How Agile Feedback Practice Use Impacts Software Quality
John F. Tripp, Vallabh Sambamurthy · Journal of Computer Information Systems · 2023
Although agile methodologies prescribe various practices, they universally focus on obtaining feedback. Agile practitioners argue that this feedback allows teams to better adapt to uncertainty, which can lead to increases in software quality. Using a sample of 76 agile teams across multiple organizations, we investigate the impacts of agile feedback practices of technical feedback, fast iterative delivery, and agile project management on software quality. Also, we investigate interaction effects between agile feedback practice use and six different sub-constructs of uncertainty. We find that a higher level of use of some agile feedback practices directly impacts software quality and moderates the effects of uncertainty on software quality. However, we find a more complex relationship between agile methodologies and software quality than previously identified. These findings illustrate future research opportunities into the complicated relationship between agile methodology usage and external environmental factors.