Agile Developers Research Articles

Investigating Investments in agility strategies in overcoming the global financial crisis - The case of Indian IT/BPO offshoring firms

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the information technology and business process outsourcing (IT/BPO) sector are at the forefront of technological disruption and change, which necessitates firms to remain agile and continuously innovate their business models. This paper investigates the investments made by IT/BPO MNEs in intangible assets and the role of encouraging management and leadership practices that supports the core tenets of strategic agility at a time when the global financial crisis (GFC) occurred. Using a two phase mixed methodology, that tests three key a priori themes, first, we examine to what extent the investments in intangible assets led to the development of strategic agility (SA), which in turn led to greater technological performance over the longitudinal period 2007–2017. Second, we further shed light on the positive relationship between intangible assets and strategic agility by identifying which Indian IT/BPO groups (based on location and firm age) show greater technological performance and, third, how such groups translate deliberate investments in intangible assets that lead to SA and greater technological performance, as compared to other groups over time. Overall, our findings provide evidence that IT/BPO MNEs' past sustained investments in intangible assets paved the way for the IT/BPO MNEs to respond in an agile manner when the GFC hit.

Culturally Agile Leadership

Leadership development programs exist to contribute to an individual's and an organization's success; however, there is a lack of studies that examine how such programs contribute to the development of cultural agility in leaders. Culturally agile leaders are more inclusive in their hiring practices and more open to encouraging more diversity within their own leadership network. Such leaders value collaboration and understand how culturally grounded traditions and preferences effect transactions. This concept article addresses the roles of positionality and cultural agility, leadership development programs, and capacity and responsibility in building culturally agile leaders. It examines the ways a leader's positionality and level of cultural agility informs and limits their ability to make an impact on their organization. The article also proposes how leaders have the capacity and the responsibility to develop other leaders through a relational leadership approach to promote inclusion and diversity.

Research on Agility Development of Energy Enterprises under the Background of Carbon Emission Trading

In recent years, environmental problems caused by greenhouse gas emissions have attracted more and more attention. Under increasing cost pressure, energy enterprises have become one of the targets to control carbon emissions. Taking China Guodian Corporation as an example, it is of great significance to study the agility development of China’s energy enterprises under the carbon emission trading system.This paper uses content coding analysis method to explore the influencing factors of agility of energy-based enterprises in China and the specific degree of influence. Through research, it is found that corporate culture, leadership awareness and internal competition have a positive effect on the agility of energy-based enterprises. This study develops the relevant theories of energy-based enterprises from the perspective of agility and finds a key breakthrough for energy-based enterprises to cope with the pressure of carbon emission reduction and optimize their operations.

The study buddy effect: studying abroad with a close friend and the development of cultural agility

This study examines whether preexisting close friendships facilitate students’ cultural agility development during short-term international study abroad experiences. Using a longitudinal design, we found that study abroad students who had a close friend accompanying them on the experience (i.e., an “international study buddy”) had lower cultural agility at the onset of the experience but had a higher level of cultural agility development upon return, compared with those without a friend on the trip. Those who did not travel with friends demonstrated no significant cross-cultural competency development. Our findings suggest that contextual novelty is independently determined, and the presence of a trusted friend may help reduce the novelty enough such that students with lower predeparture cultural agility can comfortably gain from the experience. At the same time, for development to occur, students with higher cultural agility may need more contextual novelty than the short-term study abroad experience provides.

Features of the development of physical abilities of middle school students with the help of a fitness program with elements of gymnastics

The aim of the study is to substantiate and experimentally test the influence of fitness programs with elements of gymnastics on the development of physical abilities of girls of secondary school age. The study shows that fitness programs both classical and gymnastic exercises contribute to the growth of indicators of physical fitness of girls of secondary school age. The introduction of elements of gymnastics in the fitness program makes it more effective for the development of flexibility and agility, which has been proven experimentally.

