Abstract
Teamwork is crucial in software development, particularly in agile development teams which are cross-functional and where team members work intensively together to develop a cohesive software solution. Effective teamwork is not easy; prior studies indicate challenges with communication, learning, prioritization, and leadership. Nevertheless, there is much advice available for teams, from agile methods, practitioner literature, and general studies on teamwork to a growing body of empirical studies on teamwork in the specific context of agile software development. This article presents the agile teamwork effectiveness model (ATEM) for colocated agile development teams. The model is based on evidence from focus groups, case studies, and multi-vocal literature and is a revision of a general team effectiveness model. Our model of agile teamwork effectiveness is composed of shared leadership, team orientation, redundancy, adaptability, and peer feedback. Coordinating mechanisms are needed to facilitate these components. The coordinating mechanisms are shared mental models, communication, and mutual trust. We critically examine the model and discuss extensions for very small, multi-team, distributed, and safety-critical development contexts. The model is intended for researchers, team members, coaches, and leaders in the agile community.
Highlights
Based on a review of existing team and teamwork effectiveness models, we propose a revision of the general teamwork effectiveness model, the Big Five model of effective teamwork (Salas et al 2005), into the Agile Teamwork Effectiveness Model (ATEM)
The Salas Big Five model cites studies finding that mutual performance monitoring is important in stressful situations where team members are more likely to make errors
Mutual performance monitoring requires an understanding of what others in the team are doing and that the ‘monitoring’ is not perceived negatively by team members
Summary
Agile teams aim to be empowered, autonomous, self-reflecting, and selfadjusting (Stray et al 2018). These team characteristics differ from team structures where coaches and leaders are central controlling leadership figures (Hoda et al 2013). The researchers explained the purpose of and motivation for the workshop and gave an overview of the planned activities. This exercise included a brief introduction of all group members, each participant completed a context questionnaire. Groups presented the results of the brainstorming sessions and categorized the stickers according to the model of team effectiveness. The researchers moderated the placement of stickers in discussion with the group members
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