Post on 12-Mar-2018
An Agile Enterprise Architecture Driven Approach to Enhance Communication in
Geographically Distributed Agile Development
Author:
Yehia Ibrahim Alzoubi
Supervisors:
Dr Asif Gill
Dr Bruce Moulton
Dr Ahmed Al-Ani
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
University of Technology Sydney
Date of Submission:
December 2016
i
Certificate of Original Authorship
I, Yehia Alzoubi, certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted
for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as
fully acknowledged within the text. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me.
Any help that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis
itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and
literature used are indicated in the thesis.
Yehia Alzoubi December 2016
ii
Acknowledgements First, and foremost, praise is due to Allah who has bestowed upon me many blessings
and patience, ability, and skills to complete this work.
I would like to express my sincere thankfulness to all those (named or not) who helped
me to complete this long trip. I would like to thank my supervisors Drs. Asif Gill,
Ahmed Al-Ani, and Bruce Moulton for their supportive guidance.
Special thanks go to my supervisor Dr. Asif Gill for his continuous support and
encouragement, without which this study would have never been completed. I am also
appreciative of his countless hours of advice and unlimited support in improving my
research skills.
I would like to thank each respondent and interviewee who has participated in this
study. I also would like to thank each expert who has helped me in evaluating the
research outcomes.
I am grateful to my brothers, sisters (especially Om-Bishr), relatives, father and mother
in law, and friends who have always encouraged me during this time.
I would like to thank my wife for her patience and continuous encouragement to
complete this thesis. My last words are for my two little angels: Yousef and Judi, whose
childhood play and mess have been pleasant melodies to my ears and eyes during my
trip.
iii
Dedication
I dedicate this work to my late father (1933-1992), may Allah bless his soul, who first
taught me the alphabets of this life. Even after all these years, you are in my thoughts
every day dad. I also dedicate this work to my unlimited love and support-my mum
(A’ishah), may Allah give you healthiness and long life.
iv
List of Publications Book Chapters
Alzoubi, Y.I. & Gill, A.Q. 2016, 'An agile enterprise architecture-driven model for
geographically distributed agile development', in D. Vogel, X. Guo, H. Linger, C.
Barry, M. Lang & C. Schneider (eds), Transforming Healthcare Through Information
Systems, Springer International Publishing, pp. 63-77.
Journal Articles
Alzoubi, Y.I., Gill, A.Q. & Al-Ani, A. 2015, 'Distributed agile development
communication: an agile architecture driven framework', Journal of Software, vol. 10,
no. 6, pp. 681-94. {Double-blind review; ERA ranked B journal}
Alzoubi, Y.I., Gill, A.Q. & Al-Ani, A. 2016, 'Empirical studies of geographically
distributed agile development communication challenges: a systematic review',
Information and Management, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 22-37. {Double-blind review; ERA
ranked A* journal}
Conference Proceedings
Alzoubi, Y.I. & Gill, A.Q. 2014, 'Agile global software development communication
challenges: a systematic review', In Proceedings of the 18th Pacific Asia Conference on
Information Systems (PACIS 2014), p. 20. {Double-blind review; ERA ranked A
Conference}
Alzoubi, Y.I. & Gill, A. 2015, 'An agile enterprise architecture driven model for
geographically distributed agile development', In Proceedings of the 24th International
Conference on Information System Development (ISD 2015), Harbin, China. {Double-
blind review; ERA ranked A Conference}
v
Table of Contents Certificate of Original Authorship ................................................................................. i
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... ii
Dedication ....................................................................................................................... iii
List of Publications ......................................................................................................... iv
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ v
List of Figures ................................................................................................................. xi
List of Tables ................................................................................................................ xiii
List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................... xvi
Glossary ........................................................................................................................ xvii
Abstract .......................................................................................................................... xx
Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1
1.1 Research Background ......................................................................................... 1
1.2 Research Problem ............................................................................................... 4
1.3 Research Questions and Objectives ................................................................... 5
1.4 Research Design and Methodology .................................................................... 7
1.4.1 Research Strategy ............................................................................................................... 9 1.4.2 Survey .............................................................................................................................. 10 1.4.3 Semi-Structured Interviews .............................................................................................. 11 1.4.4 Theoretical Foundation .................................................................................................... 11
1.5 Research Scope and Key Assumptions ............................................................ 12
