Distributing Expertise in Agile Software Development Projects

The distribution of expertise in Agile teams is vital to enable team knowledge to be shared, preserved, and accessed when it is needed. Most studies emphasize knowledge sharing but a few empirical studies focus on skills. Integrating knowledge and skills is vital to leverage expertise in Agile teams. Moreover, it is not easy to leverage expertise by distributing expertise in Agile teams. Through a Grounded Theory study involving 18 Agile practitioners based in New Zealand and Australia, we revealed five approaches to distributing expertise in Agile teams: embracing a master-apprentice model, coaching and mentoring, engaging hands-on learning, establishing discussion platforms and disseminating explicit knowledge. Distributing expertise will provide insight into how Agile team members disseminate available expertise and pull new expertise into Agile teams.