Challenges to Sustaining Agility: An Exploratory Case Study

Abstract

Many organisations have embraced agile software development to achieve high developer productivity, improve flexibility and shorten lead times through continuous improvement. While agile principles, methods, and practices have proved highly effective for software development teams and projects, whole organisations are now basing their agile transformations on these same principles. Some of these organisations have sustained their agility over many years, requiring significant commitment and ongoing change. However, there is limited empirical research on how agility is sustained in organisations. Based on an in-depth exploratory case study involving nine interviews with experienced agile practitioners across various roles, we identify 10 challenges faced by a single organisation in its efforts to sustain agility over six years.