To schedule or not to schedule? An investigation of meetings as an inter-team coordination mechanism in large-scale agile software development
To schedule or not to schedule? An investigation of meetings as an inter-team coordination mechanism in large-scale agile software development
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DOI：
10.12821/ijispm060303
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发表时间：
2018-01-01
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Rolland, Knut
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brede, Nils;Dingsoyr, Torgeir;Rolland, Knut
在管理涉及多个团队的大型方案时，团队的协调至关重要。在大型软件开发中，工作是由许多开发人员和开发团队同时进行的。结果是频繁和迭代地交付的，这需要在不同层面上进行协调，例如，计划、项目和团队级别。以往对知识工作的研究表明，这种工作在很大程度上依赖于通过“个人”模式进行的协调，如个人之间的相互调整或通过预定或不预定的会议。在敏捷软件开发过程中，原则和工作结构在项目期间出现，并且不是预先确定的。我们研究了两个依赖敏捷方法的大型软件开发项目中，通过计划和计划外会议的协调如何随着时间的推移而变化。我们的研究结果包括从计划到计划外会议和从计划外到计划外会议的过渡。在各方案组织中，既有自下而上的过渡，也有自上而下的过渡。其主要含义是，方案管理需要敏感地认识到协调的极端重要性以及随着时间的推移而变化的协调需求。此外，在开始一个项目时，我们建议尽早确定重要的预定会议，因为有足够的预定会议对于建立对领域知识的共同理解很重要。
Coordination of teams is critical when managing large programmes that involve multiple teams. In large-scale software development, work is carried out simultaneously by many developers and development teams. Results are delivered frequently and iteratively, which requires coordination on different levels, e.g., the programme, project, and team levels. Prior studies of knowledge work indicate that such work relies heavily on coordination through "personal" modes such as mutual adjustment between individuals or through scheduled or unscheduled meetings. In agile software development processes, principles and work structures emerge during the project and are not predetermined. We studied how coordination through scheduled and unscheduled meetings changes over time in two large software development programmes relying on agile methods. Our findings include transitions from scheduled to unscheduled meetings and from unscheduled to scheduled meetings. The transitions have been initiated both bottom-up and top-down in the programme organizations. The main implication is that programme management needs to be sensitive to the vital importance of coordination and the coordination needs as they change over time. Further, when starting a program, we recommend to early identify the important scheduled meetings, as having enough scheduled meetings is important to develop a common understanding of domain knowledge.