User stories have become the predominant method for managing requirements in software development, used by approximately half of all software developers. Despite this widespread adoption, there is limited theoretical understanding of how user stories are used in practice. Through a theoretical literature review of 14 industry studies, we develop five theoretical propositions: 1) user stories facilitate shared understanding between developers and users; 2) small user stories help developers cope with change; 3) clarifying the ‘why’ in user stories reinforces focus on user needs but adds complexity to the development process; 4) conversations triggered by user stories can hamper the sense of productivity; and 5) user stories as recorded in writing degrade over time. Using boundary object theory as an analytical lens, we explain how user stories facilitate knowledge transfer across syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic boundaries between developers and users. This theoretical lens offers new insights into why some user stories succeed while others fail to bridge boundaries between users and developers. The review highlights the sharp contrast between the widespread use of user stories among practitioners and the limited academic research on their practical application. We end with identifying opportunities for future research, particularly on how user stories can be used in the era of generative AI.

Agile development methods have become a standard in the software industry, including in large-scale projects. These methods share a set of underlying assumptions that distinguish them from more traditional plan-driven approaches. In this article, we adopt Alvesson and Sandberg's problematization approach to challenge three key assumptions that are prevalent in the large-scale agile literature: (1) agile and plan-driven methods are mutually exclusive; (2) self-managing and hierarchically organized teams are mutually exclusive; and (3) agile methods can scale through simple linear composition. Using a longitudinal case study of large-scale agile development, we describe a series of trigger events and episodes whereby the agile approach was tailored to address the needs of the large-scale development context, which was very much at odds with these fundamental assumptions. We develop a set of new underlying assumptions which suggest that agile and plan-driven practices are mutually enabling and necessary for coordination and scaling in large-scale agile projects. We develop nine propositions for large-scale agile projects based on these new alternative underlying assumptions. Finally, we summarize our theoretical contribution in a generic process model of continuously adjusting agile and plan-driven practices in order to accommodate process challenges in large-scale agile projects.

Feedback involves dialogic processes whereby learners make sense of information from various sources and use it to enhance their work or learning strategies. This is an essential catalyst for learning. However, it takes work to achieve, particularly in large-scale courses. In this research-in-progress paper, we critically reflect on our approach to achieving feedback as a process in a large-scale semi-capstone software engineering course. We describe the steps taken over three years to improve feedback and critically reflect on how feedback is done using critical evaluation perspectives of peers, own reflections, students’ perspectives, and theory. Based on these reflections, we discuss four action items planned for this year, including strengthening the community of practice amongst teaching assistants, using relative assessments, improving rubrics, and using technology for feedback. We also discuss how we plan to evaluate these action items.

Abstract Large-scale agile development has gained widespread interest in the software industry, but it is a topic with few empirical studies of practice. Development projects at scale introduce a range of new challenges in managing a large number of people and teams, often with high uncertainty about product requirements and technical solutions. The coordination of teams has been identified as one of the main challenges. This study presents a rich longitudinal explanatory case study of a very large software development programme with 10 development teams. We focus on inter-team coordination in two phases: one that applies a first-generation agile development method and another that uses a second-generation one. We identified 27 coordination mechanisms in the first phase, and 14 coordination mechanisms in the second. Based on an analysis of coordination strategies and mechanisms, we develop five propositions on how the transition from a first- to a second-generation method impacts coordination. These propositions have implications for theory and practice.

Feedback is critical in education. This Innovative Practice Full Paper reports lessons learned from improving the quality of feedback in a semi-capstone software engineering course, with particular focus on how to deliver productive feedback in large scale during project work. The bachelor-level introduction to software engineering course is taken by about 500 students from eight study programs, organised into 72 project teams. The course aims to educate reflective systems developers. The teaching staff includes 29 teaching assistants as supervisor and product owners for teams. Project teams get feedback on seven deliverables as part of formative portfolio assessment. Students expressed frustration on feedback not being aligned, that they got critique on topics not stated in assignments and that teaching assistants were reluctant to discuss the feedback. This article provides a description of the course design, an assessment of the quality of feedback and lessons learned from three main changes: Revising assignments and rubrics, reorganising the teaching staff and increasing training of teaching assistants. In discussing the changes, we draw on a survey to students with 142 respondents, a survey to teaching assistants with 18 respondents, meeting minutes from a student reference group and experience reports from teaching assistants as well as literature and own experience. The article concludes with three actionable lessons learned for large-scale semi-capstone courses.

