Coordinating expertise outside agile teams

Abstract

Agile software development projects depend upon roles located outside Agile teams such as User Experience Designers and Software Architects to support teams. As external specialists’ expertise is valuable to Agile teams, further investigation is needed to explore the relationships between Agile teams and external specialists in coordinating external expertise. Through a Grounded Theory study involving 47 Agile practitioners and external specialists, we discovered five factors that Agile teams and external specialists need to consider when coordinating external expertise: Availability, Agile Mindset, Stability, Knowledge Retention and Effective Communication. We present strategies for each factor as a guideline for coordinating external expertise in teams. This study helps Agile teams to manage and utilize external expertise resources effectively.