What Software Agile Teams Do To Create Customer Value: A Mixed-Methods Analysis In Brazil

Abstract

An organization’s ability to create customer value has fundamental importance to its success in an increasingly competitive market. It is crucial to identify the most appropriate strategies and the most relevant difficulties to effectively manage the value creation process and develop ways to deal with them. Despite the explicit emphasis on early and continuous delivery of valuable software in Agile Software Development, few studies have empirically examined the customer value creation. Understanding this process could help determine where to focus management efforts (and related financial resources) from a practical standpoint and where to focus research efforts from an academic perspective. Two-part mixed-method research was conducted with professionals on agile teams in Brazil to understand the elements that constitute the strategies for creating value for the client, the related factors, and the barriers to adoption. First, an exploratory web-based survey was conducted on the state of practice of adopting strategies to increase customer value in Agile Software Development, with 378 professionals working for 123 Brazilian companies. Multiple studies were then conducted using focus groups involving five software organizations. The empirical results detailed these strategies in terms of objectives pursued, customer value metrics, challenges and usage impacts, and reasons for non-adoption, as well as the factors that influence their adoption by agile teams. It was also found that the lack of customer collaboration and team immaturity were indicated as the main barriers to adopting these strategies.