Abstract Teamwork is crucial in software development, particularly in agile development teams which are cross-functional and where team members work intensively together to develop a cohesive software solution. Effective teamwork is not easy; prior studies indicate challenges with communication, learning, prioritization, and leadership. Nevertheless, there is much advice available for teams, from agile methods, practitioner literature, and general studies on teamwork to a growing body of empirical studies on teamwork in the specific context of agile software development. This article presents the agile teamwork effectiveness model (ATEM) for colocated agile development teams. The model is based on evidence from focus groups, case studies, and multi-vocal literature and is a revision of a general team effectiveness model. Our model of agile teamwork effectiveness is composed of shared leadership, team orientation, redundancy, adaptability, and peer feedback. Coordinating mechanisms are needed to facilitate these components. The coordinating mechanisms are shared mental models, communication, and mutual trust. We critically examine the model and discuss extensions for very small, multi-team, distributed, and safety-critical development contexts. The model is intended for researchers, team members, coaches, and leaders in the agile community.

Abstract Austerity and financial constraints have been threatening the public sector in the UK for a number of years. Foreseeing the threat of continued budget cuts, and addressing the situation many local councils face, requires internal transformations for financial stability without losing the key focus on public service. Agile transformations have been undertaken by organisations wanting to learn from the software development community and bringing agile principles into the wider organisation. This paper describes and analyses an ongoing behaviour-led transformation in a district council in the UK. It presents the results of the analysis of 19 interviews with internal stakeholders at the council, of observations of meetings among senior and middle management in a five-month period. The paper explores the successes and the challenges encountered towards the end of the transformation process and reflects on balancing acts to address the challenges, between: disruption and business as usual, empowerment and goal setting, autonomy and processes and procedures, and behaviours and skills. Based on our findings, we suggest that behaviours on their own cannot guarantee a sustained agile culture, and that this is equally important for enterprise agility and for large-scale agile software development transformations.

Abstract Agile methods are increasingly used in large development projects, with multiple development teams. A central question is then what is needed to coordinate feature teams efficiently. This study examines three mechanisms for coordination: Shared mental models, communication and trust in a large-scale development project with 12 feature teams running over a four-year period. We analyse the findings in relation to suggested frameworks for large-scale agile development and a theory on coordination, and provide new recommendations for practice and theory.

Abstract Many see retrospectives as the most important practice of agile software development. Previous studies of retrospectives have focused on process and outcome at team level. In this article, we study how a large-scale agile development project uses retrospectives through an analysis of retrospective reports identifying a total of 109 issues and 36 action items as a part of a longitudinal case study. We find that most of the issues identified relate to team-level learning and improvement, and discuss these findings in relation to current advice to improve learning outcome in large-scale agile development.

Agile development methods were believed to best suit small, co-located teams, but the success in small teams has inspired use in large and very large-scale software development. However, fundamental assumptions of agile development are challenged when applying the methods at a very large scale. An interpretative revelatory case study on one of the largest software development programmes in Norway shows how agile methods were adapted and complemented with practices from traditional methods to handle the scale. The programme ran over four years with 12 co-located development teams and a total of 175 people involved. The case study was conducted retrospectively using group interviews with 24 participants and documents. Findings on key challenging areas are reported: customer involvement, software architecture, and inter-team coordination. The revelatory study also suggests refinements of a research agenda for very large-scale agile development.

The relationship between customers and suppliers remains a challenge in agile software development. Two trends seek to improve this relationship, the increased focus on value and the move towards continuous deployment. In this special section on continuous value delivery, we describe these emerging research themes and show the increasing interest in these topics over time. Further, we discuss implications for future research.