1.6 Research Findings ............................................................................................ 13
1.7 Research Implications ...................................................................................... 14
1.8 Organisation of this Thesis ............................................................................... 15
1.9 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................. 19
Chapter 2 Overview of Geographically Distributed Agile Development ............. 20
2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 20
2.2 Historical Perspective on Software Development ............................................ 21
2.3 Plan-Driven (Waterfall/Traditional) Development .......................................... 24
2.4 Spiral Software Development .......................................................................... 25
2.5 Agile Software Development ........................................................................... 27
2.5.1 What Is an Agility of SD? ................................................................................................ 32 2.5.2 Overview of Some of Agile Methods .............................................................................. 33
2.6 Distributed Traditional Software Development ............................................... 45
vi
2.7 Geographically Distributed Agile Development .............................................. 46
2.8 Literature Gaps ................................................................................................. 56
2.9 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................. 58
Chapter 3 Challenges of Communication in Geographically Distributed Agile
Development .................................................................................................................. 59
3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 59
3.2 GDAD Challenges ............................................................................................ 60
3.3 GDAD Communication Challenges-SLR ........................................................ 65
3.3.1 SLR Method and Limitation ............................................................................................ 66 3.3.2 SLR Findings ................................................................................................................... 74
3.4 GDAD Communication SLR Overview- State-of-the-Art ............................... 93
3.5 Thesis Motivation and Literature Gaps Fine-Tunning ..................................... 95
3.6 Rationale for Adopting EA in GDAD .............................................................. 96
3.7 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................. 97
Chapter 4 Research Model ....................................................................................... 99
4.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 99
4.2 Common Ground Theory ............................................................................... 100
4.3 Agile Enterprise Architecture ......................................................................... 106
4.3.1 Traditional Enterprise Architecture Overview ............................................................... 106 4.3.2 Agile Enterprise Architecture ........................................................................................ 113 4.3.3 An Overview of Agile EA Frameworks ......................................................................... 116 4.3.4 Adaptive EA Framework ............................................................................................... 119
4.4 Agile EA Driven Communication Approach ................................................. 122
4.4.1 Architecture Owner Roles .............................................................................................. 126 4.4.2 Agile EA Driven Communication Roles ........................................................................ 128
4.5 Research Model Constructs ............................................................................ 129
4.5.1 Agile EA Construct ........................................................................................................ 131 4.5.2 GDAD Active Communication ...................................................................................... 137 4.5.3 GDAD Performance ....................................................................................................... 146
4.6 Hypotheses Definitions .................................................................................. 148
4.6.1 Effect of Agile EA on GDAD Active Communication .................................................. 150 4.6.2 Effect of Agile EA on GDAD Performance ................................................................... 152 4.6.3 Relationship between GDAD Active Communication Dimensions (Efficiency,
Effectiveness) ................................................................................................................................. 153 4.6.4 Effect of Communication Efficiency on GDAD Performance ....................................... 154 4.6.5 Effect of Communication Effectiveness on GDAD Performance .................................. 155
vii
4.7 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 156
Chapter 5 Research Design and Methodology ..................................................... 158
5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 158
5.2 Research Design ............................................................................................. 159
5.3 Research Philosophy ...................................................................................... 163
5.3.1 Defining Research Paradigms in IS Research ................................................................ 164 5.3.2 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 168 5.3.3 Theoretical Foundation .................................................................................................. 174 5.3.4 Research Strategy ........................................................................................................... 176
