The customer effect in agile system development projects. A process tracing case study

Abstract

The success of an agile system development project is dependent on many factors, including the customer organization’s ability to collaborate with and support the development team. This support consists not only of a single project owner or an on-site customer, but involves several stakeholders in the customer company, and the attitude and focus of the whole customer organization towards the project will influence project success. In this case study a customer organization’s involvement in an agile system development project and the consequences of the customer and the development teams’ collective behavior are analyzed. A process tracing research method is applied, aiming to identify causal chains in the project’s progress towards a partly unsuccessful final delivery combined with an accepting customer. The analysis shows that in this case, main causes for low delivery rate are an unprepared customer and a large initial project scope. On the other hand, the agile project organization and good communication ensure an involved customer that still has expectations for the project.