When global process fails: A grounded theory study of a case from agile engagement to compulsive outsourcing

Abstract

In a Scandinavian company developing a healthcare information system (IS) at three Scandinavian sites they succeeded in taking agile processes into use across the three sites. After a fourth development site in India was added the use of agile development processes gradually came to an end and plan-driven processes took over. In this paper we report from a month-long study where our analysis of the case shows that the cause for giving up agile was three-fold: (1) The cultural distance between India and Scandinavia was too great. (2) There were telling differences in competence and (3) the presence of knowledge asymmetry. From this analysis we develop a grounded theory explaining the necessary preconditions for succeeding with a global process for agile IS development.