Group Process Losses in Agile Software Development Decision Making

Abstract

The importance of effective decision making in organisations has been well documented. Despite the many benefits associated with groupwork, groups are often subjected to process losses such as groupthink, which in turn have a negative impact on group decision making. Limited prior research has suggested that such process losses may be even more prevalent in agile software development characterised by highly cohesive, self-managing teams. This study is one of the first to rigorously investigate the group process losses most prevalent in agile software development teams and assesses how the implementation of agile practices can reduce the impact or occurrence of such losses.