Skip to main content
Book cover

International Conference on Agile Software Development

XP 2013: Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming pp 46–60Cite as

Team Performance in Agile Development Teams: Findings from 18 Focus Groups

  • Conference paper

Part of the Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing book series (LNBIP,volume 149)

Abstract

How to make teams perform well is increasingly important in software development, as agile development methods prescribe development in small teams. Team performance has been studied in a number of research fields, and there are many models of what enables team performance. A central question then is how relevant these models are for agile development teams. This article investigates the following research question: What factors do agile software practitioners perceive to influence effective teamwork, through a focus group study with 92 participants in 18 groups. The main findings are that what agile practitioners perceive foster and hinder team performance seems to comply well with what is stated in an existing research-based model. However, agile practitioners seem to place insufficient focus on backup behaviour. Agile practitioners place much emphasis on physical and technical infrastructure of the development team as enablers of team performance.

Keywords

  • team performance
  • agile software development
  • software engineering
  • software process improvement
  • focus group

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-38314-4_4
  • Chapter length: 15 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-642-38314-4
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Dingsøyr, T., Nerur, S., Balijepally, V., Moe, N.B.: A Decade of Agile Methodologies: Towards Explaining Agile Software Development. Journal of Systems and Software 85, 1213–1221 (2012)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  2. Dybå, T., Dingsøyr, T.: Empirical Studies of Agile Software Development: A Systematic Review. Information and Software Technology 50, 833–859 (2008)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  3. Gulliksen Stray, V., Moe, N.B., Dingsøyr, T.: Challenges to Teamwork: A Multiple Case Study of Two Agile Teams. In: Sillitti, A., Hazzan, O., Bache, E., Albaladejo, X. (eds.) XP 2011. LNBIP, vol. 77, pp. 146–161. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  4. Katzenbach, J.R., Smith, D.K.: The Discipline of Teams. Harvard Business Review 71, 111–120 (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Beck, K., Andres, C.: Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Chage, 2nd edn. Addison-Wesley (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Young, S.M., Edwards, H.M., McDonald, S., Thompson, J.B.: Personality Characteristics in an XP Team: A Repertory Grid Study. In: Proceedings of Human and Social Factors of Software Engineering, HSSE, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, pp. 1–7 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Seger, T., Hazzan, O., Bar-Nahor, R.: Agile Orientation and Psychological Needs, Self-Efficacy, and Perceived Support: A Two Job-Level Comparison. In: Agile, Toronto, pp. 3–14 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Teh, A., Baniassad, E., van Rooy, D., Boughton, C.: Social Psychology and Software Teams: Establishing Task-Effective Group Norms. IEEE Software 29, 53–58 (2012)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  9. Whitworth, E., Biddle, R.: The Social Nature of Agile Teams. In: Agile, Washington, DC, pp. 26–36 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Beecham, S., Sharp, H., Baddoo, N., Hall, T., Robinson, H.: Does the XP environment meet the motivational needs of the software developer? An empirical study. In: Agile, Washington, DC, pp. 37–49 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Tessem, B., Maurer, F.: Job Satisfaction and Motivation in a Large Agile Team. In: Concas, G., Damiani, E., Scotto, M., Succi, G. (eds.) XP 2007. LNCS, vol. 4536, pp. 54–61. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  12. Acuña, S.T., Gómez, M., Juristo, N.: Towards understanding the relationship between team climate and software quality—a quasi-experimental study. Empirical Software Engineering 13, 401–434 (2008)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  13. Stray, V.G., Moe, N.B., Aurum, A.: Investigating Daily Team Meetings in Agile Software Projects. In: Cortellessa, V., Muccini, H., Demirors, O. (eds.) 2012 38th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications, pp. 274–281 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Moe, N.B., Aurum, A., Dybå, T.: Challenges of shared decision-making: A multiple case study of agile software development. Information and Software Technology 54, 853–865 (2012)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  15. Hoda, R., Noble, J., Marshall, S.: Developing a grounded theory to explain the practices of self-organizing Agile teams. Empirical Software Engineering 17, 609–639 (2012)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  16. Moe, N.B., Dingsøyr, T., Dybå, T.: Overcoming Barriers to Self-Management in Software Teams. IEEE Software 26, 20–26 (2009)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  17. Moe, N.B., Dingsøyr, T., Røyrvik, E.A.: Putting Agile Teamwork to the Test – An Preliminary Instrument for Empirically Assessing and Improving Agile Software Development. In: Abrahamsson, P., Marchesi, M., Maurer, F. (eds.) XP 2009. LNBIP, vol. 31, pp. 114–123. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  18. Kettunen, P., Moilanen, S.: Sensing High-Performing Software Teams: Proposal of an Instrument for Self-monotoring. In: Wohlin, C. (ed.) XP 2012. LNBIP, vol. 111, pp. 77–92. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  19. Moe, N.B., Dingsøyr, T.: Scrum and team effectiveness: Theory and practice. In: 9th International Conference on Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Porgramming, Limerick, Ireland, pp. 11–20 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Moe, N.B., Dingsøyr, T., Dybå, T.: A teamwork model for understanding an agile team: A case study of a Scrum project. Information and Software Technology 52, 480–491 (2010)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  21. de O. Melo, C., Cruzes, D.S., Kon, F., Conradi, R.: Interpretative case studies on agile team productivity and management. Information and Software Technology 55, 412–427 (2013)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  22. Dingsøyr, T., Dybå, T.: Team Effectiveness in Software Development: Human and Cooperative Aspects in Team Effectiveness Models and Priorities for Future Studies. In: Workshop on Co-operative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE, Zürich, Switzerland, pp. 27–29 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Salas, E., Stagl, K.C., Burke, C.S., Goodwin, G.F.: Fostering Team Effectiveness in Organizations: Toward an Integrative Theoretical Framework. In: 52nd Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Lincoln, NE, pp. 185–243 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Rousseau, V., Aube, C., Savoie, A.: Teamwork behaviors - A review and an integration of frameworks. Small Group Research 37, 540–570 (2006)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  25. Salas, E., Sims, D.E., Burke, S.C.: Is there a “Big five” in teamwork? Small Group Research 36, 555–599 (2005)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  26. Stewart, D.W., Shamdasani, P.N., Rook, D.: Focus Groups: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Mathieu, J., Maynard, M.T., Rapp, T., Gilson, L.: Team effectiveness 1997-2007: A review of recent advancements and a glimpse into the future. Journal of Management 34, 410–476 (2008)

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SINTEF, NO-7465, Trondheim, Norway

    Torgeir Dingsøyr

  2. Department of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

    Torgeir Dingsøyr

  3. University of Oslo, Norway

    Yngve Lindsjørn

Authors
  1. Torgeir Dingsøyr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yngve Lindsjørn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

    Hubert Baumeister

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Barbara Weber

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Dingsøyr, T., Lindsjørn, Y. (2013). Team Performance in Agile Development Teams: Findings from 18 Focus Groups. In: Baumeister, H., Weber, B. (eds) Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming. XP 2013. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 149. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38314-4_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38314-4_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-38313-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-38314-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)