Which Abilities and Attitudes Matter Most? : Understanding and Investigating Capabilities in Industrial Agile Contexts

Background: Over the past decades, advancements in the software industry and the prevalence of Agile Software Development (ASD) practices have increased the prominence of individual and interpersonal skills. The humancentric nature of ASD practices makes it imperative to identify and to assign a capable professional to a team. While capabilities of professionals influence team performance and lead the path to a project’s success, the area of capability measurement in ASD remains largely unexplored. Objectives: This thesis aims to aggregate evidence from both the state of the art and practice to understand capability measurement in ASD. Further, to support research and practice towards composing agile teams, this thesis also investigates the effects of capability measures on team-level aspects (team performance and team climate) within industrial contexts. Method: A mixed-methods approach was employed to address the thesis’ objectives. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and an industrial survey were conducted to identify and gather evidence in relation to individual and team capability measures, which are pertinent to ASD context. A case study and another industrial survey were carried out to provide insights and extend support towards agile team composition. Results: Our SLR results showed that a major portion of former studies discussed capability measures in relation to affective, communication, interpersonal and personal aspects. Results from our survey also aligned with these findings, where, measures associated with the aforementioned aspects were observed to be widely known to practitioners and were also perceived by them as highly relevant in ASD contexts. Our case study conducted at a small-sized organization revealed multiple professional capability measures to be affecting team performance. Whereas, our survey conducted at a large-sized organization identified an individual’s ability to easily get along with other team members (agreeableness personality trait) to have a significant positive influence on the person’s perceived level of team climate. Conclusion: In this thesis, the empirical evidence gathered by employing mixed-methods and examining diverse organizational contexts, contributed towards better realization of capability measurement in ASD. In order to extend support towards team composition in ASD, this thesis presents two approaches. The first approach is based on developing an agile support tool that coordinates capability assessments and team composition. The second approach is based on establishing team climate forecasting models that can provide insights about how the perceived level of climate within a team would vary based on its members’ personalities. However, in order to improve both approaches, it is certainly necessary to examine the effects of diverse capability measures