Agile Project Management Tools: A Brief Comprative View

Abstract Agile methodologies are becoming popular in software development. Managers are required to understand project’s progress and product quality without development documents. During Agile practices of the teams and organizations, Agile project management tools are frequently used. The use of such tools leads to achieving speed and efficiency, affects the quality of the software. The quality of final product is mostly related with to project management. Accordingly, the paper provides brief comparative perspective about the popular project management tools for agile projects. 16 popular Agile project management tools have been presented helping agile developers to plan and manage their tasks in an efficient manner. Taiga, Axosoft, Agielan, Planbox are more appropriate for start-up projects. The most twitted and most appreciated tools are reported as Jira, Trello, and VersionOne. SpiraTeam by Inflectra and Pivotal Tracker are other pricing and popular agile tools, providing flexibility to Agile developers and increase collaboration among team members.

Application of Organizational Agility to Enhance the Predictability of Costs and Increase the Probability of Creating Value

In order to create any value, an organization needs to incur costs. This article builds on the original concept of the ‘Cone of Uncertainty’ for costs. However, the focus of an organization should mainly be on value. To visualize value, the concept of a ‘Double Cone of Uncertainty’ is introduced. Organizations often focus on reducing costs instead of enhancing the creation of value because costs are easier to measure and in control of the organization. Value is harder to measure, and here the customer is in charge. In addition, value creation lies further in the future. The article shows, with IT development as an example, how organizational agility and emergent product development can enhance the predictability of costs by time-boxing with stable, multidisciplinary teams. Although organizational agility cannot enhance the predictability of value, it can enhance the probability of value with emergent product development and quick and frequent feedback from customers. This evolutionary process of trial and error is essential in complicated and complex fast-changing environments.

The Problem isn’t the Database…

Abstract Ron Ballard, author of Relational Databases for Agile Developers, examines why many application builders are finding that their database applications take too long to build, have performance and reliability issues and are hard to change.

The effects of body armour on the power development and agility of police officers

A study was conducted in which 11 police officers wore one of three different types of Individual Light Armour Vests (ILAV), or normal station wear, for an entire day while completing power and agility-based tasks including a vertical jump (VJ), agility test, 20 m sprint and counter movement jump (CMJ). Despite all three ILAVs being significantly (p < .05) heavier than normal station wear, there were no significant differences between any of the ILAVs in VJ, time to complete the agility test, 20 m sprint time, peak force, velocity, power and jump distance in the CMJ. There was a significantly (p < .05) higher mean force produced in the CMJ while wearing all three ILAVs. The ILAV’s investigated do not appear to be heavy enough to significantly affect the power or agility of police officers. The utilisation of ILAVs by police officers does not appear to hinder policing tasks that involve agility or power development. Practitioner summary: The addition of the extra load of military-styled body armour is known to decrease performance and mobility. When compared to normal station wear, the wearing of three different ILAV types used in policing do not appear to be heavy enough to affect the power or agility of police officers. Abbreviations: ILAV: individual light armour vest; VJ: vertical jump; CMJ: counter movement jump; N: normal station wear

Agile risk management for multi‐cloud software development

Industry in all sectors is experiencing a profound digital transformation that puts software at the core of their businesses. In order to react to continuously changing user requirements and dynamic markets, companies need to build robust workflows that allow them to increase their agility in order to remain competitive. This increasingly rapid transformation, especially in domains like IoT or Cloud computing, poses significant challenges to guarantee high quality software, since dynamism and agile short-term planning reduce the ability to detect and manage risks. In this paper, we describe the main challenges related to managing risk in agile software development, building on the experience of more than 20 agile coaches operating continuously for 15 years with hundreds of teams in industries in all sectors. We also propose a framework to manage risks that considers those challenges and supports collaboration, agility, and continuous development. An implementation of that framework is then described in a tool that handles risks and mitigation actions associated with the development of multi-cloud applications. The methodology and the tool have been validated by a team of evaluators that were asked to consider its use in developing an urban smart mobility service and an airline flight scheduling system.

