Coordination in Agile Software Projects
Peng Xu, Lan Cao · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 2006
Agile methodologies have been widely adopted by various projects. Though different practices are recommended by different methodologies, they all share some common key characteristics. These characteristics call for more effective coordination within development teams. In this research, we investigate the coordination mechanisms used in agile software development and the factors that impact their effectiveness. We differentiate coordination mechanisms as vertical coordination and horizontal coordination. We argue that vertical coordination and horizontal coordination are positively associated with the success of agile projects. The relationship between vertical coordination and the success of agile project is moderated by project size. Explicit knowledge representation can positively influence vertical coordination. Sharing locus of practices can increase collective identity, both of which can positively influence horizontal coordination.