The Impact of Agile Principles and Practices on Large-Scale Software Development Projects: A Multiple-Case Study of Two Projects at Ericsson

BACKGROUND: Agile software development methods have a number of reported benefits on productivity, project visibility, software quality and other areas. There are also negative effects reported. However, the base of empirical evidence to the claimed effects needs more empirical studies. AIM: The purpose of the research was to contribute with empirical evidence on the impact of using agile principles and practices in large-scale, industrial software development. Research was focused on impacts within seven areas: Internal software documentation, Knowledge sharing, Project visibility, Pressure and stress, Coordination effectiveness, and Productivity. METHOD: Research was carried out as a multiple-case study on two contemporary, large-scale software development projects with different levels of agile adoption at Ericsson. Empirical data was collected through a survey of project members. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Intentional implementation of agile principles and practices were found to: correlate with a more balanced use of internal software documentation, contribute to knowledge sharing, correlate with increased project visibility and coordination effectiveness, reduce the need for other types of coordination mechanisms, and possibly increase productivity. No correlation with increase in pressure and stress were found.