Scaled Agile Framework Research Articles

How perceived transparency in information system development processes improves project quality in agile IT enterprises

PurposeWith the increasing agility of IT enterprises, it is crucial to identify suitable managerial strategies for controlling information system development (ISD) projects in the new agile working environments. These environments are characterized by the collaborative nature of work and the recurring nature of communication. This study aims to explore how perceived transparency in ISD processes, controlled by transparency strategies, impacts project quality.Design/methodology/approachIn collaboration with a firm that implemented a customized Scaled Agile Framework, questionnaires were distributed to employees involved in ISD projects. The goal was to understand the influence of perceived transparency in ISD processes on project quality.FindingsOur research demonstrates that perceived transparency in ISD processes enhances project quality through knowledge exchange by strengthening goodwill trust among team members. Additionally, transparency improves project quality through client feedback by strengthening competence trust of clients toward the team. Goodwill trust of clients toward the team and competence trust among team members have less impact on project quality enhancement.Originality/valueThis study reveals the nomological network among the perceived transparency, different types of trust among stakeholders, social interactions among stakeholders, and project outcomes in agile ISD environments. This nomological network has been overlooked by previous studies that biased toward top-down, interorganizational communication. It highlights that not all types of trust among stakeholders are involved in the processes through which perceived transparency influences ISD project quality in agile working environments. Additionally, it exposes the limitations of transparency strategies for controlling projects in agile IT enterprises.

Agile tailoring in distributed large-scale environments using agile frameworks: A Systematic Literature Review

With the increasing adoption of agile methodologies in distributed software development teams, there is a need to adapt these practices for large-scale environments. However, the lack of specific guidance can make this process difficult. To evaluate how large-scale agile distributed teams adapt their practices to meet their specific contexts, this study launches a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The SLR presents adaptations of agile methodologies in distributed software development teams operating in large-scale environments. With the growing popularity of agile methodologies, there is an increasing need to adapt them to suit the specific needs of distributed teams operating in large-scale contexts. The review identified 96 adapted practices from five agile frameworks (Scrum, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), the Spotify model, and Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)) used in various case studies between 2007 and 2021. Scrum was the most commonly adapted framework with 32 customized practices, followed by SAFe (25), LeSS (17), the Spotify model (13), and DAD (9). The review provides insights into how these practices have been tailored to meet the needs of distributed teams in large-scale contexts. The findings can guide organizations in adapting agile practices to their specific contexts.

ГНУЧКІСТЬ НА ПРОТИВАГУ КОНСЕРВАТИЗМУ: ОГЛЯД AGILE МЕТОДОЛОГІЙ УПРАВЛІННЯ ПРОЕКТНИМИ КОМАНДАМИ В ІТ-ГАЛУЗІ

This article investigates the use of Agile methodologies in IT project management in Ukraine, highlighting their benefits compared to traditional, conservative approaches. In an environment characterized by rapid technological advancement and intense competition, Agile serves as an effective tool that allows companies to adapt flexibly to changes, utilize resources optimally, and ensure high product quality. The article reviews several main Agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), analyzing their features, advantages, and potential limitations.

Driving Organizational Effectiveness: Implementing Safe Agile Framework for Team Alignment in Large Organisations

Implementing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) in large organizations is crucial for achieving organizational effectiveness, especially as they expand globally. The SAFe framework, initially designed for software development, has evolved to cater to diverse industries like health, manufacturing, engineering, and financial services. The study elaborates the significance of implementing SAFe agile framework for team alignment in large organisations. SAFe operates at four levels: Team, Program, Large Solution, and Portfolio. Efficient collaboration, communication, and coordination, the three Cs of SAFe Agile, are essential for synergy across these levels. To practically implement SAFe and achieve team alignment, organizations should follow ten SAFe principles. These principles include taking an economic view, applying systems thinking, assuming variability, building incrementally with fast learning cycles, basing milestones on objective evaluation, ensuring uninterrupted value flow, applying cadence, unlocking intrinsic motivation, embracing decentralized decision-making, and organizing around value. Balancing bottom-up and top-down approaches through a middle-out method ensures effective SAFe implementation. This approach combines the strengths of methods, fostering cross-functional collaboration and effective communication channels from teams to the portfolio level. In conclusion, large-scale businesses may enhance organizational success through the transformational process of applying the SAFe framework for team alignment, which improves alignment, cooperation, efficiency, flexibility, and continuous improvement.

