Using Agile Information Systems Development Practices: Organizational Drivers and Individual Consequences

Driven by the need to respond flexibly to changes in today's fast-changing and technology-centric business environment, organizations increasingly adopt agile information systems development (ISD) practices. Especially the information technology (IT) function and its staff members are affected by major changes due to companies’ agile transformation endeavors. On an organizational level, new, dichotomous forms of IT organizations are introduced which include a fast and flexible, agile mode and a secure and reliable, traditional mode to serve digital and traditional business models. On an individual level, agile ISD practices place new demands on those involved in developing software as responsibilities, tasks, and duties change significantly. This thesis addresses the two aforementioned pillars of organizational drivers and individual consequences of adopting agile ISD practices. Three studies shed light on how the increasingly prevalent use of agile ISD practices has an impact on IT workers and IT structures. The first strand of this thesis investigates the integration and advancement of agile ISD in IT organizations. Triggered by digital business models and the need to not only serve the business functions but be at the forefront of (digital) business, IT organizations usually employ a bimodal IT (or two-speed-IT), one agile and flexible and one traditional and reliable. Against this backdrop, the first study uses a detailed case study of a sales company to demonstrate how structures within IT functions evolve according to sales channel strategies and how agile ISD is integrated in the existing organization. The results show that when the company pursued a multichannel strategy, a bimodal IT in two separate organizational divisions was most suitable to support traditional channels with a reliable IT and digital channels with an agile and fast IT. However, when the company went beyond multichannel and introduced an omnichannel strategy, it integrated both IT modes to form a single IT function working with agile ISD practices to be able to provide a holistic and up-to-date customer experience across all sales channels. The second strand of this thesis investigates implications of using agile ISD practices for staff members of the IT function, particularly software developers and IT project managers (IT PM), on an individual level. Since agile ISD, according to the prevailing opinion in science and practice, is beneficial for all parties involved, research so far has mainly neglected to take a balanced and more nuanced view considering positive and negative aspects of its usage. Against this background, the second study examines how agile ISD practices – encompassing agile software development (SD) and project management (PM) practices – affect developers’ work-related levels of fatigue and turnover intentions during phases of normal and high workload. The results demonstrate that while agile SD practices generally reduce fatigue and turnover intentions, agile PM practices increase fatigue and turnover intentions in high workload situations. The third study looks at identity tensions which IT PMs experience when confronted with the usage of Scrum, an agile PM method which promotes self-managed teams, hence, does not consider an IT PM role in its framework. The findings reveal five fundamental role identity tensions for IT PMs. Responsibilities, duties, collaboration, communication, and control patterns in the relationships towards top management and agile ISD team changed. They cause new, unclear, and contradicting role expectations and role designs for IT PMs in agile ISD settings resulting in severe role identity tensions the IT PMs have to cope with. Overall, this thesis showcases the role and importance of agile ISD by providing a more comprehensive understanding of how applying agile ISD practices affects the individuals and organizations involved. In doing so, this thesis answers calls for research that urge scholars to take a more nuanced perspective when studying agile ISD. The studies in this thesis contribute to research on agile ISD by (1) demonstrating how a bimodal IT function and the application of agile ISD practices evolve according to specific business decisions, by (2) moving beyond predominant notions of agile ISD practices use as a largely positive phenomenon and provide a balanced view on the consequences for developers, and by (3) highlighting the hitherto largely neglected team-adjacent role of IT PMs in agile ISD settings and uncovering fundamental identity tensions they face. Furthermore, this thesis offers valuable insights for practitioners by pointing out potential pitfalls of agile ISD adoption and recommending how to avoid them. Likewise, this thesis guides decision-makers how to organize and structure the IT function, and the agile IT in particular, to provide the most suitable support for business strategies and staff members alike.