MBA6103 Agile Methodology Research Report 2 Sample
Assignment Details
Objective
This assessment item relates to the unit learning outcomes as in the unit descriptor. This assessment is designed to improve student writing skills and to give students experience in researching a topic and writing a critique report relevant to the Unit of Study subject matter.
Instructions
For this assessment you will prepare a report or critique on an academic paper related directly to one or more of the following topics:
- Agile Practices
- Implementation of Agile Practices
- Emerging Agile methodologies and Modeling approaches
- Test-Driven development in an Agile Environment
- Requirements Engineering from User Stories
- Requirements Engineering in an Agile Environment
- Project Management in an Agile environment
- Refactoring within Agile Methodologies
The paper you select must be directly relevant to at least one of these major topics. The paper can be from any academic conference or other relevant Journal or online sources such as Google Scholar, Academic department repositories etc... All students must select a different paper, thus the paper must be approved by your instructor or tutor before proceeding. In case two students are wanting to report on the same paper, the first who emails the instructor with their choice will be allocated that paper (provided it is acceptable). Note: popular magazine articles, web sites and blogs are not academic sources.
Your report should be limited to approx. 1500 words (not including references). Use 1.5 spacing with a 12 point Times New Roman font. Though your paper will largely be based on the chosen article, you can use other sources to support your discussion. Citation of sources is mandatory and must be in the IEEE style.
Solution
1. Introduction
Agile methodology is a project management approach that involves breaking the project into phases. It emphasises continuous collaboration and improvement. The main purpose of the research is to review the research articles. The articles were mainly written on the topic of “Agile practices and their impact on Project Success.” In this report problem statement, research methods, findings, limitations and scope of research were discussed.
2. Discussion
2.1 Problems of the Research
Despite the recognised effectiveness of Agile frameworks in improving software project success, many projects mainly continue to face challenges in achieving desired outcomes. A significant issue is that projects often adopt individual Agile practices selectively rather than implementing a suitable Agile framework (4). This adoption can lead to inconsistent results, as the impact of practices on various project success conditions is not well understood. The literature on Agile practices is abundant, with studies typically focused on limited aspects of project success, like- communication or motivation, without offering a broader point of view on how these practices affect other critical success factors (3). Moreover, there was considerable variability used to describe Agile practices, which complicates the aggregation and comparison of research findings. Consequently, there is a lack of a structured framework that outlines the expected impacts of specific Agile practices across a range of success conditions (1). It makes it difficult for practitioners to predict and shows the outcomes of their implementation of Agile. This study aims to address this gap by developing an integrated framework (4). It helped practitioners to recognize and implement Agile practices and adjust to their specific projects for university assignment help.
2.2 Research Method
In this article the researcher used narrative literature review method. It is an element of systematic review methodology exactly designed to address two distinct research questions (RQs) related to Agile practices and their effects on project success (2). This method is outlined systematically in two main stages, each used to address one of the RQs effectively.
For the first research question that aims to identify the commonly reported Agile practices. The method encompasses a narrative review of literature. It mainly targets highly cited to ensure relevance and extensive recognition of the practices discussed. The search was performed using the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Library database (Oria). It utilised specific keyword phrases related to Agile methods, practices, and techniques (4). The inclusion criteria were based on the number of citations. It suggests references with different citations. These were preferred as they likely represent established and recognised views within the field. The search continued until no new Agile practices were identified, suggesting saturation in the identification of practices.
The second stage of the methods focused on identifying the reported effects of these Agile practices (4). This stage combined narrative review techniques with elements of systematic review, such as the systematic exclusion of sources. The inclusion criteria were mainly focused on peer-reviewed articles from 2001 onward. It empirically investigates the effects of Agile practices and has a minimum of ten citations. This stage used the Web of Science database due to its extensive coverage of high-impact journals (2). The search included specific keywords which are related to Agile practices and their effects. Initial findings were refined by title and abstract screening. These were followed by a snowballing technique using Google Scholar to capture additional studies.
The researchers applied a methodical approach to ensure coverage of the literature, which is relevant to the specific research questions. This dual-stage method effectively combines breadth and depth to explore Agile practices and their impacts. It provides a solid foundation for synthesising findings. It develops a framework to guide Agile implementation.
2.3 Findings
2.3.1 Concept of Agile Practices
Agile practices are methodologies that mainly focus on continuous improvement, flexibility, customer satisfaction, and high team involvement in the different fields of software development. The Agile Manifesto is the practice that prioritises individuals and interactions over processes (3). It was working on software over extensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responsiveness to change over strict plans. The objective is to adapt quickly and efficiently to ensure the end of the product (4). It aligns closely with customer needs and expectations. Agile methodologies encourage frequent reassessment of plans and development, where projects are broken down into manageable segments. It allows for regular feedback and adjustments. Apart from that, this article identified that,
The study identified twelve commonly reported Agile practices, each designated with a unique identifier and listed with additional similar terms to clarify their application and scope (1). For example-, 'Co-located team' (AP1) emphasises the physical proximity of team members to enhance direct communication and collaboration. 'Customer involvement' (AP2) understood the active participation of clients throughout the project to ensure the outcome meets their requirements (2). Other practices like 'Continuous code integration' (AP9) and 'Sprints' (AP11) focus on maintaining a sustainable rate of development and regular production of workable outputs, respectively (4). These practices are just about adopting new processes. Moreover, it also about encouraging a cultural shift towards a suitable project management environment. This approach helps the team to direct the complexities of modern software development projects. It emphasised transparency, continuous adaptation and regular feedback.