5.4 Research Data Collection Methods ................................................................ 177
5.5 Preliminary Research Model Evaluation ........................................................ 179
5.6 Survey ............................................................................................................. 181
5.6.1 Research Instrument Development ................................................................................ 183 5.6.2 Research Instrument Validation ..................................................................................... 191 5.6.3 The Consent Form and Information Sheet ..................................................................... 197 5.6.4 The Questionnaire of the Survey.................................................................................... 198 5.6.5 Sample Population ......................................................................................................... 198 5.6.6 The Comments Parts of the Survey ................................................................................ 200 5.6.7 Survey Data Collection Method ..................................................................................... 200 5.6.8 Quantitative Data Analysis Approach ............................................................................ 201
5.7 Qualitative Case Study ................................................................................... 202
5.7.1 The Semi-Structured Approach of the Interviews .......................................................... 204 5.7.2 The Interview Protocol................................................................................................... 205 5.7.3 The Participants of the Interviews.................................................................................. 205 5.7.4 Interviews Process ......................................................................................................... 206 5.7.5 Qualitative Data Analysis Approach .............................................................................. 206
5.8 Ethics Consideration ....................................................................................... 207
5.9 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 209
Chapter 6 Survey Data Examination and Preparation ....................................... 210
6.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 210
6.2 Demographic Analysis of the Sample ............................................................ 211
6.2.1 Industry of Respondent’s Organisation .......................................................................... 213 6.2.2 GDAD Approach Used by Respondent’s Organisation ................................................. 214 6.2.3 Open Source Solutions Approach Used by Respondent’s Organisation ........................ 214 6.2.4 Respondent’s Job Title ................................................................................................... 215 6.2.5 Experience, number of Teams, and Number of Members in Teams .............................. 216
6.3 Data Screening and Cleaning ......................................................................... 216
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6.4 Missing Data Analysis .................................................................................... 217
6.5 Outliers Testing .............................................................................................. 222
6.6 Testing the Underlying Assumptions of Multiple Regression ....................... 223
6.6.1 Normality ....................................................................................................................... 224 6.6.2 Linearity ......................................................................................................................... 226 6.6.3 Homoscedasticity ........................................................................................................... 227 6.6.4 Multicollinearity ............................................................................................................ 227
6.7 Exploratory Factor Analysis ........................................................................... 228
6.8 Generalisability Testing ................................................................................. 234
6.8.1 Common Method Bias ................................................................................................... 234 6.8.2 Non-Response Bias ........................................................................................................ 235
6.9 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 237
Chapter 7 Survey Findings ..................................................................................... 239
7.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 239
7.2 PLS-SEM Approach ....................................................................................... 240
7.3 Assessment of Measurement Model ............................................................... 242
7.3.1 Content Validity ............................................................................................................. 244 7.3.2 Reflective Measurement Model Evaluation ................................................................... 244 7.3.3 Formative Measurement Model Evaluation ................................................................... 249
7.4 Assessment of Structural Model ..................................................................... 251
7.4.1 Model Predictive Power (R2) ......................................................................................... 252 7.4.2 Hypotheses Testing ........................................................................................................ 253 7.4.3 Effect Size ( 2) ............................................................................................................... 256 7.4.4 Predictive Validity of the Model .................................................................................... 257 7.4.5 The Mediating Effect ..................................................................................................... 258
