The perceived impact of the agile development and project management method scrum on process transparency in information systems development

Abstract

This paper contributes to research on information systems development (ISD) with a case study that demonstrates the positive impact of the agile development and project management method Scrum on process transparency in ISD projects. It is part of a project for which we developed a framework comprising of the six concepts productivity, quality, team leadership, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and process transparency for investigating the impact of Scrum. It provides operationalizations of the latter concept through five identified indicators. Despite the fact that the case unit had challenges, the indicators identified the areas where it managed to exploit the potential of Scrum with regard to increasing process transparency. The research results are related to earlier findings concerning the other concepts. They are discussed both with regard to the existing Scrum literature as well as to complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory-a foundation for ISD and agile development.