Factors Influencing the Efficacy of Agile Usage

International Journal of Engineering and Management Research e-ISSN: 2250-0758 | p-ISSN: 2394-6962
Volume-10, Issue-5 (October 2020)
www.ijemr.net https://doi.org/10.31033/ijemr.10.5.1
1 This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Factors Influencing the Efficacy of Agile Usage
Shahzeb Hussain1
, Namrata Bhadri2
and Syed Razauddin Shahlal3
1
Systems Engineer, Infosys Limited, INDIA
2
Graduate Student, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, SDM College of Engineering and Technology,
INDIA
3
Graduate Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, SDM College of Engineering and Technology, INDIA
1
Corresponding Author: shahzeb.sdm@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Agile techniques that utilize iterative development
are broadly used in various industry projects as a lightweight
development technique which can satisfy the continuous
changes of requirements. Short repetitions are used that are
required for efficient product delivery. Traditional and old
software development methods are not much efficient and
effective to control the rapid change in requirements. Despite
the benefits of Agile, criticism on agile methodology states that
it couldn’t succeed to pay attention to architectural and design
issues and therefore is bound to produce small design-
decisions. The past decade has observed numerous changes in
systems development with many organizations accepting agile
techniques as a viable methodology for developing systems. An
increase in the number of research studies reveals the growing
demand and acceptance of agile methodologies. While most
research has focused on acceptance rate and adaptation of
agile practices, there is very limited knowledge of their post-
adoption usage and incorporation within organizations.
Several factors explain the effective usage of agile
methodologies. A combination of previous research in Agile
Methodologies, Diffusion of Innovations, Information Systems
implementation, and Systems Development has been carried
out to develop a research model that identifies the main
factors relevant to the propagation and effective usage of agile
methodologies in organizations.
Keywords— Agile Methodology, Agile Usage,
Effectiveness of Agile Usage
I. INTRODUCTION
Agile Methodologies are a set of software
development methods that are based on repetitive and
incremental development. The four major properties that
are fundamental to all agile methodologies are adaptive
planning, iterative and evolutionary development, rapid and
flexible response to change, and promote communication
[1]. Its main attention is in following the principles of
“Light but sufficient” and being communication-centered
and people-oriented. As it is termed as a lightweight
process, it is more appropriate for the development of small
projects. Agile software development takes the view that
production teams should begin with simple and predictable
estimations to the final requirement and then continue to
increment the detail of these requirements throughout the
life cycle of the development. This incremental requirement
further refines the design, testing, and coding at all the
stages of production activity. In this manner, the
requirements work product is as accurate and useful as the
final product itself [2].
Figure 1: Agile Software Development Methodologies
Agile methodologies (AM) appeared as a popular
alternative to address the problems inherent in established
methods to systems development. They have gained
widespread acceptance in both the academic and industrial
contexts with an increase in the number of studies reporting
their high adoption and success rates over the past decade.
However, most academic research has mainly emphasized
on the adoption and adaptation of agile methods [3].
Moreover, they offer a very broad range of experiences
without providing a unified view of current practice, which
suggests that there is an imprecise understanding of their
utilization and practice in organizations beyond the
adoption phase. This variance can be explained in a number
of ways. One explanation is that most organizations that
have adopted agile methodologies are still dragging on a
project by project basis, and their routinized usage and

spread throughout the organization is yet to happen.
Moreover, researchers have highlighted the deficiency of
quality and decreasing reliability in the findings of agile
empirical. More research is therefore needed to understand
the actual practice of AM in organizations [4].
Most studies that describe higher adoption rates
and success of agile methodologies do not define, much less
measure „effectiveness‟ of the utilisation of agile practices
or identify the components that affect its effectiveness. The
answers to these questions lie in the evaluation of the post-
adoption use of agile methods. This infers that there is an
increasing need for a better understanding beyond the
adoption stage as many organizations have completed
adoption and agile methods have started to become well-
established processes of these organizations [5]. A better
understanding of the various factors that affect the
successful embodiment of agile methods is believed to
furnish valuable insights from at least three perspectives: a)
improve our understanding of post-adoption use, processes,
and impact of agile methodologies, b) provide new
theoretical insights into the factors affecting the
effectiveness of agile usage, and c) contribute to industrial
practice by supplying insights into how agile methods can
be effectively used in organizations.
II. RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
The definition adopted in the current research is
similar to that proposal which suggests that acceptance is
based on the usage of the innovation beyond the pilot
project stage, i.e., Usage -> Acceptance -> Incorporation,
where usage is described using two measures: horizontal
usage - concerned with the usage of the innovation across
the organization, and vertical usage - concerned with the
depth of usage. Applying these terms to the context of agile
methodologies, Horizontal Usage is defined as the overall
utilisation of agile practices across the organization– for
example; percentage of projects and analysts using agile
practices, and Vertical Usage is defined as the maximum
potency of their use, i.e., depth of use of specific agile
values, practices, and policies [6].
In software development, these terms commonly
refer to one of the major agile methods such as extreme
programming (XP), Scrum, crystal method, feature-driven
development, and dynamic systems development method -
each of which prescribes a set of core practices, values, and
concept. However, practically, most of the organizations do
not strictly follow or adhere to any one of the agile
methods, but use a customized approach by merging a
number of good agile practices from different agile methods
that best fits their requirements, “If you dump all these good
practices out onto a table, you’d have quite a buffet of very
good practices with which to tailor your process. And that’s
exactly what many organizations do”. Hence, in the current
study, agile usage does not refer to one particular agile
method such as Scrum but rather to the continued usage of
agile practices, where practices might include a
combination of practices from XP and Scrum, or
implementing the core properties of a kanban system while
continuing to use some XP and Scrum practices [7].
Figure 2: Factors expected to relate to agile usage and agile
usage effectiveness
There are five groups of factors potentially
affecting Agile Usage: (1) Agile innovation factors (relative
advantage, compatibility) acquired from the innovation
diffusion literature, (2) Sociological factors (domain
expertise, language expertise) acquired from extreme
Programming (XP) evaluation framework, (3)
Technological factors (project management adopted from
XP evaluation framework, (4) Team factors (team
management, methodology champion) accepted from XP
literature, and (5) Organizational factors (management
support) adopted from the IS implementation. Figure 1
summarizes the different perspectives researched under
each of the implementation factors in terms of their
relationship to the degree of agile usage and its
effectiveness [8]. The final conceptual framework is
depicted in Figure 2.
Figure 3: The research framework

Now we will briefly discuss these factors and their
influence on agile usage and its effectiveness.
Innovation Factors
Relative Advantage: This implies the degree to which the
innovation is discerned well than its predecessor. There is
sufficient factual proof to suggest that relative advantage is
a significant factor in estimating the usage of Systems
Development Methodologies [9]. In the context of agile
methods, the relative benefit would refer to the degree to
which the chosen agile practices are found to better meet
the contextual needs of the project and provide specific
advantages such as improved quality, increased
productivity, reduced time and costs, and higher customer
satisfaction in comparison to its predecessor practices.
Compatibility: The amount to which the innovation is
discerned as being adaptable with the requirements, extant
values, and previous experiences of adopters. Since the
adoption of agile methodologies represents a major shift in
the pattern of systems development, it entails major
alterations to work practices, JUnits, configuration
management, investment in tools that support and facilitate
rapid iterative development, refactoring, and other agile
methods. In terms of post-implementation levels,
compatibility is described as the fit between an innovation
and a particular context, which implies that the chosen agile
practices must match its context in to be efficacious and
successfully infused in the organization. For example, the
use of multiple programming languages such as C++, Java,
and Motif, in a large project caused serious challenges to
the adoption of XP practices such as code ownership,
refactoring, and automated testing [10].
