Prof. Dr. Christoph Rosenkranz (University of Cologne): 

"Opening up the process of information systems development"

Thursday, November 06, 10:00am – 12:00pm (WiSo Building, Room 410) 

Abstract:

Agile methods for information systems development (ISD) are popular and effective; purportedly because they improve the agility of teams by changing their ability to efficiently and effectively respond to user requirement changes in dynamic environments. But what are the mechanisms that evoke these changes? Scant studies exist to date that investigate the working parts of agile ISD. We build on a model of ISD as a social process to argue that agile ISD draws specifically on social agile practices: commonly applied performative routines that emphasize and promote direct communication, collaboration, and social interactions of team members. Drawing on socio-cognitive models of communication, we theorize that the use of social agile practices increases mutual understanding and effective relationships among team members, which in turn increases the success of the ISD project. We test this theoretical model for the first time by examining responses from a cross-sectional survey of 481 agile project participants including developers and customer representatives. The results support our hypotheses, highlighting the impact of the use of social agile practices on the communication media and impact within project teams.