Self-assignment: Task allocation practice in agile software development

Abstract

Self-assignment is a self-directed way of task allocation commonly practiced by members of agile teams. However, not much is known about different aspects of self-assignment in literature. This research focuses on two objectives with respect to self-assignment. The first objective is to explore what strategies agile practitioners follow to self-assign tasks of different nature (i.e. new feature, enhancement, and bug-fix). The second objective is to identify the challenges associated with self-assignment and investigate how agile practitioners overcome these challenges to achieve project outcomes. Grounded theory is chosen as the research methodology for this study with data collection through interviewing agile practitioners and observing teams practicing self-assignment. Based on the results, we would propose a theory for self-assignment as a task allocation practice and a set of context-driven guidelines. Knowing the proposed theory and guidelines will help the agile practitioners and companies to make self-assignment a valuable practice in their settings.