7.5 Second-Order PLS Model .............................................................................. 263
7.6 Goodness-of-Fit of the Model ........................................................................ 265
7.7 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 266
Chapter 8 Case Study Findings .............................................................................. 268
8.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 268
8.2 Cases Description ........................................................................................... 269
8.3 Data Validity and Reliability .......................................................................... 271
8.4 Content Analysis Approach Used in the Study .............................................. 272
8.5 Data Analysis ................................................................................................. 274
8.5.1 Data Preparation and Familiarisation ............................................................................. 274 8.5.2 Data Reduction............................................................................................................... 275
ix
8.5.3 Data Display................................................................................................................... 276 8.5.4 Data Synthesis and Drawing Conclusions ..................................................................... 276
8.6 Qualitative Findings ....................................................................................... 276
8.6.1 Leximancer Results ........................................................................................................ 277 8.6.2 Agile EA ........................................................................................................................ 278 8.6.3 GDAD Active Communication ...................................................................................... 288 8.6.4 GDAD Performance ....................................................................................................... 298 8.6.5 Relationship between Agile EA and Communication Efficiency .................................. 299 8.6.6 Relationship between Agile EA and Communication Effectiveness ............................. 300 8.6.7 Relationship between Agile EA and GDAD Performance............................................. 302 8.6.8 Relationship between Communication Efficiency and Communication Effectiveness . 304 8.6.9 Relationship between Communication Efficiency and GDAD Performance................. 304 8.6.10 Relationship between Communication Effectiveness and GDAD Performance ............ 305
8.7 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 306
Chapter 9 Discussion of Research Findings .......................................................... 308
9.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 308
9.2 Summary of the Survey Findings ................................................................... 309
9.2.1 Descriptive Findings ...................................................................................................... 309 9.2.2 PLS Model Findings ...................................................................................................... 310
9.3 Cross-Analysis Findings-Addressing Research Questions (RQ3-RQ5) ........ 313
9.3.1 Effect of Agile EA on GDAD Active Communication (RQ3) ....................................... 315 9.3.2 Effect of Agile EA on GDAD Performance (RQ4) ....................................................... 317 9.3.3 Relationship between GDAD Active Communication Dimensions (Efficiency,
Effectiveness) ................................................................................................................................. 318 9.3.4 Effect of GDAD Active Communication on GDAD Performance (RQ5) ..................... 320
9.4 Recommendations for Using Agile EA and Enhancing Active Communication
321
9.4.1 Agile AE ........................................................................................................................ 321 9.4.2 Communication Efficiency and Communication Effectiveness (RQ6) ......................... 323
9.5 Reflectional Learning (Main Research Question) .......................................... 324
9.6 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 325
Chapter 10 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 327
10.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 327
10.2 Overview of the Study ................................................................................ 327
10.3 Summary of the Study Findings ................................................................. 329
10.4 Contributions of the Study .......................................................................... 331
10.4.1 Contribution to Academic Research and Theory ........................................................... 331
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10.4.2 Contribution to Practice ................................................................................................. 334 10.4.3 Contribution to Teaching and Learning ......................................................................... 336
10.5 Limitations of the Study ............................................................................. 337
10.6 Prospective Directions for Future Research ............................................... 338
10.7 Concluding Remarks................................................................................... 340
10.8 Chapter Summary ....................................................................................... 341
Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 343
Appendices ................................................................................................................... 367
