Gilding the Lily : An examination of the subjective experiences of working under prescribed "developer led" methodologies as mandated by a hierarchical organisation.

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of interviews with experienced software developers who are developing quality software using "self organising" and "developer led" Agile methodologies (SCRUM) in a traditional hierarchical organisation. The study yields qualitative data on the subjective experiences of the team members attempting to reconcile the imposed Agile methodologies with traditional organisational policy including legacy elements of monumental software engineering practices and top down management structure. The study yields data on team interaction and the effects of team roles and personalities on work practices. It looks at difficulties of consensus building; development and role oriented challenges and barriers to quality software production due to the barriers to self organisation. Empirical literature is examined for further data on scenarios of applying Agile methodologies in a traditional business organisational setting and some effort is made to determine prescriptive actions for maintaining balance among stakeholders in business and engineering positions. The paper finds little research on the imposition of fast iterative development in large organisations despite statistical data indicating huge uptake in the past number of years. The paper determines a need for balance between business priorities and engineering concerns in software projects undertaken using any methodology and proposes that organisations need to evolve in line with software engineering practises to prevent developer mistrust and ultimately process subversion as occurred with Waterfall methodologies.