The impact of working from home on the success of Scrum projects: A multi-method study

Abstract

With the COVID-19 pandemic, Scrum teams had to switch abruptly from a traditional working setting into an enforced working from home one. This abrupt switch had an impact on software projects. Thus, it is necessary to understand how potential future disruptive events will impact Agile software teams’ ability to deliver successful projects while working from home. To investigate this problem, we used a two-phased Multi-Method study. In the first phase, we uncover how working from home impacted Scrum practitioners through semi-structured interviews. Then, in the second phase, we propose a theoretical model that we test and generalize using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) surveying 138 software engineers who worked from home within Scrum projects. We concluded that all the latent variables identified in our model are reliable, and all the hypotheses are significant. This paper emphasizes the importance of supporting the three innate psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the home working environment. We conclude that the ability of working from home and the use of Scrum both contribute to project success, with Scrum acting as a mediator.