Scaling Scrum with the Scaled Agile Framework: Potentials and Importance in Large Development Organizations

Scaling Scrum with the Scaled Agile Framework: Potentials and Importance in Large Development Organizations

The Potential of AI-Driven Assistants in Scaled Agile Software Development

Scaled agile development approaches are now used widely in modern software engineering, allowing businesses to improve teamwork, productivity, and product quality. The incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into scaled agile development methods (SADMs) has emerged as a potential strategy in response to the ongoing demand for simplified procedures and the increasing complexity of software projects. This paper explores the intersection of AI-driven assistants within the context of the scaled agile framework (SAFe) for large-scale software development, as it stands out as the most widely adopted framework. Our paper pursues three principal objectives: (1) an evaluation of the challenges and impediments encountered by organizations during the implementation of SADMs, (2) an assessment of the potential advantages stemming from the incorporation of AI in large-scale contexts, and (3) the compilation of aspects of SADMs that AI-driven assistants enhance. Through a comprehensive systematic literature review, we identified and described 18 distinct challenges that organizations confront. In the course of our research, we pinpointed seven benefits and five challenges associated with the implementation of AI in SADMs. These findings were systematically categorized based on their occurrence either within the development phase or the phases encompassing planning and control. Furthermore, we compiled a list of 15 different AI-driven assistants and tools, subjecting them to a more detailed examination, and employing them to address the challenges we uncovered during our research. One of the key takeaways from this paper is the exceptional versatility and effectiveness of AI-driven assistants, demonstrating their capability to tackle a broader spectrum of problems. In conclusion, this paper not only sheds light on the transformative potential of AI, but also provides invaluable insights for organizations aiming to enhance their agility and management capabilities.

SAFe transformation in a large financial corporation

As agile software development is increasingly adopted in the software industry, the popularity of scaling frameworks supporting adoption in large development contexts is increasing rapidly. While several such frameworks exist, the most popular one at the moment is the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). Despite its popularity, there exists limited research on its usage and adoption. In this paper, we contribute by presenting a single case study in a large financial organization, studying the transformation reasons, transformation process, as well as the benefits, and challenges of SAFe adoption. We conducted 24 semi-structured interviews with 27 interviewees and analyzed the transcribed interviews using open and axial coding. We identified 17 reasons for SAFe adoption in this organization, of which the most salient ones were to shorten the time to market, improve collaboration, and use a well-described and comprehensive framework. An industry context-specific reason was the popularity of SAFe in the financial sector. The transformation in the case organization was top-down and proceeded step-wise. The most significant activities during the transformation were piloting, education, coaching, and the forming of agile release trains. Our case also implemented "Scrum tours" to increase the understanding of lean and agile principles. We identified 13 benefits of SAFe, of which improved collaboration, transparency, and shorter time to market were considered the most important. We identified a total of 16 challenges, with the most salient one being aligning the release trains with value streams. Failing with this led to cross-release train dependencies and coordination overhead, inhibiting agility. Further, the organization did not get rid of projects and project managers, which led to priority clashes and coordination overhead.

Empowering End-of-Life Vehicle Decision Making with Cross-Company Data Exchange and Data Sovereignty via Catena-X

The mobility sector is the world’s second-largest producer of energy-related CO2 emissions, and it is facing a global resource shortage. The demand for circular products, the use of secondary materials in future vehicles, and the need for sustainable business models in the mobility sector is increasing. However, a transparent and end-to-end data exchange throughout the entire value network is missing, which is hindering an efficient circular economy. Relevant information on the vehicle, its components, and materials at the end of the product life cycle are often missing. In this context, this paper presents a decision support system based on Digital Twin data for a circular economy solution as a software application. It was developed within the German research project Catena-X following an integrated approach of user-centered design, the V-model, and within the Scaled Agile Framework. By combining these methodological approaches, customer-oriented solutions were developed and continuously improved at each stage of development to shorten the time-to-market. Catena-X is based on Gaia-X principles. In Gaia-X, necessary core services are developed, and contraction negotiation for data exchange and usage policies is enabled and implemented. The decision support system provides important information about the exact composition and condition of the vehicle, its components, and its materials. Thus, it helps to improve efficiency, sustainability, and the implementation of the circular economy. The decision support system was tested and validated with a use case that provided Digital Twin data on the end-of-life vehicle.