Small, self-directed teams are central in agile development. This article investigates the effect of teamwork quality on team performance, learning and work satisfaction in agile software teams, and whether this effect differs from that of traditional software teams. A survey was administered to 477 respondents from 71 agile software teams in 26 companies and analyzed using structural equation modeling. A positive effect of teamwork quality on team performance was found when team members and team leaders rated team performance. In contrast, a negligible effect was found when product owners rated team performance. The effect of teamwork quality on team members´ learning and work satisfaction was strongly positive, but was only rated by the team members. Despite claims of the importance of teamwork in agile teams, this study did not find teamwork quality to be higher than in a similar survey on traditional teams. The effect of teamwork quality on team performance was only marginally greater for the agile teams than for the traditional teams.

Agile software development represents a new approach for planning and managing software projects. It puts less emphasis on up-front plans and strict control and relies more on informal collaboration, coordination, and learning. This briefing provides a characterization and definition of agile project management based on extensive studies of large-scale industrial projects. It explains the circumstances behind the change from traditional management with its focus on direct supervision and standardization of work processes, to the newer, agile focus on self-managing teams, including its opportunities and benefits, but also its complexity and challenges. The main focus of the briefing is the four principles of agile project management: minimum critical specification, autonomous teams, redundancy, and feedback and learning. The briefing is intended for researchers, practitioners and educators in software engineering, especially project managers. For researchers, an updated state of the art will be uncovered, and the presentation will be based on current best evidence. For practitioners, principles, processes, and key success factors will be outlined and a successful large-scale case study of agile project management will be presented. For educators, the briefing will provide the basis for developing course material.

Ever since the agile manifesto was created in 2001, the research community has devoted a great deal of attention to agile software development. This article examines publications and citations to illustrate how the research on agile has progressed in the 10 years following the articulation of the manifesto. Specifically, we delineate the conceptual structure underlying agile scholarship by performing an analysis of authors who have made notable contributions to the field. Further, we summarize prior research and introduce contributions in this special issue on agile software development. We conclude by discussing directions for future research and urging agile researchers to embrace a theory-based approach in their scholarship.

Systematic reviews are only as good as the evidence they are based on. It is important, therefore, that users of systematic reviews know how much confidence they can place in the conclusions and recommendations arising from such reviews. In this paper we present an overview of some of the most influential systems for assessing the quality of individual primary studies and for grading the overall strength of a body of evidence. We also present an example of the use of such systems based on a systematic review of empirical studies of agile software development. Our findings suggest that the systems used in other disciplines for grading the strength of evidence for and reporting of systematic reviews, especially those that take account of qualitative and observational studies are of particular relevance for software engineering.

Many software companies disseminate process knowledge through electronic process guides. A common problem with such guides is that they are not used. Through a case study, we investigated how participation in creating an electronic process guide, through process workshops, influenced the use of the guide. We studied developer and project manager usage with respect to three factors: frequency of use, used functionality, and reported advantages and disadvantages. We collected data from three rounds of interviews and 19 months of usage logs in a longitudinal study in a medium-size software company. Employees who participated in process workshops showed a higher degree of usage, used a larger number of functions, and expressed more advantages and disadvantages than those not involved. Our study suggests that employee participation has a long-term positive effect on electronic process guide usage.

Systematic reviews are one of the key building blocks of evidence-based software engineering. Current guidelines for such reviews are, for a large part, based on standard meta-analytic techniques. However, such quantitative techniques have only limited applicability to software engineering research. In this paper, therefore, we describe our experience with an approach to combine diverse study types in a systematic review of empirical research of agile software development.

Numerous studies have been conducted on design and architecture of knowledge repositories. This paper addresses the need for looking at practices where knowledge repositories are actually used in concrete work situations. This insight should be used when developing knowledge repositories in the future. Through methods inspired by ethnography this paper investigates how an unstructured knowledge repository is used for different purposes by software developers and managers in a medium-sized software consulting company. The repository is a part of the company's knowledge management tool suite on the Intranet. We found five distinct ways of using the tool, from solving specific technical problems to getting an overview of competence in the company. We highlight the importance of informal organization and the social integration of the tool in the daily work practices of the company.

This article examines the literature on case studies of knowledge management systems in use in organisations that develop software. We investigate knowledge management approaches in eight case studies, and what the reported benefits are. Surprisingly, very few organisations claim to have lowered software production costs or increased the quality of the software. But many claim to have improved the work situation for software developers and managers.