research-article

Group development and group maturity when building agile teams

Authors:

Richard Torkar,

Robert FeldtAuthors Info & Claims

Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 124, Issue C

Pages 104 - 119

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2016.11.024

Published: 01 February 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Overlap between what is meant by an agile team and a mature group in psychology.Group developmental issues are dealt with in practice in agile groups.Quantitative survey data support the connections.Focusing on group development is a key success factor when building agile teams. The agile approach to projects focuses more on close-knit teams than traditional waterfall projects, which means that aspects of group maturity become even more important. This psychological aspect is not much researched in connection to the building of an "agile team." The purpose of this study is to investigate how building agile teams is connected to a group development model taken from social psychology. We conducted ten semi-structured interviews with coaches, Scrum Masters, and managers responsible for the agile process from seven different companies, and collected survey data from 66 group-members from four companies (a total of eight different companies). The survey included an agile measurement tool and the one part of the Group Development Questionnaire. The results show that the practitioners define group developmental aspects as key factors to a successful agile transition. Also, the quantitative measurement of agility was significantly correlated to the group maturity measurement. We conclude that adding these psychological aspects to the description of the "agile team" could increase the understanding of agility and partly help define an "agile team." We propose that future work should develop specific guidelines for how software development teams at different maturity levels might adopt agile principles and practices differently.

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Cited By

Berndtsson MEkman S(2023)Assessing Maturity in Data-Driven CultureInternational Journal of Business Intelligence Research10.4018/IJBIR.33281314:1(1-17)Online publication date: 14-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJBIR.332813
Verwijs CRusso D(2023)A Theory of Scrum Team EffectivenessACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/357184932:3(1-51)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3571849
Kadenic MKoumaditis KJunker-Jensen L(2023)Mastering scrum with a focus on team maturity and key components of scrumInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107079153:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107079
Show More Cited By

Group development and group maturity when building agile teams
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management

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cover image Journal of Systems and Software

Journal of Systems and Software Volume 124, Issue C

February 2017

289 pages

ISSN:0164-1212

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Copyright © Elsevier Inc.

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Elsevier Science Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 February 2017

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Cited By

Berndtsson MEkman S(2023)Assessing Maturity in Data-Driven CultureInternational Journal of Business Intelligence Research10.4018/IJBIR.33281314:1(1-17)Online publication date: 14-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJBIR.332813
Verwijs CRusso D(2023)A Theory of Scrum Team EffectivenessACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/357184932:3(1-51)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3571849
Kadenic MKoumaditis KJunker-Jensen L(2023)Mastering scrum with a focus on team maturity and key components of scrumInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107079153:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107079
Alwidian SJaskolka J(2023)Understanding the Role of Human-Related Factors in Security Requirements ElicitationRequirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality10.1007/978-3-031-29786-1_5(65-74)Online publication date: 17-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-29786-1_5
Lima RCosta MOran AFrança C(2022)Factors that Boost and Hinder the Transition from Traditional to Self-managed TeamsProceedings of the XXI Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality10.1145/3571473.3571489(1-11)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3571473.3571489
Cadette WFelizardo FZavadski ALeal GBalancieri RColanzi T(2022)The Impact of the Group Maturity on the Software Development Team Effectiveness: an Experience ReportProceedings of the XXXVI Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering10.1145/3555228.3555258(78-87)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2022
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Gren LRalph PDwyer MDamian DZeller A(2022)What makes effective leadership in agile software development teams?Proceedings of the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3510003.3510100(2402-2414)Online publication date: 21-May-2022
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Tamayo Avila DVan Petegem WSnoeck M(2022)Improving Teamwork in Agile Software Engineering Education: The ASEST+ FrameworkIEEE Transactions on Education10.1109/TE.2021.308409565:1(18-29)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2022
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Strode DDingsøyr TLindsjorn Y(2022)A teamwork effectiveness model for agile software developmentEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-021-10115-027:2Online publication date: 1-Mar-2022
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