A Systemic Approach to Evaluating the Organizational Agility in Large-Scale Companies

This paper presents action research to analyze an approach for assessment of the alleged agile transformation. This approach was implemented at AK Bars Digital Technologies, an IT spin-off of one of the largest banks in Russia using the Scaled Agile Framework. The approach is based on the Goal-Question-Metric approach, non-invasive measurement collection, and systemic analysis. It uses data from several different sources, including interviews, code repositories, user ratings in the play stores, and templates for agile assessment. The effectiveness of the approach is subjectively validated by the adoption of the proposed recommendations by the banks’ senior management. Details are provided on the approach, the required effort from the side of both those assessing and of the people being assessed and the results. The final part of the paper is devoted to the discussion of its generalizability and the plan for future experimentation and refinement.

End-of-life decision support to enable circular economy in the automotive industry based on digital twin data

With the EU Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Developments Goals, the vision of a greenhouse gas-neutral and resource-efficient economy is already firmly anchored in world politics. In this context, the automotive industry faces many challenges including the increasing scarcity of natural resources, a rising demand in terms of sustainable vehicle design, production and materials sourcing. Due to all this, end-of-life decisions regarding dismantling have become increasingly important. A high proportion of secondary materials will be required in the vehicles of the future. To response to these challenges, companies have turned their focus towards the circular economy as a central approach to close material loops. In the German research project “Catena-X” a new data ecosystem with digital twins is one enabler that is being developed. The digital twins represent a promising approach to the circular economy by ensuring transparent, product-specific and end-to-end data exchange throughout the entire product lifecycle, from the material sourcing to the eventual dismantling and recycling. As one particular and unique solution, a decision framework that facilitates the best circular strategy at the end of a vehicle's life is developed and presented in this paper. The underlying data-driven decision support framework is based on circular economy KPIs. This includes material, components and specific vehicle KPIs to best identify the most suitable circular strategy. The framework was methodologically developed by an interdisciplinary team of partners, who are stakeholders throughout the value chain and participants in the Catena-X project. An integrated approach of user-centered design, an adapted version of the V-model and the Scaled Agile Framework were used for the methodology in the development of the solution. The paper presents the concept of a digital twin for a decision support system, that includes a central decision logic that also includes the relevant KPIs and a survey for evaluating the decision logic utilised with a chosen dismantling company.

Benefits realisation in an agile environment

Success frameworks from an information systems and project perspective include benefits realisation as a measure of success. Research highlights benefits are not realised resulting in low IT project success rates. Benefits realisation intrinsically forms part of agile as benefits are delivered frequently to customers resulting in higher success rates. What is not known, is to what extent organisations, that are scaling agile, are implementing benefits realisation management to improve the success rates of their IT projects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine experts from organisations that adopted a scaled agile framework. The results show that benefits realisation is performed unsystematically, and the success of IT projects is attributed to the agile approach and not to BRM. Twelve principles were identified to facilitate agile BRM and ultimately improve project success. This article provides new insights into the BRM debate through its novel approach of linking agile, BRM and project success.

Changes to team autonomy in large-scale software development: a multiple case study of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) implementations

Large-scale transformations of agile ways of working have received more attention in the industry in recent years. Some organizations have developed their own solutions for scaling, whereas many have chosen trademarked frameworks. In large-scale agile software development, many developers and development teams carry out work simultaneously. When autonomous teams need to coordinate toward a common goal, they must sacrifice some level of autonomy. Development, testing, and integrations need to be coordinated with other teams and aligned with an organization´s programs or portfolio. Through the conducting of 28 interviews and 17 on-site visits, this multiple case study explored how team autonomy changed in three agile software development organizations that implemented the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). The positive changes to team autonomy that they experienced as a result included getting a better overview, making better long-term decisions, giving and receiving help, and signaling limitations. We found two negative impacts on team autonomy: limited feature choice and enforced refinement. The study extends previous research on large-scale agile software development and improves our understanding of impacts on team autonomy.

