowledge about project status and goal attainment both within and across the development teams. Previous research has shown that the PO assumes a wide set of roles. Still, our knowledge about how POs coordinate amongst themselves and with their teams in large-scale agile is limited. In this case study, we explore PO coordination in a large-scale development program through the theoretical lens of Relational Coordination Theory. Our findings suggest that (1) coordination varies depending on the context of each PO, (2) a focus on achieving high-quality communication changes coordination over time, and (3) unscheduled coordination enables of high-quality communication.

“…Large-scale agile transformation is a critical issue in responding to the digital transformations that are ongoing in many sectors [1]. Several barriers to such transformation seen from industry experience have been identified, for example, change resistance [8], and inter-team coordination challenges [16]. While conceptual solutions such as continuous development and BizDev has been suggested [3], there is a lack of research-based advice on how agile transformations are to be performed in practice.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-Scale Agile Transformation: A Case Study of Transforming Business, Development and Operations

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing

Mikalsen

2020

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Today, product development organizations are adopting agile methods in units outside the software development unit, such as in sales, market, legal, operations working with the customer. This broader adoption of agile methods has been labeled large-scale agile transformation and is considered a particular type of organizational change, originating in the software development units. So far, there is little research-based advice on conducting such transformations. Aiming to contribute towards providing relevant research advice on large-scale agile transformation, we apply a research-based framework for evaluating organizational agility on a product development program in a maritime service provider organization. We found that doing a large-scale agile transformation involves many significant challenges, such as having a shared understanding of the problem, getting access to users, and getting commitment to change that needs to be done. In order to overcome such challenges, we discuss the need for a holistic and integrated approach to agile transformation involving all the units linked to software development.