Migrating from Traditional Software Development Processes to Agile Software Development: The Role of Organizational Culture

摘要

The world is experiencing a change-driven, information age economy, where the bulk of our economic and social activities are powered by software. In such an economy, a company's ability to, set the pace, create change, and deploy current technology, lies in its ability to develop/acquire and use software. In a world of constant change, traditional rigorous software development methods are insufficient to deliver the required adaptive software products. The software engineering community responded to these challenges with the advent of Agile software development processes. However, most software development organizations, especially in the developing world, find it extremely difficult to adopt Agile software development methods, due apparently to over-familiarity with traditional plan-driven developmentrnprocesses.rnThis paper explains the differences between traditional software development methods and Agile software development methods. The main focus of the paper is to discuss the role of organizational culture for software development organizations deciding to move to Agile software development. The insights presented in the paper can be used in organizations that are in the process of adopting Agile software development.