Scaling Agile in Large Organizations: Practices, Challenges, and Success Factors

KALENDA, Martin, Petr HYNA and Bruno ROSSI. Scaling Agile in Large Organizations: Practices, Challenges, and Success Factors. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process. 2018, vol. 30, No 10, p. 1-24. ISSN 2047-7473. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smr.1954.

Basic information

• Original name: Scaling Agile in Large Organizations: Practices, Challenges, and Success Factors
• Authors: KALENDA, Martin (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Petr HYNA (203 Czech Republic) and Bruno ROSSI (380 Italy, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 2018, 2047-7473.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 10201 Computer sciences, information science, bioinformatics
• Country of publisher: United States of America
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Impact factor: Impact factor: 1.305
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14330/18:00102740
• Organization unit: Faculty of Informatics
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smr.1954
• UT WoS: 000447650700003
• Keywords in English: actionresearch; agile adoption; large-scaleagile; Large-ScaleScrum (LeSS); Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Context: Agile software development has nowadays reached wide adoption. However, moving agile to large-scale contexts is a complex task with many challenges involved. Objective: In this paper, we review practices, challenges, and success factors for scaling agile both from literature and within a large software company, identifying the most critical factors. Method: We conduct a focused literature review to map the importance of scaling practices, challenges, and success factors. The outcome of this focused literature review is used to guide action research within a software company with a view to scaling agile processes. Results: Company culture, prior agile and lean experience, management support, and value unification were found to be key success factors during the action research process. Resistance to change, an overly aggressive roll-out time frame, quality assurance concerns, and integration into preexisting nonagile business processes were found to be the critical challenges in the scaling process. Conclusion: The action research process allowed to cross-fertilize ideas from literature to the company's context. Scaling agile within an organization does not need to follow a specific scheme, rather the process can be tailored to the needs while keeping the core values and principles of agile methodologies.