Agility and Coordination Testing in Hand-to-Hand Combat Sports

Abstract Introduction. The aim of the study is to analyse existing tests for assessing agility in combat sports and martial arts, as well as to develop new tests and to test their effectiveness. Material and methods. The study involved 16 athletes at various competitive levels specialising in hand-to-hand combat. It used the following methods: review of specialised literature along with policy and normative documents, an expert survey, testing, instrumental methods of assessing psychophysical capabilities, a pedagogical experiment, and methods of mathematical statistics. Results. The article clearly delineates the concepts of “agility” and “coordination”. It was found that most of the exercise tests recommended for assessing agility actually only evaluate coordination, without taking into account unexpected and unpredictable situations, which are the key components of agility. While some tests allow for the assessment of agility, they are based on motor actions which are non-specific for combat sports. Moreover, the use of computer-based techniques for studying the visual-motor reaction has proven to be ineffective for assessing agility in sports. Conclusions. The article proposed three variants of specialised tests for assessing agility in motor actions specific for hand-to-hand combat. According to the results of all the three tests, the programme proposed for the development of agility and coordination caused a significant improvement in the level of agility in six months.

Towards a reduction in architectural knowledge vaporization during agile global software development

Abstract Context The adoption of agile methods is a trend in global software development (GSD), but may result in many challenges. One important challenge is architectural knowledge (AK) management, since agile developers prefer sharing knowledge through face-to-face interactions, while in GSD the preferred manner is documents. Agile knowledge-sharing practices tend to predominate in GSD companies that practice agile development (AGSD), leading to a lack of documents, such as architectural designs, data models, deployment specifications, etc., resulting in the loss of AK over time, i.e., it vaporizes. Objective In a previous study, we found that there is important AK in the log files of unstructured textual electronic media (UTEM), such as instant messengers, emails, forums, etc., which are the preferred means employed in AGSD to contact remote teammates. The objective of this paper is to present and evaluate a proposal with which to recover AK from UTEM logs. We developed and evaluated a prototype that implements our proposal in order to determine its feasibility. Method The evaluation was performed by conducting a study with agile/global developers and students, who used the prototype and different UTEM to execute tasks that emulate common situations concerning AGSD teams’ lack of documentation during development phases. Results Our prototype was considered a useful, usable and unobtrusive tool when retrieving AK from UTEM logs. The participants also preferred our prototype when searching for AK and found AK faster with the prototype than with UTEM when the origin of the AK required was unknown. Conclusion The participants’ performance and perceptions when using our prototype provided evidence that our proposal could reduce AK vaporization in AGSD environments. These results encourage us to evaluate our proposal in a long-term test as future work.

Distinguishing between the concepts of supply chain agility and resilience

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to add clarity to the multidimensional concepts of agility and resilience. In addition, this paper seeks to clarify the differences and similarities between the two concepts by integrating the distinct bodies of knowledge on agility and resilience.Design/methodology/approachA multidisciplinary systematic literature review is conducted. The concept of agility is explored through a review of the sports science, manufacturing, organizational, information systems and information systems development and supply chain literature bases. The concept of resilience is investigated through a review of the psychological and psychopathological, ecological, economic, organizational and supply chain literature bases.FindingsExamining the complex relationship between the two constructs led to the emergence of six major dimensions to capture the concept of agility (i.e. ability to quickly change direction, speed/accelerate operations, scan the environment/anticipate, empower the customer/customize, adjust tactics and operations (flexibility), and integrate processes within and across firms). Similarly, six dimensions were uncovered for resilience (i.e. ability to resist/survive disruptions, avoid the shock altogether, recover/return to original form following disruption, speed/accelerate operations, adjust tactics and operations (flexibility) and scan the environment/anticipate). Agility and resilience were found to share three common dimensions (i.e. ability to adjust tactics and operations (flexibility), speed/accelerate operations and scan the environment/anticipate).Practical implicationsThe identification of the common characteristics of agility and resilience carries important managerial implications from a resource allocation perspective. Allocating resources to the development of the common characteristics of agility and resilience can help firms maximize the impact of such investments. That is, by investing in the common characteristics of both they can improve supply chain agility and supply chain resilience. If firms approach the development or improvement of supply chain agility or resilience independent from one another, without an awareness of the common characteristics, they could be duplicating their investments resulting in supply chain redundancies and inefficiencies.Originality/valueNot having a clear and comprehensive understanding of the similarities and differences between agility and resilience is problematic from a theoretical perspective. A clear understanding of what each construct represents provides a platform for building generalizable theory by helping researchers operationalize these constructs in a consistent manner. Further, providing a generalizable, comprehensive and multidisciplinary perspective on agility and resilience within supply chain management literature can help increase the visibility of the field of supply chain management across other disciplines as scholars outside the field of supply chain management can utilize the results of this research effort.

