Language Quality in Requirements Development: Tracing Communication in the Process of Information Systems Development

Sprint Zeal or Sprint Fatigue? The Benefits and Burdens of Agile ISD Practices Use for Developer Well-Being

Are agile information systems development practices (AISDPs), such as pair programming or daily stand-ups, universally beneficial to developer well-being? Given that agile information systems development project success is only as good as its developers’ productiveness, taking care of developer well-being is of utmost importance to organizations. Using daily survey responses of 131 agile developers spread over two workweeks, we show that the daily use of AISDP is a double-edged sword rather than a silver bullet. Although AISDPs can be motivating and activate energy resources on some days, they can be disturbing and deplete energy on others—two stress responses with opposing effects on developer well-being. As a potential antidote to the detrimental effects of AISDP, we investigate the moderating role of information technology (IT) mindfulness, a dynamic trait that captures the mindful usage of IT. We find that IT mindfulness can serve as a facilitator of positive stress responses and as a buffer against negative stress responses. A key takeaway of this study is in finding ways to influence developers (via awareness programs, time-sensitive recovery interventions, or mindfulness practices) to increase the functional and decrease the dysfunctional stress responses from daily AISDP use.

Investigating the “Socio” in Socio-Technical Development: The Case for Psychological Safety in Agile Information Systems Development

One constitutional part of project management is the management of teams, their actions, and their social mechanisms. Team processes, behavior, and agile practices used by team members play important parts in the success of projects. To reap benefits from these highly interactive and social-focused practices, team members need to feel safe to speak freely. We propose a model that conceptualizes the effects of psychological safety and (social) agile practices on team performance. The proposed model combines recent research from organizational psychology and agile information systems development to provide a better understanding of the team-level effects. Our findings from three case studies conducted in two large insurance companies and one software development company suggest that social agile practices positively influence psychological safety, transparency, communication, and ultimately productivity.

Aligning in Practice: From Current Cases to a New Agenda

Although there is extensive literature on IT/IS-business alignment, we argue that the topic's current research trajectory is limited given the concept's predominantly static focus to date. While the process perspective on alignment is a promising avenue to study the phenomenon's dynamic nature, we still know little about what it is that organizational actors actually do, on a day-to-day basis, to align IS and related concerns with business imperatives. In order to address this lack of understanding regarding the practices of aligning, we argue for research that goes beyond abstract macro analysis of alignment processes to that which considers the actual micro practices of aligning. An analysis of the extant literature on the topic leads to the identification and classification of aligning activities that are being undertaken in practice. We argue that this review and critical appraisal of the IT/business alignment field has the potential for substantive and insightful contributions to our understanding of alignment as it is enacted – in practice. Arising from the review, we discuss important new research themes that are to be addressed if research on alignment is to be demonstrably relevant.

Getting to the Shalls

Sensemaking in Requirements Engineering (RE) relies on knowledge transfer, communication, and negotiation of project stakeholders. It is a critical and challenging aspect of Information Systems (IS) development. One of the most fundamental aspects of RE is the specification of traceable, unambiguous, and operationalizable functional and nonfunctional requirements. This remains a nontrivial task in the face of the complexity inherent in RE due to the lack of well-documented, systematic procedures that facilitate a structured analysis of the qualitative data from stakeholder interviews, observations, and documents that are typically the input to this activity. This research develops a systematic and traceable procedure, for non-functional requirements the Grounded and Linguistic-Based Requirements Analysis Procedure (GLAP), which can fill this gap by incorporating perspectives from Grounded Theory Method, linguistic analysis of language quality, Volere typology, and the Nonfunctional Requirements Framework without significantly deviating from existing practice. The application of GLAP is described along with empirical illustrations using RE data from a redesign initiative of a library website of a public university in the United States. An outlook is given on further work and necessary evaluation steps.