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Agile software development teams
Schmidt C., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2015. 184 pp. Type: Book (978-3-319260-55-6)
Date Reviewed: Jun 3 2016

Combined economic and technological benefits are appealing to many software companies. Traditionally, when companies are developing software, the biggest problem is detecting an error at the end of the process. In the early 2000s, companies began adopting the agile software development process. Accordingly, many interesting books began to appear. This book is based on the author’s doctoral thesis.

It analyzes the most recent results in the area of agile software development teams. According to the author, the goal of the book “is to provide a theoretical explanation for the impact of agile software development’s influence on the performance of software development teams.” Three important questions are expected to be explained and answered: “What is the performance of a software development team?” “What are the latent teamwork mechanisms affected by agile software development in software development teams?” “How does agile software development influence the performance of software development teams?”

Generally, presented research is divided into three stages. The variables for the research are established in the first stage by interviewing team leaders. Results of the analysis of existing team effectiveness literature are also presented. A theoretical research model is derived and proposed in stage two based on the information collected from stage one. In the third stage, an empirical test of the research model is carried out; an important fact is that the empirical study was supported by 40 highly experienced SAP managers.

These experiences could be interesting for a wide range of readers, including numerous practitioners and software developers in software companies willing to improve their team functioning and performance.

The book consists of six chapters, a conclusion, and an appendix. The first introductory chapter covers problem statements and gives an overview of the research methodology. Chapter 2 is devoted to agile software development, including the nature of software projects and different generations of software development processes. Finally, agile software development is introduced and briefly described.

The theoretical and conceptual foundations are presented in the third chapter. The theoretical basis was collected from research on team effectiveness and literature on agile software development. The main conclusion is that agile software development “triggers affective, behavioral, and cognitive teamwork mechanisms.”

Chapter 4 presents research methodology, ways of collecting data, survey design, and three questionnaires--for developers and scrum masters of teams and the respective product owners. Empirical validation is presented in chapter 5. The “analysis of the collected survey data and testing of the five hypotheses in the research model” are described. The study sample is reviewed, performance ratings of the team are discussed, and finally all of the research hypotheses are integrated into one combined model.

Chapter 6 discusses research findings, theoretical contributions, and practical implications, but also possible limitations and challenges for future research. Brief concluding remarks are given in the last chapter. The appendix consists of eight parts that provide additional information about concepts used in central chapters of the book.

The book’s interesting concepts and approach make it useful for a general computer science audience: practitioners in the computer industry as well as researchers in the area of software development. The book could be useful for students who are planning to work in companies that have a teamwork approach to software development.

The topic is presented in a very good manner and the technical quality is high. The almost 300 references represent an extensive list of resources for further reading.

Reviewer:  M. Ivanović Review #: CR144471 (1608-0546)
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