The structural impact of supply chain management teams

Purpose In today’s constantly evolving global business environment, multidivisional firms (MDFs) require an organizational structure for supply chain management (SCM) that facilitates the development of supply chain agility. This research aims to investigate what structural elements of an MDF’s SCM team contribute to supply chain agility. Design/methodology/approach A two-sample field study was conducted. Four MDFs with top-performing supply chains (Sample 1) were first studied to identify agility-supporting structural elements. Then, quantitative data from 35 MDFs with contrasting levels of supply chain agility (Sample 2) were collected to test the theoretical propositions advanced from Sample 1 findings. Findings The results reveal four structural elements that exert a positive impact on an MDF’s supply chain agility: hierarchical position of the divisional top supply chain executive, scope of divisional supply chain operations, hierarchical position of the top supply chain executive at the headquarters and scope of SCM coordination by the headquarters. Originality/value First, this study provides a comparatively comprehensive understanding of the SCM organization structure in MDFs. Second, this study is one of the first to provide empirically supported theoretical insights about the linkage between an MDF’s organizational structure for SCM and supply chain agility.

Exploring the Influence of Strategic Orientations on Tourism Supply Chain Agility and Resilience: An Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACTAddressing role of strategic orientations, the study explores the influence of entrepreneurial, environmental, supply chain, technology, market and learning orientations in the development of tourism supply chain agility and tourism supply chain resilience. The study adopted a multi-unit study of different tourism supply chains. Using an online survey, 276 completed responses were gathered and analysed using Partial Least Squares. While entrepreneurial, supply chain, technology and market orientations were found to enhance tourism agility, environmental orientation was found to inhibit agility with learning orientation being not a prominent enabler for tourism agility. For tourism resilience, the study found environmental, supply chain and learning orientations as prominent enablers. Entrepreneurial and technology orientations, although had positive path coefficients, their effects were not significant. Market orientation had a negative but significant influence on tourism resilience.

A comparative analysis of factor analysis model for pinpointing agile developers

Agile manufacturing is an emerging approach of engineering to deal with dynamic demand of customer and market. The prime factors that influence agility are agile developers and enablers. Agile developers are mainly less investment factors that are basically governed by managerial power. To find out most important agile developers, a survey-based study was conducted with the aim to develop model for agility developers and measure its level in Indian manufacturing industries. It was hypotheses that sensitiveness to change, relationship with customer, relationship with supplier, flexibility and competency and responsiveness is not significant with agile manufacturing. The data were analysed by ANOVA test, different factor analysis techniques and a complete regression model for agile developer was prepared with the help of analytic hierarchy process. It was found that design excellence and decision flexibility variables have highest importance among all components and developers are being used almost at their 50% level.

Особенности интервальных тренировок и их преимущества в развитии физической силы, скорости и ловкости в обучении сотрудника органов внутренних дел

