Job Satisfaction in Agile Development Teams: Agile Development as Work Redesign

Abstract

Agile software-development advocates claim that an important value proposition of agile methods is that they make people more motivated and satisfied with their jobs. While several studies present anecdotal evidence that agile methods increase motivation and satisfaction, research has not theoretically explained or empirically examined how agile development practices relate to team members' feelings about their work. Drawing on the management and software-development literature, we articulate a model of job design that connects agile development practices to perceptions of job characteristics and, thereby, improve agile team members' job satisfaction. Using data collected from 252 software-development professionals, we tested the model and found a positive relationship between agile projectmanagement and software-development practices and employees' perceptions of job characteristics. Further, we found direct effects between agile development-practice use and job satisfaction. Finally, we found interaction effects between the use of agile project-management and software-development approaches and the perception of job autonomy. With this study, we contribute to the literature by theoretically explaining and directly evaluating agile development practices' impact on individuals' perceptions about their job characteristics and on their job satisfaction.

Subgroups in Agile and Traditional IT Project Teams

“…These approaches focus on the social nature of software development [16]. Values like commitment, openness and respect form the footing of all agile methods and lead to a higher perception of job satisfaction within software development teams [15]. Furthermore, additional factors like team awareness and team involvement foster cohesion within the team [16].…”

“…Due to the differences in team composition and conducting tasks, different types of subgroups form in agile and traditional IT projects, based on faultlines, which are dividing lines that are based on attributes of diversity of team members [7,14]. For instance, agile methods emphasize values like commitment, openness and respect [15]. This creates a different form of exchange between the team members [16], which in turn influences the formation of subgroups.…”

Thoughts on Current and Future Research on Agile and Lean: Ensuring Relevance and Rigor

“…In many cases, these papers do not measure the level of use of agile methods or practices, but rather, just the high level concept of use of that method. However, more recent research has shown that the impact of these agile practices (such as using pair programming) may take both direct and indirect paths to a dependent variable (such as code quality) [36]. Furthermore, the measurement of agile practices as opposed to the use of a "methodology" has Page 5466 become more common [e.g., 25,36].…”

“…However, more recent research has shown that the impact of these agile practices (such as using pair programming) may take both direct and indirect paths to a dependent variable (such as code quality) [36]. Furthermore, the measurement of agile practices as opposed to the use of a "methodology" has Page 5466 become more common [e.g., 25,36]. This change of focus from method to practice is appropriate; as research shows that few teams adopt agile methodologies as a whole, but rather tailor them to their individual situations [11].…”

“…However, research into the use of agile methods has found that, although teams widely claim to use agile methods, actual use of agile practices is rather low, even in teams led by high-profile agile proponents [11]. Further, while research into the effects of the use of agile methods has found impacts such as a reduction in bugs [25] and higher job satisfaction on agile teams [36], many studies on agile have not measured the use of the agile actual methods or practices, and have often failed to argue theoretically why agile is theoretically different from other project environments, or identified the core of what organizational, customer, project, and team characteristics are necessary in order to apply agile development principles and practices successfully.…”