Agile Software Development: Exploring the Values and Principles, Collaboration and Boundary Objects

Abstract

Agile software development, both a movement and a set of software development methods, guided by the values and principles state in the Manifesto for Agile development (Beck et al. 2001), should not be seen only as a collection of development methods. This thesis proposes that in order to understand what constitutes differences or similarities between Agile organisations, one should apply a holistic view of Agile development. This view consists of three elements that form the Agile development environment: the perspective the organisations have towards Agile, the Agile process the organisations follow and the Agile structures that form the basis for the process. By proposing this framework of Agile engagement, the thesis answers following research questions: 1. How does collaboration in organisations differ under the various approaches towards Agile? 2. How do organisations structure collaboration between Agile teams and business stakeholders? 3. How are boundary objects used in collaboration between these groups? As research method, I followed the eight steps of the SPS approach and conducted a qualitative, interpretive case study. The study consists of three case studies. First, the Extreme Inc. case is an example of an organisation where the members hold an Avid perspective towards Agile methods. The organisation had arranged the collaboration to follow a tightly integrated model where boundary objects are applied to support the pair programming method and foster face-to-face collaboration. The case of Escapade and Carmine presents an example of an Inclusive Agile perspective, where organisations strive to focus on collaboration and boundary mitigation. The organisations had set up a collaboration configuration, where boundary spanners and all boundary objects were designed to create a sense of presence and ease of collaboration. The last case, the PrecautionCorp program, is a study of an organisation where the members of the organisation have chosen to observe Agile methods in a Pragmatic way. All collaboration between the stakeholders was organised via selected boundary spanners who mitigated the boundaries but also maintained a level of control over the chaos by applying a variety of boundary objects. By analysing the three case studies, I have identified three main elements that impact Agile software development: the perspective the organisations have towards the Agile philosophy which impacts the Agile process, that is, how the Agile methods are applied in practice; the configuration of the business stakeholder collaboration; and the application of the boundary objects. Based on this analysis, I have presented the framework for Agile engagement, a holistic theory that tied together the elements of Agile development. The practical contributions of this thesis are several: practitioners can apply the framework for Agile engagement when analysing their own positions, can benefit from better understanding of the relations between Agile process, Agile perspective and Agile structures, and can enhance their understanding of the best possible application of boundary objects.