Appendix 3.1: GDAD Challenges Systematic Review References .......................... 367
Appendix 3.2: GDAD Communication Challenges Systematic Review References -
Empirical GDAD Studies .......................................................................................... 369
Appendix 5.1: List of Initial Generated Items .......................................................... 371
Appendix 5.1(a): Initial Pool of Items ............................................................................................ 371 Appendix 5.1(b): Initial Set of Instrument’s Items Sent to Experts ................................................ 375
Appendix 5.2: The Full-Scale Survey Questionnaire ............................................... 377
Appendix 5.2(a): Full-Scale Consent and Information Form (The Ethics Form) ........................... 377 Appendix 5.2(b): Full-Scale Questionnaire .................................................................................... 380
Appendix 5.3: The Interview Protocol ...................................................................... 390
Appendix 5.3(a): Interview Consent Form ..................................................................................... 390 Appendix 5.3(b): Interview Protocol .............................................................................................. 392
Appendix 6.1: Items’ Coding (Labels of Variables Used in the Study) ................... 394
Appendix 6.2: Correlation Matrix for Reflective Indicators (Pearson Test) ............ 395
Appendix 6.3: Non-Response Bias Test for Indicators ............................................. 396
Appendix 7.1: Cronbach’s Alpha Values for Reflective Measures .......................... 396
Appendix 7.2: Cross-Validation Redundancy Values for Reflective Indicators ...... 397
xi
List of Figures
Figure 1.1. Research model (an overview diagram) ......................................................... 9
Figure 1.2. Structure of the thesis ................................................................................... 18
Figure 2.1. Software methods evolvement ...................................................................... 22
Figure 2.2. The plan-driven development model ............................................................ 24
Figure 2.3. Spiral software development model (Boehm 1988) ..................................... 26
Figure 2.4. Agile and plan-driven development cost-of-change (Ambler 2006) ............ 31
Figure 2.5. Reasons for adopting agile methods (VersionOne 2014) ............................. 31
Figure 2.6. Agile methods used in practice (VersionOne 2014) ..................................... 34
Figure 2.7. XP process (Xprogramming 2014) ............................................................... 35
Figure 2.8. Scrum process (Sutherland & Schwaber 2011) ............................................ 39
Figure 2.9. Effectiveness of communication means (Ambler 2015) .............................. 51
Figure 3.1. GDAD communication SLR selection process ............................................ 68
Figure 3.2. Theoretical framework and selected categories of GDAD communication
SLR ................................................................................................................................. 74
Figure 4.1. TOFAF 9.1 ADM (The Open Group 2013)................................................ 112
Figure 4.2. The Gill Framework (Gill 2014b)............................................................... 120
Figure 4.3. Geographically distributed agile team’s structure (Ambler 2014b) ........... 122
Figure 4.4. Agile EA driven GDAD approach .............................................................. 125
Figure 4.5. Research model ........................................................................................... 130
Figure 5.1. Research design .......................................................................................... 162
Figure 6.1. Industry of respondent’s organisation ........................................................ 213
Figure 6.2. GDAD approaches of the respondent’s organisation ................................. 214
Figure 6.3. Open source activities portion of the respondent’s organisation ................ 215
Figure 6.4. Job title for respondent ............................................................................... 215
Figure 6.5. Scatter plot: EFFIC vs. EFFECT ................................................................ 226
Figure 7.1. The partial least squares (PLS) results........................................................ 253
Figure 7.2. The mediation model .................................................................................. 258
Figure 7.3. Results of the second-order PLS model...................................................... 264
Figure 8.1. Data analysis interactive model (adopted from Miles & Huberman 1994) 274
Figure 8.2. Leximancer concept map ............................................................................ 278
Figure 9.1. Strength of significant relationships in the research model ........................ 312
xii
Figure 9.2. Theory fine-tuning ...................................................................................... 325
xiii
List of Tables
Table 1.1: Main research iterations in the study ............................................................... 8
Table 2.1: Agile vs. Waterfall software development resolution (The Standish Group
2015) ............................................................................................................................... 23
Table 2.2: Agile software development principles (Agile Manifesto 2001) ................... 28
Table 2.3: Software development agility definitions ...................................................... 33
Table 2.4: Impact of XP practices on communication (adopted from Hummel et al.
2013) ............................................................................................................................... 38
Table 2.5: Impact of Scrum practices on communication (adopted from Hummel et al.
