Social success factors affecting implementation of Agile software development methodologies in software industry of Pakistan: An empirical study

Abstract

During the past few years it has been observed that the implementation of Agile software development methodologies have become a part and parcel in software development projects not only in large and developed organizations but also in small organizations despite the existence of misapprehension that Agile methodologies are only valid for large scale projects and established organizations. Keeping in view the potential of Agile software methodologies and with the aim of eliminating this misconception, a mixed method methodology was adopted to conduct a study for determining the social factors that contribute or have influence in the successful implementation of Agile software development methodologies. In this study, face-to-face interview sessions were conducted with 271 software professionals that include Portfolio/Program/Project Managers, Scrum Masters and Product Owners representing 28 software development companies operating in Pakistan to gauge the influence of social factors on the success of Agile software projects. The study concluded that the size of the project has nothing to do with the success of a project or otherwise but there exist certain other factors like visionary leadership, degree or level of Agile software practices, congruence value, etc. contribute significantly in success of a project.