Factors Affecting the Adoption of Agile Scaling Practices in Distributed Software Development Teams
Sajani Gandhira, Ruwan Wickramarachchi · 2025
The software industry's evolution towards distributed development models has led organizations to adopt agile methodologies for managing software projects. However, scaling these practices presents significant challenges in distributed teams. This research investigates the critical factors affecting the adoption of agile scaling practices in distributed software development (DSD) teams by addressing critical gaps in understanding the factors affecting successful agile scaling adoption. Through a comprehensive quantitative analysis of responses from IT professionals and Partial Least Squares Structured Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) modeling, the study identifies five key factors that positively influence agile scaling adoption: management support, team autonomy, communication and collaboration, knowledge and expertise in agile practices, and agile mindset. As a result, all five identified factors showed significant positive relationships with Agile scaling adoption in distributed software development teams. Also, results indicate that organization size significantly moderates only the relationship between management support and adoption, with stronger effects in small/medium organizations. Project complexity moderates specifically the relationship between agile mindset and adoption, while industry competition showed no significant moderating effects. The findings provide empirical evidence and practical insights for organizations implementing agile scaling practices in distributed environments.