2013) ............................................................................................................................... 41
Table 3.1: Challenges of GDAD ..................................................................................... 62
Table 3.2: Techniques/ solutions to GDAD challenges .................................................. 64
Table 3.3: GDAD communication SLR search terms ..................................................... 69
Table 3.4: GDAD communication SLR assessment method .......................................... 70
Table 3.5: GDAD communication SLR quality criteria of selected studies (Dyba˚ &
Dingsøyr 2008) ............................................................................................................... 70
Table 3.6: GDAD communication SLR search results ................................................... 72
Table 3.7: Agile method used in the GDAD communication SLR selected studies....... 75
Table 3.8: Publication channel of GDAD communication SLR selected studies ........... 76
Table 3.9: Quality assessment of GDAD communication SLR selected studies ............ 77
Table 3.10: GDAD communication SLR selected studies aims ..................................... 79
Table 3.11: GDAD communication challenges and categories ...................................... 81
Table 3.12: GDAD communication challenges categories statistics .............................. 82
Table 3.13: Impact of GDAD communication challenges on communication process .. 83
Table 3.14: Techniques to overcome GDAD communication challenges ...................... 88
Table 4.1: Comparison between agile EA and traditional EA frameworks .................. 118
Table 4.2: Architecture owner roles among agile project ............................................. 128
Table 4.3: Impact of GDAD communication using agile EA on GDAD project (adapted
from Madison 2010) ...................................................................................................... 129
Table 4.4: Summary of the theorised constructs and their definitions .......................... 131
Table 4.5: Literature review and agile methods principles about agile EA .................. 134
Table 4.6: Principles of agile methods regarding GDAD active communication......... 139
xiv
Table 4.7: Literature review about GDAD communication efficiency......................... 143
Table 4.8: Literature review about GDAD communication effectiveness .................... 145
Table 4.9: Software performance aspects ..................................................................... 148
Table 4.10: Summary of the research hypotheses ......................................................... 149
Table 5.1: Characteristics of Positivism, Interpretivism, and Critical Realism ............ 164
Table 5.2: The settings of this research endeavour ....................................................... 178
Table 5.3: The set of questionnaire after experts and pilot feedback............................ 185
Table 5.4: Items’ results of the panel of experts’ judgements ...................................... 189
Table 5.5: The research constructs and their items ....................................................... 190
Table 5.6: The demographic data of the pilot study...................................................... 193
Table 5.7: Pilot study-reliability statistics of reflective constructs ............................... 194
Table 5.8: Pilot study-factor analysis of reflective constructs ...................................... 196
Table 5.9: Pilot study-collinearity test of formative construct ...................................... 197
Table 6.1: The characteristics of the sample population ............................................... 212
Table 6.2: Summary of deleted cases ............................................................................ 217
Table 6.3: Summary statistics for missing data ............................................................ 219
Table 6.4: Little’s MCAR test results ........................................................................... 220
Table 6.5: Normal distribution and outlier tests for reflective indicators ..................... 223
Table 6.6: KMO and Bartlett’s sphericity tests, and communality matrix for reflective
constructs ...................................................................................................................... 230
Table 6.7: Scree plot and component matrix for reflective constructs ......................... 232
Table 6.8: Harman’s one-factor test for reflective constructs ....................................... 235
Table 6.9: Non-response bias test ................................................................................. 236
Table 6.10: Summary of data preparation ..................................................................... 237
Table 7.1: Reliability statistics for reflective constructs ............................................... 245
Table 7.2: The cross-loading of reflective constructs and their items .......................... 246
Table 7.3: AVE statistics for reflective constructs........................................................ 247
Table 7.4: Correlation matrix for reflective constructs ................................................. 248
Table 7.5: HTMT ratio values for reflective constructs ................................................ 248
Table 7.6: VIF and tolerance statistics for formative indicators ................................... 249
Table 7.7: Collinearity results for formative indicators ................................................ 250
Table 7.8: The partial least squares (PLS) results ......................................................... 254
