Agile software development and IT-architecture interactions in the public sector

A multi-case study approach to identify whether these roles are complementary or counterproductive

Master thesis (2022)

Authors

C. van der Vliet Technology, Policy and Management

Contributors

H.G. van der Voort Organisation & Governance - TPM (graduation committee member)
W.G.P. Heijnen KPMG IT Advisory (coach)
Faculty
Technology, Policy and Management, Technology, Policy and Management
Copyright: © 2022 Stan van der Vliet
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Published Date

07-07-2022

Language

English

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Faculty

Technology, Policy and Management

Abstract

Large software projects often overrun costs, development time and do not deliver what has been envisioned by the customer. An important factor contributing to these cost overruns is the mismatch in the approaches of IT-architects and agile software development roles. In literature there are hints that complementary added value could be achieved from interaction of these roles. For practitioners there is need for governance strategies that improve the added value of combining these roles and their approaches in a complementary way. To identify how governance strategies help to obtain complementary added value from IT-architecture and agile software developer interactions this research used a multi-case study approach with exploratory and theory building focus. Interviews with IT-architecture and agile developer roles were used to collect data and compose case studies. This approach allowed to identify governance strategies with governance strategies that were used in practice. Multiple cases were chosen to analyse governance strategies across cases, which improved generalisability. The results include a topology of interaction models, a set of added value and problems found in the cases, related to their interaction model and a set of descriptions of governance strategies that could be used to achieve complementary added value from the interaction of software architects and agile development teams.The case studies and results provide practitioners with the opportunity to update their knowledge and change their perspective on interaction of IT-architecture and agile development roles. Future research could expand the results in terms of breadth and depth of organisations.