Ågren Pernilla, Knoph Eli, Berntsson Svensson Richard
Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Empir Softw Eng. 2022;27(6):121. doi: 10.1007/s10664-022-10176-9. Epub 2022 Jun 22.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many agile practitioners had to transition into a remote work environment. Despite remote work not being a new concept for agile software practitioners, the forced or recommended nature of remote work is new. This study investigates how the involuntary shift to remote work and how social restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected agile software development (ASD), and how agile practitioners have been affected in terms of ways of working. An explanatory sequential mixed methods study was performed. Data were collected one year into the COVID-19 pandemic through a questionnaire with 96 respondents and in-depth semi-structured interviews with seven practitioners from seven different companies. Data were analyzed through Bayesian analysis and thematic analysis. The results show, in general, that the aspects of ASD that have been the most affected is communication and social interactions, while technical work aspects have not experienced the same changes. Moreover, feeling forced to work remotely has a significant impact on different aspects of ASD, e.g., productivity and communication, and industry practitioners' employment of agile development and ways of working have primarily been affected by the lack of social interaction and the shift to digital communication. The results also suggest that there may be a group maturing debt when teams do go back into office, as digital communication and the lack of psychological safety stand in the way for practitioners' ability to have sensitive discussions and progress as a team in a remote setting.
由于新冠疫情，许多敏捷从业者不得不转向远程工作环境。尽管远程工作对敏捷软件开发从业者来说并非新概念，但此次远程工作的强制或推荐性质却是新的。本研究调查了向远程工作的非自愿转变以及新冠疫情所带来的社会限制如何影响敏捷软件开发（ASD），以及敏捷从业者在工作方式方面受到了怎样的影响。开展了一项解释性序列混合方法研究。在新冠疫情爆发一年后，通过对96名受访者进行问卷调查以及对来自7家不同公司的7名从业者进行深入的半结构化访谈来收集数据。通过贝叶斯分析和主题分析对数据进行分析。结果总体表明，受影响最大的敏捷软件开发方面是沟通和社交互动，而技术工作方面并未经历同样的变化。此外，被迫远程工作对敏捷软件开发的不同方面有重大影响，例如生产力和沟通，并且行业从业者对敏捷开发的运用和工作方式主要受到社交互动缺失以及向数字通信转变的影响。结果还表明，当团队回到办公室时，可能会出现群体成熟债务，因为数字通信和心理安全感的缺失阻碍了从业者在远程环境中进行敏感讨论并作为一个团队取得进展的能力。