Table 7.9: Effect size ( 2) values for latent exogenous constructs ............................... 256
Table 7.10: Cross-validation redundancy (Q2) values for reflective constructs ........... 257
xv
Table 7.11: Effects results for the model ...................................................................... 260
Table 7.12: Mediation effect results for the model ....................................................... 261
Table 7.13: Mediation effects for communication efficiency and communication
effectiveness .................................................................................................................. 262
Table 7.14: Collinearity and validity results for second-order model .......................... 265
Table 7.15: SRMR value ............................................................................................... 266
Table 8.1: Case description ........................................................................................... 270
Table 8.2: Survey comment respondent’s demographic ............................................... 271
Table 9.1: Summary of the research hypotheses testing results.................................... 311
Table 9.2: Summary of mediation effects ..................................................................... 313
Table 9.3: Cross-analysis findings of the survey and case studies ............................... 315
Table 10.1: Outcomes of the study ............................................................................... 342
xvi
List of Abbreviations AMOS Analysis of Moment Structures
ASD Agile Software Development
CB-SEM Covariance-Based Structural Equation Model
CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis
DSD Distributed Software Development
DSDM Dynamic Software Development
EA Enterprise Architecture
EFA Exploratory Factor Analysis
EM Expectation Maximisation
FDD Feature Driven Development
GDAD Geographically Distributed Agile Development
HTMT Hetero-Trait Mono-Trait
IS Information System
IT Information Technology
KSD Kanban Software Development
LISREL Linear Structural Relations
LSD Lean Software Development
MAR Missing Data at Random
MCAR Missing Completely at Random
MIS Management of Information System
MTMM Multi-Trait Multi-Method
PLS Partial Least Squares
RQ Research Question
SD Software Development
SEM Structural Equation Modelling
SLDC Systems Development Life Cycle
SLR Systematic Literature Review
SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Science
TDD Test Driven Development
VAF Variance Accounted for
VIF Variance Inflation Factor
XP Extreme Programming
xvii
Glossary Item Explanation Reference
Active
Communication
Refers to the process of exchanging information
between agile team members (i.e. senders and
receivers) formally and informally, which should be
efficient and effective.
Alzoubi &
Gill 2015
Agile Software
Development
(ASD)
A software development method is said to be an agile
software development method when a method is
mainly people focused and communication-oriented,
flexible (ready to adapt to expected or unexpected
change at any time), speedy (encourages rapid and
iterative development of the product in small
releases), lean (focuses on shortening timeframe and
cost and on improved quality), responsive (reacts
appropriately to expected and unexpected changes),
and learning (focuses on improvement during and
after product development).
Qumer &
Henderson-
Sellers
2006b, p. 125
Agility A persistent behaviour or ability of a sensitive entity
that exhibits flexibility to accommodate expected or
unexpected changes rapidly, follows the shortest time
span, uses economical, simple and quality
instruments in a dynamic environment and applies
updated prior knowledge and experience to learn
from the internal and external environment.
Qumer &
Handerson-
Sellers
2006b, p. 281
Agile
Enterprise
Architecture
(EA)
A blueprint that describes the overall structural,
behavioural, social, technological, and facility
elements of an enterprise’s operating environment
that share common goals and principles with the
ability of responsiveness (scans, senses and reacts
appropriately to expected and unexpected changes),
flexibility (adapts to expected or unexpected change
at any time), speediness (accommodates expected or
unexpected changes rapidly), leanness (focuses on
Gill 2013a,
xviii
reducing waste and cost without compromising on
quality), and learning (focuses on enterprise fitness,
improvement and innovation).
Communication A process in which participants create and share
information with one another in order to reach a
mutual understanding.
Rogers 1986,
p. 199
Communication
Challenges
Refer to the characteristics of each medium that
decrease communication efficiency and effectiveness.
Clark &
Brennan
1991
Communication
Effectiveness
Delivering a message to the receiver who understands
it as it was intended with minimal disruption and
misunderstanding, even if it takes a long time.
Alzoubi &
Gill 2016
Communication
Efficiency
Delivering a message to a receiver with high quality
and with minimal time, cost, effort, and resources
required to establish communication.
Alzoubi &
Gill 2016
Enterprise
Architecture
The organising logic for business processes and IT
infrastructure, reflecting the integration and
standardisation requirements of the company’s
operating model.
Ross et al.
2006, P.9
Formal
Communication
Refers to explicit and clear communication such as
the agile requirements backlog, plans, and card walls.
Herbsleb &
Mockus 2003
Informal
Communication
Refers to the communication that happens outside the
official reporting hierarchy of the team.
