Balancing between stability and change in Agile teams

Carin Lindskog,Johan Netz

doi:10.1108/ijmpb-12-2020-0366

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to create a better understanding of how practitioners implement and work Agile while balancing the tensions arising between stability and change.Design/methodology/approachA grounded theory approach was used to explore what happens in practice when software development teams implement and work Agile. The empirical data consists of twenty semi-structured interviews with practitioners working in fourteen different organizations and in six different Agile roles.FindingsAs a result, a substantive theory was presented of continuously balancing between stability and change in Agile teams. In addition, the study also proposes three guidelines that can help organizations about to change their way of working to Agile.Research limitations/implicationsThe inherent limitation of a grounded theory study is that a substantial theory can only explain the specific contexts explored in that study. Thus, this study's contribution is a substantial theory that needs to be further developed and improved.Practical implicationsThe proposed guidelines can help organizations about to change their way of working to Agile. They can also assist organizations in switching from “doing Agile” to “being Agile”, thus becoming more successful.Originality/valueThe new perspective that this study contributes is the fact that our discovered categories show that several inherent processes are ongoing at the same time in order to balance the need to have both stability and change.

Highlights

The interest in organizational agility (Holbeche, 2018) and utilizing Agile methods (Devedzic, 2010) to quickly respond to market changes, in order to remain competitive, has increased (Cooper and Sommer, 2016; Ganguly et al, 2009)
This study aims to create a better understanding of how practitioners implement and work with Agile methods while balancing the tensions arising between stability and change
Several grounded theory studies have been conducted in the field; for instance, Hoda et al (2012) describe the balancing acts performed by self-organizing Agile teams, between (1) the freedom provided by senior managers and the responsibility expected from them in return; (2) specialization and cross-functionality across different functional roles and areas of technical expertise; and (3) continuous learning and iteration pressure, in an effort to maintain their self-organizing nature

Summary

Introduction

The interest in organizational agility (Holbeche, 2018) and utilizing Agile methods (Devedzic, 2010) to quickly respond to market changes, in order to remain competitive, has increased (Cooper and Sommer, 2016; Ganguly et al, 2009). By working in shorter sprints (Schwaber and Beedle, 2002), Agile makes it possible to rapidly introduce changes, e.g. to an innovation project. Agile originates from software development characterized by complex tasks and requirements and exhibits a high degree of changeability (Boehm and Turner, 2004; Leau et al, 2012), there is a growing interest in implementing it in “non-software development” settings (Papadakis and Tsironis, 2018). Agile is being implemented in growing numbers of “traditional” organizations (Kettunen et al, 2019), e.g. banking (Johnston and Gill, 2017), manufacturing (Eliasson and Burden, 2013) and the public sector (Wisitpongphan and Khampachua, 2016). Agile is described as being people-oriented (Cockburn and Highsmith, 2001)

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Discussion

Conclusion