**4. Agile team management**

Concerns about principles and practices of agile development approaches are well examined in many works as [28] where authors offer several answers to area. Agile is a people-focused approach [27] and considered effective in terms of team work and collaboration of small teams. People factors that can affect the performance of the team from an agile perspective are analyzed. The ability of adapting to changes efficiently and cost-effectively influenced in a radical way the path to success and survival in business environments [38]. As business processes become more complex, interconnected, interdependent, and interrelated than ever before, traditional approaches [4, 6] are no longer used and are characterized as reflecting linear and sequential processes. Even seemingly minor changes can produce unanticipated effects, as systems become more complex and their components more interdependent. Agile development methodologies were developed in response to this complexity, with a focus on rapid iterative delivery, flexibility and working code [4, 5]. However, for this migration to be successful, organizations must channel the bulk of their change efforts to the development team. The reason is that, the development team serves as a "fulcrum" on which the organization's efforts are applied and through which these efforts are turned into software products for customers [4].

Although agile development methodologies are viewed as an improvement to the traditional methodologies several key considerations need to be taken into account when deciding to migrate to Agile. In order for this migration to be successful we must take into account several variables such as the organizational culture, resistance to change, accepting the new roles by the members, the use of self-organizing teams, the insurance of face to face communication on behalf of the organization and the motivation of the members composing the team.

6 Will-be-set-by-IN-TECH

and *b)* the sagacity needed to make the connections between different pieces of information [1]. Computers can help develop serendipity by *i)* revealing stimulating connections, and *ii)*

Creative activities are the result of the relationship between an individual [2] and the realm of his or her work, and other human beings. The resolution of complex problems is based on different aspects of knowledge that reside in the minds of individual stakeholders as tacit knowledge [2]. Full agreement may not always be achievable but what is decisive is to make informed compromises. This can be achieved by using the so called symmetry of ignorance [2]. Symmetry of ignorance is also highly valuable in identifying risks that may affect the team's goal negatively. Stakeholders bring perspectives to the collaborative process, perspectives that are of considerable importance in framing the problem. This concept requires externalizations or boundary objects that capture distinct domains of human

At the core of intelligent human performance, is not the individual human mind in isolation, but the interaction [2] of the mind with *(i)* tools and artifacts, and *(ii)* groups of minds in interaction with each other. In the first case, the interaction with externalization objects is straightforward, the knowledge an individual needs is distributed between his head and the world - an address book, a file system, etc. In the second one, the need for such objects becomes more critical because the distribution of knowledge has to be available to all members

Externalization objects are essential to collaboration [2] because they *a*) create and store mental effort records, evidence that is outside the memory; and *b*) represent artifacts that provide information and form the basis for critique and debate. Very valuable assets for a group or organization are not only the results but also the way people think, the way they get to god results. It is a significant challenge to try to capture the thinking process in tools that are

Concerns about principles and practices of agile development approaches are well examined in many works as [28] where authors offer several answers to area. Agile is a people-focused approach [27] and considered effective in terms of team work and collaboration of small teams. People factors that can affect the performance of the team from an agile perspective are analyzed. The ability of adapting to changes efficiently and cost-effectively influenced in a radical way the path to success and survival in business environments [38]. As business processes become more complex, interconnected, interdependent, and interrelated than ever before, traditional approaches [4, 6] are no longer used and are characterized as reflecting linear and sequential processes. Even seemingly minor changes can produce unanticipated effects, as systems become more complex and their components more interdependent. Agile development methodologies were developed in response to this complexity, with a focus on rapid iterative delivery, flexibility and working code [4, 5]. However, for this migration to be successful, organizations must channel the bulk of their change efforts to the development team. The reason is that, the development team serves as a "fulcrum" on which the organization's efforts are applied and through which these efforts are turned into software

supporting either the growth or the sharing of an idea.

knowledge.

implicitly.

remarkably easy and intuitive to use.[31]

**4. Agile team management**

products for customers [4].

Traditional teams are characterized as command and control teams while agile ones are characterized as self-organizing teams. From this view, agile teams have a number of key advantages over traditional ones. For this reason, agile teams succeed to deliver products at better quality in less amount of time. A main problem in adopting agile is represented by human resources and their resistance to change. For example the manager might be afraid of losing his power over the members of the group, or becoming "role-less". Although the roles might change the manager is still needed not for planning and controlling ability, but for the important job of interfacing on the team's behalf with the rest of the organization [4]. Project managers pass from planning, controlling, directing, and managing, to new roles like building trust, facilitating and supporting team decisions, expanding team capabilities, anticipating and influencing change. They become facilitators, liaisons and network builders, boundary managers, "resource allocators", team champions and advocates, and in most cases, still have responsibility to watch the project budget. The roles of team members also change, as the group takes on increasing ownership of work processes and the agile practices. They become decision makers, conflict managers, innovators and conveners of standup meetings. These new and unique roles of the project manager and team members engender a more co-operative team with rapid results [4].

The agile methods focus on each team member and offers motivations to achieve a common goal of the team and the project. Building projects around motivated individuals, giving them the environment and support they need, and trusting them to get the job done; is central to the success of an agile team [42]. Different agile methods have different approaches for encouraging motivated individuals in development teams. For example, Extreme Programming, XP [7] has the concept of "collective ownership", while Scrum [41] has "scrum teams".

Communication represents a crucial factor on agile methods and treated in a different manner as traditional methods do. Face-to-face communication is preferred rather than written documents and this new mentality increases the quality of coordination and communication. This is in line with one of its core principles that states that, the most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation [42].

It is well known that organizational culture influences the project trajectory and its implementation environment. Therefore, the only way to succeed in such a change is through a conscious programme of continual reinforcement of the desired behaviors until they become a natural and automatic part of the daily business of the organization [4].

To sum up, although agile development might be an improvement on the traditional development methodologies, an organization looking to migrate to agile needs to take into consideration several aspects regarding organizational culture and other variables that may prevent performance during this transition.