2.3.2 Effects of Agile Practices on Project Success
The effects of Agile practices on project success are difficult. It can vary based on different studies. Agile practices effects on communication. Agile practices like- stand-up meetings, co-located teams, continuous progress visualisation, pair programming, and continuous code integration. it can positively impact internal communication within teams (5). However, there are potential negative effects from factors such as- open office spaces, sprints, and pair programming that might obstacle focus and long-term project visibility. Externally, sprints, value-prioritized requirements and incremental releases can enhance stakeholder communication (4). Apart from that, Agile practices also improve transparency within teams that enhancing the visibility of requirements in daily project progression. It facilitates faster clarifications concerning delays. Moreover, openly reporting time estimates can increase mutual responsibility among team members.
This practice also enhances trust among employees and employers for example- stand-up meetings may increase trust indirectly through communication and knowledge-sharing (3). However, there can be negative impacts on trust, like- higher team pressure when tasks are not delivered on time or with pre-agreed quality. Moreover, team pressure also enhances for open sharing of time estimates, leading to increased stress.
In this article, it was mentioned that there were different agile practices, such as co-located teams, continuous progress visualisation releases, retrospectives and customer involvement, that can contribute to increased knowledge sharing. This knowledge sharing can lead to time savings, reuse and improvement of the previous work (4). Different agile practices affect response extensiveness. Pair programming may increase extensiveness whereas the self-organised team could decrease it (2). Efficiency could be enhanced through self-organised teams through empowered decision making. These practices offer different benefits for project success. It also considered the potential positive and negative effects is necessary for effective implementation
2.4 Limitation
The limitation of the study derives from incomplete data collection and analysis methods with a narrow selection of sources and potential bias in processing agile practices (4). It also overlooked variations in implementation and contextual factors. It shows the result in inaccuracies in reported effects. To address this limitation there are required broader data collection and consideration of implementation and contextual factors for a deep understanding of effects of Agile practices.
2.5 Future research
This research must establish unique research goals by employing consistent terminology for Agile practices. It should prioritise investigating less-explored practices to understand their impacts. Similarly, this study is significant in uncovering how variation in an implementation like- duration, influences project outcomes (4). The article also shows that this approach will provide important information into optimising Agile methodologies for a diverse project environment. It ensures their effectiveness and relevance in the evolving organisational landscape.
3. Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that Agile practices impact the organisation effectively. The effectiveness of Agile methodologies challenges persists due to selective adoption and variability in practice description. The research also fills the significant gap by developing an integrated framework to guide Agile implementation. It enhances the ability to predict and optimise outcomes. The literature reviews these articles identified in which way Agile practices shed light on their diverse effects on communication, knowledge sharing, agility, and transparency. It highlights the necessity for future research to address limitations in data collection and analysis methods. This study also demonstrates the way organizations can navigate the complexities of modern project management. it also optimises its Agile methodologies for success in a diverse project environment.
References
1. Ciric Lalic, D., Lalic, B., Deli?, M., Gracanin, D., & Stefanovic, D. (2022). How project management approach impact project success? From traditional to agile. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 15(3), 494-521.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Danijela-Ciric/publication/358619333_How_project_management_approach_impact_project_success_From_traditional
_to_agile/links/6458ceaa97449a0e1a87001a/How-project-management-approach-impact-project-success-From-traditional-to-agile.pdf
2. Malik, M., Sarwar, S., & Orr, S. (2021). Agile practices and performance: Examining the role of psychological empowerment. International Journal of Project Management, 39(1), 10-20.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mm-Malik/publication/346117066_Agile_practices_and_performance_Examining_the_role_of_psychological
_empowerment/links/65b0a3197fe0d83cb562cac3/Agile-practices-and-performance-Examining-the-role-of-psychological-empowerment.pdf
3. Muhammad, U., Nazir, T., Muhammad, N., Maqsoom, A., Nawab, S., Fatima, S. T., ... & Butt, F. S. (2021). Impact of agile management on project performance: Evidence from IT sector of Pakistan. Plos one, 16(4), e0249311.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249311
4. Sandstø, R., & Reme-Ness, C. (2021). Agile practices and impacts on project success.https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/3042913/ID_354_11_3_255_262.pdf?sequence=1
5. Stettina, C. J., van Els, V., Croonenberg, J., & Visser, J. (2021). The impact of agile transformations on organizational performance: a survey of teams, programs and portfolios. In International Conference on Agile Software Development (pp. 86-102). Cham: Springer International Publishing.https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/49499/1/9783030780982.pdf#page=95
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