Implicit and explicit measures of coordination effectiveness as predictors of agile software development project success: A regression approac

Software is an essential aspect of contemporary society and capital expended for software development is a significant factor of the U.S. economy. Since its inception, the development of software has been plagued with low project success rates representing high opportunity costs for society. Agile software development methods are the most recent of many approaches that have emerged in industry to address this problem. Although success rates for projects where agile methods were utilized have improved, recent research shows that organizations continue to experience significantly low project success rates. Prior research suggests that highly coordinated projects tend to be more successful, but minimal research exists regarding coordination in agile software development projects. The aim of this quantitative survey study was to address the gap in understanding regarding coordination in agile software development projects and the problem of continued low project success rates by analyzing relationships among the components of coordination effectiveness (explicit and implicit coordination) and agile software development project success. The Agile Manifesto and much of the current practitioner literature tend to place higher value on implicit coordination than on explicit coordination mechanisms in agile software development projects. The findings of this study show that both implicit and explicit coordination mechanisms positively influence project success, explicit coordination mechanisms have a higher significant correlation with success scores for agile software development projects. The findings of this study address the gap understanding regarding the process of coordination in agile software development projects and the empirical evidence presented in this study can be used by practitioners to inform evidenced based management decisions regarding the assessment and selection of coordination strategies for agile software development projects.