The Perceived Impact of the Agile Development and Project Management Method Scrum on Information Systems and Software Development Productivity

Abstract

This research contributes to the body of knowledge in information systems development (ISD) with an empirical investigation in form of a case study that demonstrates the positive impact of the agile development and project management method Scrum on information systems and software development productivity and it provides a useful operationalization of the concept through seven identified indicators for productivity. Despite the fact that the case unit had challenges with the use of Scrum, the indicators identified the areas where the company had managed to exploit the potential of Scrum and its practices with regard to increasing productivity. The research results are discussed both with regard to the existing Scrum literature as well as to complex adaptive systems (CAS) as a foundation for ISD and agile development.

The Perceived Impact of the Agile Development and Project Management Method Scrum on Process Transparency in Information Systems Development

“…In the remainder of the paper we first briefly introduce Scrum, and then we describe our theoretical background and the research setting and method. Subsequently we present and discuss our research results against the existing literature on Scrum and relate them to our earlier findings concerning the other concepts of our framework which were explained in more detail in [5][6][7] as well as to complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory, a theory which is considered to provide a theoretical foundation for ISD [8] and in particular agile development [9]. We finish with some conclusions and an outlook to future research.…”

“…Although a presentation of the overall result would give a more comprehensive portrait of the method's impact, we focus here on process transparency as one of the key concepts. This still provides some valuable insights which we will relate to the findings concerning the other concepts that we have presented and discussed in more detail elsewhere [5][6][7]. As a starting point for our discussion we summarize the results of our analysis of Scrum's impact on process transparency in the case unit:…”

“…Retrospectives should address the overall application of the method, its processes and practices, and the more specific experience in the daily development work and its relation to the resulting product [10]. The latter turned out to be an area the case unit did not focus on and thus did not benefit from [5,6]. It can be explained with the case unit's early stage of utilizing Scrum and their lack of experience with regular retrospectives.…”

“…Here we are focusing on Scrum's impact on the first concept. We have reported Scrum's impact on the other concepts elsewhere [5][6][7]. Process transparency refers to one of the areas that distinguish Scrum noticeably from the typical waterfall model development processes.…”

Factors That Influence Productivity: A Checklist

“…Description Source agile Is an agile development process used? [10,12,13] architecture risk resolution how are the risks mitigated by architecture? [1] Completeness of design the amount of the design that is completed when coding starts.…”