Performance Management of Agile Software Development Teams

Abstract

Around the same time as the emergence of agile methods as a formalized concept, the management accounting literature introduced the concept of Beyond Budgeting as a performance management model for a changing business environment. Both concepts share many similarities with both having a distinctly agile or adaptive perspective. The Beyond Budgeting model promises to enable companies to keep pace with changing environments, quickly create and adapt strategy and empower people throughout the organization to make effective changes. This paper develops the Beyond Budgeting model within the context of agile software development teams. The twelve Beyond Budgeting principles are briefly summarized and a research framework is presented which is applied using one case study. The results from the study suggest that the model may be a suitable lens through which an organization can gain an understanding of the organizational level factors, which affect the implementation of agile. The paper discusses how the model was developed, applied and how the conclusions are reached.