The agile manager-investigating informal roles in agile software development

In the theoretical framework of Agile Software Development (ASD) the concept of the selforganising team has subsumed the traditional role of the manager. Agile methodologies such as Scrum and eXtreme programming (XP) have their own set of roles, such as the product owner and scrum master. However, recent studies have uncovered the existence of managerial roles such as the project manager in many ASD projects. This clearly points to a disconnect between the theoretical perspective on agile and the situation encountered in practice. At this point in time there is a dearth of empirical studies on the manager's role in ASD. To address this issue, a Grounded Theory (GT) study was carried out involving software practitioners from New Zealand and India. This study involved: (a) over 45 hours of interviews with 39 software practitioners; (b) 6 hours of observations of two teams; and (c) two independent surveys with 97 and 57 participants. Based on the data, we present in this thesis the theory of the agile manager, which: (a) defines the agile manager as the person who facilitates the teams functioning, mentors the team to become self-organising, negotiates with stakeholders on the team's behalf, adapts processes to suit the project context, coordinates team interactions, and protects the team from external interference; (b) describes how due to the influence of the project environment, formal titles (project manager, scrum master, and product owner) in software organisations can take up any of the six informal management roles (Facilitator, Mentor, Negotiator, Process Adapter, Coordinator and Protector) with their management approaches (hard, soft, moderate, proactive and reactive). We have also presented the involvement of formal titles in agile practices and their influence on those practices. This thesis will help practitioners and organisations by clearing the ambiguity around formal titles in agile. Additionally, it will also help in understanding the effect of the project environment on formal titles and the effect of formal titles on the use of agile practices. This will assist managers and agile practitioners in developing strategies to cope with the transition to agile from waterfall.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Software Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Shastri, Yogeshwar

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Hoda, R
• Amor, R

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/45588

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/45588