Exploring Teams' Temporal Factors for Determining Process Tailoring that Promotes the Evolution of Agilebased Software Development

Abstract

In contemporary software development, software process tailoring (SPT) refers to the continual planning and adjustment of the development process, which evolves to better accommodate dynamics and meet customer needs. SPT is a critical teamwork involving the differences in time-related perceptions among team members when tailoring to adjust and refine the development. This is particularly true in agile-based projects that promote iterative development over shorter cycle times for early release; thus, temporality is critical to efficiently and effectively determine a process solution for the next iteration of time-bound development. In this regard, this study theorizes a temporal model to explore how teams' temporal leadership, temporal reflexivity and shared temporal cognitions (STC) collectively determine SPT performance in agile environments. Based on an empirical examination, we suggest facilitating the role of temporal leadership in agile development, as the results demonstrate that it not only directly increases SPT performance but also stimulates both temporal reflexivity and STC in their collateral influences on effectual development planning. Notably, the results also show that team reflexivity does not exert the same favorable effect in SPT as in the distributed team environment. Theoretical implications are considered, and practical applications of the findings are provided.