How Can Human Values Be Addressed in AgileMethods A Case Study on SAFe

Agile methods are predominantly focused on delivering business values. But can Agile methods be adapted to effectively address and deliver human values such as social justice, privacy, and sustainability in the software they produce Human values are what an individual or a society considers important in life. Ignoring these human values in software can pose difficulties or risks for all stakeholders (e.g., user dissatisfaction, reputation damage, financial loss). To answer this question, we selected the Scaled AgileFramework (SAFe), one of the most commonly used Agile methods in the industry, and conducted a qualitative case study to identify possible intervention points within SAFe that are the most natural to address and integrate human values in software. We present five high-level empirically-justified sets of interventions in SAFe: artefacts, roles, ceremonies, practices, and culture. We elaborate how some currentAgile artefacts (e.g., user story), roles (e.g., product owner), ceremonies (e.g., stand-up meeting), and practices (e.g., business-facing testing) in SAFe can be modified to support the inclusion of human values in software. Further, our study suggests new and exclusive values-based artefacts (e.g., legislative requirement), ceremonies (e.g., values conversation), roles (e.g., values champion), and cultural practices (e.g., induction and hiring) to be introduced in SAFe for this purpose. Guided by our findings, we argue that existingAgile methods can account for human values in software delivery with some evolutionary adaptations.

Product Owner’s Journey to SAFe®—Role Changes in Scaled Agile Framework®

As agile software development methods are spreading through the industry, they are no longer sufficient in their original design. With the increasing adoption by various types and sizes of organizations, these methods are scaled and tailored. The most popular framework for scaling Agile is the Scaled Agile Framework®, registered trademark of Scaled Agile, Inc. Boulder, USA. Some roles originating from the agile methods, such as Product Owner, are part of the framework and are impacted by scaling and tailoring. A Product Owner role is critical to the success of projects in agile environments. This paper aims to describe and discuss the evolution of and changes in Product Owner activities since Agile started to spread in the industry until the current concept of the Product Owner role in the Scaled Agile Framework. By identifying the activities typical of Product Owners outside of the Scaled Agile Framework context and mapping these activities to the Product Owner role description in Scaled Agile Framework, the changes in Product Owner role with respect to time and role specifics in the Scaled Agile Framework are revealed. It was identified that some of the activities previously described for Product Owner are distributed between various roles in the Scaled Agile Framework. In fact, the Product Owner loses the real product ownership in Scaled Agile Framework. The loss of ownership seems connected with the fact that, in the large environments that the Scaled Agile Framework is designed for, it is impossible to cover all required activities by one role using the hierarchical structures with a top-down approach in the Scaled Agile Framework.

Do scaling agile frameworks address global software development risks? An empirical study

Driven by the need to coordinate activities of multiple agile development teams cooperating to produce a large software product, software-intensive organizations are turning to scaling agile software development frameworks. Despite the growing adoption of various scaling agile frameworks, there is little empirical evidence of how effective their practices are in mitigating risk, especially in global software development (GSD), where project failure is a known problem.In this study, we develop a GSD Risk Catalog of 63 risks to assess the degree to which two scaling agile frameworks–Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)–address software project risks in GSD. We examined data from two longitudinal case studies implementing each framework to identify the extent to which the framework practices address GSD risks.Scaling agile frameworks appear to help companies eliminate or mitigate many traditional risks in GSD, especially relating to users and customers. However, several important risks were not eliminated or mitigated. These persistent risks in the main belonged to the Environment quadrant highlighting the inherent risk in developing software across geographic boundaries. Perhaps these frameworks (and arguably any framework), would have difficulty alleviating, issues that appear to be outside the immediate control of the organization.

A Proposal on Developing a 360° Agile Organizational Structure by Superimposing Matrix Organizational Structure with Cross-functional Teams

With the growing business opportunities and expanding boundaries, the organizational structure of the companies is becoming highly dynamic with several levels flattened out and branching out horizontally, instead of being vertical. With agility required in all fast-evolving organizations, it is essential to check out for the suitability of the modern organizational structures prevalent, being classified by Mintzberg as ‘entrepreneurial or simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, divisional form, and adhocracy or innovative’ (Mintzberg, 1980; Lunenburg, 2012). In this article, we propose a 360° Agile organizational structure which is a hybrid of the matrix organizational structure superimposed with cross-functional teams (CFTs). This article discusses the possibilities of forming smaller teams without compromising the incidence of the essential ‘skills– talents–competencies’, necessary for every single project, thereby superimposing the matrix organizational structure and the CFTs. This article also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this proposed organizational structure. A possible cross-check with regard to the scalability issues has also been made with the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) agile HR practices.

