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In 2020, the world changed due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Containment measures to reduce the spread of the virus were planned and implemented by many countries and companies. Worldwide, companies sent their employees to work from home. This change has led to significant challenges in teams that were co-located before the pandemic. Agile software development teams were affected by this switch, as agile methods focus on communication and collaboration. Research results have already been published on the challenges of switching to remote work and the effects on agile software development teams. This article presents a systematic literature review. We identified 12 relevant papers for our studies and analyzed them on detail. The results provide an overview how agile software development teams reacted to the switch to remote work, e.g., which agile practices they adapted. We also gained insights on the changes of the performance of agile software development teams and social effects on agile software development teams during the pandemic.
Companies worldwide have enabled their employees to work remotely as a consequence of the Covid 19 pandemic. Software development is a human-centered discipline and thrives on teamwork. Agile methods are focusing on several social aspects of software development. Software development teams in Germany were mainly co-located before the pandemic. This paper aims to validate the findings of existing studies by expanding on an existing multiple-case study. Therefore, we collected data by conducting semi-structured interviews, observing agile practices, and viewing project documents in three cases. Based on the results, we can confirm the following findings: 1) The teams rapidly adapted the agile practices and roles, 2) communication is more objective within the teams, 3) decreased social exchange between team members, 4) the expectation of a combined approach of remote and onsite work after the pandemic, 5) stable or increased (perceived) performance and 6) stable or increased well-being of team members.
Context: Agile software development (ASD) sets social aspects like communication and collaboration in focus. Thus, one may assume that the specific work organization of companies impacts the work of ASD teams. A major change in work organization is the switch to a 4-day work week, which some companies investigated in experiments. Also, recent studies show that ASD teams are affected by the switch to remote work since the Covid 19 pandemic outbreak in 2020.
Objective: Our study presents empirical findings on the effects on ASD teams operating remote in a 4-day work week organization. Method: We performed a qualitative single case study and conducted seven semi-structured interviews, observed 14 agile practices and screened eight project documents and protocols of agile practices.
Results: We found, that the teams adapted the agile method in use due to the change to a 4-day work week environment and the switch to remote work. The productivity of the two ASD teams did not decrease. Although the stress level of the ASD team member increased due to the 4-day work week, we found that the job satisfaction of the individual ASD team members is affected positively. Finally, we point to affects on social facets of the ASD teams.
Conclusion: The research community benefits from our results as the current state of research dealing with the effects of a 4-day work week on ASD teams is limited. Also, our findings provide several practical implications for ASD teams working remote in a 4-day work week.