Perceptions of Agility and Collaboration in Software Development Practice

Agility is a facet of software development attracting increasing interest. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the value of agility in practice. Data collected from senior development/project managers in 62 organizations is used to investigate perceptions related to agile development. Specifically, the perceptions tested relate to (a) belief in agile values and principles, and (b) value of agile principles within current development and organizational practice. These perceptions are then examined in the context of current practice in order to test perceptions against behavior and understand the valued aspects of agile practice that are implicit in software development today. The findings suggest that agile values and principles related to communication and collaboration, and team involvement are perceived as important and are being practiced widely. On the other hand, principles related to reflection and frequent delivery of software are rated high to medium in importance but its full adoption in practice is limited. The principle relating to managing changing requirements is perceived as significant but agile practices relating to this principle are not being implemented in practice.