Herbsleb &
Mockus 2003
Software
Development
(SD)
The tasks undertaken to construct a [software-based
product], and the management of this effort, by a
group of stakeholders with agendas, who engage in
transactions over time within an institutional context
by applying structure to their work with a set of tools
and methodologies, and who judge outcomes of their
efforts and act accordingly.
Sambamurthy
& Kirsch
2000, p. 400
Software
Functionality
The extent to which the delivered software system
meets its functional goals, user needs, and technical
requirements.
Lee & Xia
2010
xix
Software
Quality
Represents the assessment of the quality of the task
performed by the individual, or the pair, on the
programming task. It is reflective of how well the
code satisfied the requirements stipulated in the
problem statement and produced correct results.
Balijepally et
al. 2009, p.
102
Software
Performance
Refers to four dimensions; on-time completion
(meets its baseline goals for duration), on-budget
completion (meets its baseline goals for cost),
functionality (meets its functional scope goals), and
quality (a good working product).
Alzoubi &
Gill 2016
xx
Abstract Agile development is a highly collaborative environment, which requires active
communication among stakeholders. This active communication helps in producing
high quality working software systems in short releases and iterations. Due to the ever-
increasing competition, there is an increasing interest among practitioners and
researchers in contemporary geographically distributed agile development (GDAD).
GDAD claims to offer several benefits over co-located agile development such as lower
production cost, around the clock development, faster time to market, and the liberty of
involving the most talented developers across the globe. However, in the GDAD
environment, active communication is difficult to achieve due to many challenges such
as differences in geographical locations and time.
Literature has reported that agile enterprise architecture (EA) could help enhancing
GDAD communication and performance. However, little empirical evidence is known
to support this claim. Furthermore, it is not clear how to effectively achieve and study
active communication construct in GDAD in terms of its dimensions, determinants and
effects on performance? As a result, there is a lack of understanding about how GDAD
organisations can establish and maintain active communication among distributed
teams. This dissertation contributes to this research gap, first, by developing a research
model based on an extensive systematic literature review on the GDAD communication
challenges, techniques and strategies to mitigate these challenges, and the impact of
communication on GDAD software performance. This study provides important
insights about GDAD communication by identifying and empirically examining the
relationships among the two dimensions of active communication (communication
efficiency and communication effectiveness), one antecedent that can be controlled
(agile enterprise architecture (EA)), and four aspects of GDAD performance (on-time
completion, on-budget completion, software functionality, and software quality).
The study then validates the research model using an integrated research approach that
combines quantitative and qualitative data analyses. The quantitative data are collected
using a survey technique from 160 responses and analysed using Partial Least Squares
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(PLS) analyses. The qualitative data are collected using interview techniques through 10
post hoc case studies and analysed using content analysis technique.
This study reports that agile EA has positive impacts on communication efficiency and
communication effectiveness, and on GDAD performance. It has also been found that
communication efficiency and communication effectiveness have significant differential
impacts on GDAD performance aspects. While communication efficiency is, generally,
related to on-time and on-budget completions, communication effectiveness is,
generally, related to functionality and quality aspects.
While the prior GDAD literature offers little guidance for GDAD communication issue,
this research contributes to both theory and practice, and offers a number of useful
insights and agile EA driven GDAD model. From theory perspective, insights and
model are theoretically based on and empirically tested about the value and positive
impact of agile EA on active communication dimensions and GDAD performance, and
the impact of communication efficiency and communication effectiveness on GDAD
performance in the GDAD environment. Moreover, from practice perspective, this
study indicates that agile EA, communication efficiency, and communication
effectiveness together increase the GDAD performance and thus, facilitate a better
GDAD performance than in GDAD that does not employ agile EA.
Despite the above-mentioned contributions, like any other studies, this study has also
some limitations such as sample size, time and potential analysis bias of applied
qualitative and quantitative research methods. A number of steps were taken to mitigate
or minimise the effects of these limitations. Thus, findings of this work should be
considered with its limitaiotns when interpreting it in the relevant theoretical and
practical context.