Sociological Factors
Though organizations play a major role in
accepting contemporary innovations such as agile
methodologies, their continued usage beyond the adoption
stage depends on the actual users and teams that use the
practices to develop software. Some of the specific
individual sociological factors that affect the usage include
technical knowledge, experience, attitude, and expertise.
Experience: People and organizations with the right
knowledge and expertise will embrace the newer practices
easily and swiftly, and a high level of team experience is
said to contribute to increased productivity.
Knowledge/Expertise: Users and teams that have high
levels of technical expertise in programming languages,
different application domains, and other related software
development technical practices, are not subjected to the
learning curve associated with an unfamiliar domain, or
with learning a new programming language [11].
Technological Factors
Agile Practices: There is often a considerable difference
between the textbook „vanilla‟ version and the actual
„method-in-action‟ used in practice as most prescribed
practices are altered to meet the contextual requirements of
software development. For example, different XP practices
reached different stages of assimilation at different periods
of utilisation, and practices that addressed specific
requirements of the adopting team hit deeper assimilation
levels [12].
Tool Support: While the importance of tool support in the
adoption of software process innovations, in general, has
been addressed, their significance in facilitating the
acceptance of agile practices in terms of providing support
in adhering to specific XP practices is also documented.
Team Factors
Given the increasingly significant role of teams in
agile software development, team characteristics, and
practices that ease the usage of agile methods are more
likely to affect their effective use.
Team Management: Team practices that entitle the teams
to be more autonomous and key decision-makers in
deciding project scope, schedule, and choice of tasks,
practices, tools, etc., are deemed critical in easing the
acceptance and continued usage of agile practices.
Methodology Champion: Any innovative idea or practice
without a champion is not likely to thrive. In the context of
agile techniques, methodology champions play the
important role of change agents in supporting and
facilitating the on-going usage of agile practices [13],
which include responsibilities such as mentoring, and
guaranteeing that agile practices are strictly followed and
adhered to by team members.
Organizational Factors
Top Management Support: It refers to ongoing support
and encouragement of the top management executives in
the acceptance and implementation of innovations, and is
one of the main organizational components that are
consistently reported to facilitate systems development
methodology implementation. Lack of management support
and attentiveness has been observed to be one of the major
hurdles in implementing systems development
methodologies and successful diffusion of agile
methodologies [14].
III. AGILE USAGE AND
EFFECTIVENESS
(a) Agile Usage
Usage is a key estimate of the successful
implementation of a Systems Development Methodology in
organizations. Since the current study is more focused on
the usage of extensively and deeply agile practices after
adoption rather than its acceptance per se, the interpretation
was done using the following two measures:
1) Horizontal usage - Percentage of projects and
developers using agile techniques.

2) Vertical usage - Magnitude of usage – i.e., depth and
intensity of use of specific agile values, practices, and
policies.
(b) Agile Usage Effectiveness
Agile effectiveness as a component affecting agile
usage will be estimated using three variables: two of these
are associated with the successful implementation of
systems development techniques and have been identified
as the core measure for assessing post-implementation
effectiveness. They are: 1) Generating improvements in the
development process, and 2) Better quality of the delivered
system. In addition, 3) customer fulfillment, which is found
as a key measure of agile effectiveness was used to measure
agile effectiveness [15].
IV. CONCLUSION
In this research, our basic aim was to develop a
theoretical model in order to understand the factors that
facilitate the effective usage of agile methods. Though the
findings from this study confirm that the various factors
identified in the framework play an important role in
influencing the increased and continued use of agile
practices, it should be noted that these factors represent
general components conducive to agile usage. However,
usage effectiveness or success in certain organizations may
be affected by specific factors or measures not found in the
model. Case studies will be required to refine the factors
identified in the research model. Existing literature on agile
research will then be utilized to design the survey
instrument by recognizing potential indicators to measure
each factor of the model. A worldwide survey targeting all
agile practitioners will be regulated to finalize the model.
The goal of the survey would be to empirically substantiate
the factors and the relationships proposed in the agile model
and their importance for the overall effective usage of agile
practices.
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