The relevance of interval training study is due to the peculiarities of training employees of internal affairs bodies, who are required to have a high level of physical fitness and be ready for a long period of physical activity. Protecting public order and ensuring public security often require considerable physical effort from an employee, as there is a need to prosecute and detain the offender, the criminal, and, in particular, the use of combat techniques. For all of the above, it is necessary not only to be technically and tactically trained, but also physically developed, pos-sessing such qualities as strength, speed and agility. This necessitates the development of interval training and shows their advantages in the development of these qualities in the training of an em-ployee of the internal affairs bodies. The purpose of the presented research is to analyze the fea-tures of interval training and their advantages in the development of physical strength, speed and agility in the training of internal affairs employee. The methods base of the study is the method of physical training of internal affairs employees on the basis of order content of the Ministry of In-ternal Affairs of Russia of July 1, 2017 no. 450, which approved the instruction on the organiza-tion of classes with the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation in order to improve their physical fitness level, as well as the results of observations methods of interval training for the most qualitative increase in the level of physical indicators in the power and speed indicators for three months. We draw attention to the order of working out a number of power qualities, such as: bending and unbending arms in the supine position (push-ups), bending and unbending arms in hanging on the crossbar (pulling up), pressing weights, etc., as well as the method of exercise for speed, quickness and agility, various types of shuttle running for various distances, for intervals set to perform these exercises. The novelty of the study is to combine exercises on physical endurance increase into a single complex, which includes exercises of multidirectional nature and the time frame during which the exercises are performed in different tempo tasks, and the correct time for recovery is taken into account. An important fact is that the time for these interval workouts is no more than 15 minutes, and the amount of accomplishment is very significant.

Agile Self-selecting Teams Foster Expertise Coordination

Aim/Purpose: This paper aims to discuss the activities involved in facilitating self-selecting teams for Agile software development projects. This paper also discussed how these activities can influence the successful expertise coordination in Agile teams. Background: Self-selecting teams enable Agile team members to choose teams based on whom they prefer to work with. Good team bonding allows Agile team members to rely on each other in coordinating their expertise resources effectively. This is the focal point where expertise coordination is needed in Agile teams. Methodology: This study employed Grounded Theory by interviewing 48 Agile practitioners from different software organizations mainly based in New Zealand. This study also carried out several sessions of observations and document analysis in conjunction with interviews. Contribution: This study contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying the way self-selecting teams support expertise coordination. Findings: Our findings indicated that the activities involved tend to influence the successful expertise coordination in Agile teams. Self-selecting teams are essential to supporting expertise coordination by increasing inter-dependencies between Agile team members, ensuring a diverse range of knowledge and skills in teams. Recommendations for Practitioners: The self-selecting team activities can be used as a guideline for Agile software organizations in forming self-selecting teams in the fastest and most efficient way. It is vital for management to facilitate the process of self-selecting teams in order to optimize successful expertise coordination. Recommendation for Researchers: There is potential for further Grounded Theory research to explore more activities and strategies involved in self-selecting teams. Impact on Society: Self-selecting teams in Agile software developments projects tend to boost the productivity of software development. Future Research: Several hypotheses can be tested through a deductive approach in future studies.

The Systematic Discovery of Services in Early Stages of Agile Developments: A Systematic Literature Review

In recent years, agile methodologies have been consolidated and extended in organizations that develop software in Web environments. For this reason, the development methodology of these organizations will not only be related to Services, but also to the Web Engineering paradigm. These organizations are heading for incorporating software development methodologies whose paradigm can allow integration, naturally and in the earlier stages of Web applications develop with the services of the organization that described and published in the Services Portfolio. The aim of this study will be to analyze the current state of the art in the process of discovering services in early stages of agile software development with focus on those identified requirements that could be covered with the services included in the Service Portfolio. We have identified 20 relevant papers through conducting a double systematic literature review (SLR). It is concluded that no study has been found that can solve the entire process of discovering candidate services within an organization that cover the requirements of a new application developed with agile methodologies. At the same time, guidelines have been found to formalize the solution to this problem and fill in that gap of knowledge by proposing in a single process, the formalization of a requirement based on agile techniques, which can be managed against a Services Portfolio.

The role of organisational learning in creating an agile workforce in Dubai

Today's business environment, particularly in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is better described as being volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The present study adopts a qualitative multiple-case study design by interviewing seven HR managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across different industries in Dubai, namely, maintenance, digital services, security, retail, insurance, and technology. Workforce agility characteristics have been analysed against eight indicators conceptualised across the western context. This paper contributes to the current literature by testing organisational learning (OL) and understanding the concept of OL in particular in the UAE. Furthermore, organisational learning practices and their role in workforce agility development have been investigated. The study reveals a significant consistency between the western standards of agile attributes and those required among Dubai SMEs. Also, the findings show that SMEs in Dubai incorporate learning interventions without a targeted focus on agile attribute developments.