IoT methodologies: comparative study

Abstract The Internet of Things or the Internet of Everything is a new and a potentially disruptive technology paradigm. It describes several technologies such as RFID, short range wireless communications, and research disciplines that can connect physical objects from the real world to the internet. To implement IoT solutions, they exist software development approaches like Scrum and Kanban, also, others are adapted viz; Large-Scale Scrum, Scaled Agile Framework and so on., and many methods have proposed such as Ignite | IoT Methodology and IoT Methodology. Most of them have taken agile thinking as a strategy. However, they are monolithic, which are not easy to adopt. Then, a new method is needed to handle the real nature of IoT, particularity, to handle distributed, mobile and human out-of-the-loop concerns, and that can grow as new product evolve and new problems emerge. This research studies and analyses some of the existing IOT methodologies. Particularly, it focuses on these methodologies Scrum, Kanban, Scaled Agile Framework, Ignite | IoT Methodology and IoT Methodology. Our study evaluates their capabilities and compares their main characteristics and behaviors in terms of various methodologies of IoT. The comparison presented in this paper would benefit in selecting an appropriate methodology for the IoT projects. In addition, it identifies their advantages and limits in order to suggest a new approved IoT methodology.

Elevate Project Success Rate with Right Judgement of Complexity and Skill Competency Gap

Software project management constantly keep fighting triple constraint of Quality, Schedule and Time. Failures are due to poor visibility of Project complexity and incorrectly estimating right skilled team. The project success rates are constantly falling in spite of implementing various project management principles involving waterfall, Scrum, Scaled Agile framework (SAFe), etc. The approach taken to estimate the team composition are based on non-contextual, unscientific methodology based on previous project experiences by the team. As our study found that, every organization had its unique approach to derive root cause of their failures and had custom-built estimation templates. A deep-rooted empirical research is under taken here addressed around three Capability Maturity Model (CMM) level 5 organizations. Often complexity is under-estimated and this is the enemy of software estimation. If this hypothesis is right, complexity metric can forecast the depth of estimation challenges and can help in prioritizing task and various intricate efforts needed and thereby deduce the appropriate team to navigate toward project success. Our Research was under taken in below two phases: Phase I - To investigate and address poor project complexity definition through quantification of project complexity Phase II - To derive metric around skill-capability Index in conjunction with project complexity. In Phase I, interviews and deliberation techniques were leveraged involving senior software practitioners. In Phase II, evaluation of the unsuccessful projects from the initiation until operational stage was carried out. Combining the phase I and II results, overall reasons contributing to incorrect mapping of skilled staffing was found. This paper presents two research contributions, firstly an approach to uncover poor estimation of skilled staff for a project with correct complexity mapping, secondly skill-competence index in line with project complexity quantification as a multi-dimensional solution to overcome project failures. Proposed model was found to be productive in real projects; in addition, the results showed that complexity metric estimated with this unique approach had low false positive rate and minimal deviations in project outcomes.

Improving processes by aligning Capability Maturity Model Integration and the Scaled Agile Framework®

Refined over the years with feedback from practitioners, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is one of the most popular models for improving processes used to develop products and services. Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) is a disciplined structure to foster agile practices at the enterprise level. Organizations can achieve several synergies and benefits by using CMMI v2.0 in a SAFe environment. Whereas CMMI provides guidance on what process improvement teams need to do with respect to each of the model's practice areas, SAFe provides them with information on how to implement those practices. The experiences of a mid‐size IT firm in implementing CMMI in a SAFe environment highlight the importance of program increment planning, iteration management, iteration execution, built‐in quality, and enterprise management, as well as the implementation challenges that are likely to arise when streamlining processes to improve customer satisfaction.

Agile Dynamics at Scale

ABSTRACTWider adoption of Lean‐Agile software development methods has prompted interest in tailoring these small team methods to meet the needs of larger organizations. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) for Lean Software Development incorporates many Lean‐Agile best practices and has become a leading proposition for applying agile methods at scale (Leffingwell 2016). To help managers visualize how SAFe might work for their organization, we have created a management flight simulator based on a system dynamics model of SAFe. Using these tools, decision makers who consider transitioning their organizations to SAFe can perform virtual experiments by changing parameters such as team size, developer experience level, sprint length, and whether developers perform continuous integration to explore how these programmatic decisions affect the rate at which work is completed. Such process prototyping can provide a justification for adopting SAFe, which often includes costly training and organizational restructuring, by forming a basis for quantifying return on investment. We applied our system dynamics model to a real program and showed that instituting continuous integration can improve throughput by 54% while decreasing defects by 88%.