Towards a Better Understanding of Team-Driven Dynamics in Agile Software Projects: A Characterization and Visualization Support in JIRA

Abstract

In agile software development, proper team structures and sprint estimations are crucial aspects to reach high-performance outcomes. Performance can vary due to the influence of social-driven team factors. Resulting in team dynamics with the focus on human factors are usually difficult to capture and thus often not monitored. However, their impact can impede the planning and fulfillment of sprints. Data on team behavior should be simplified to track, analyze, and interpret as sprint influences are important to understand. We provide a centralized solution that extends JIRA functionally and continuously captures sprint characteristics in the daily working environment of teams. In this paper, we describe a JIRA plugin that enables the assessment of team behavior in combination with exploratory analyses. The tool became approached with six software projects and a total of 53 undergraduate students. Characterizations made with the plugin can reveal sprint and team dynamics over time, involving development performance and team-related measures. The feature comes with a feedback mechanism for teams that visualize and implicates the sprint dependencies. The approach reveals a set of team-related sprint dynamics, its systematically capturing, and characterization. With the achieved solution, team leader and developer can be supported to understand the ongoing sprint and team-driven dynamics better. Thus, they can keep track of their habits for future sprint planning and team adjustment impacts.