| dc.description.abstract | This Master thesis concerns the relation between leadership and management in agile software development projects and contributes to knowledge on this relation and practices in Software industry. As software development and projects methods has evolved over the years, there has been a shift from the plan-based to the agile methodologies. Plan-based methods involve rigid management control of the development projects on plan, time, budget, and up-front requirements specification, while the value-based agile methodology focus on autonomous project teams, process improvements, change management, and customer collaboration. The agile methodology recognizes the need for management, but value more leadership and customer collaboration, implying a possible contradiction between the two concepts leadership and management.
I conducted an explorative multiple case study using semi-structured interviews and document review in four Norwegian software companies to understand the relation between leadership and management in real-life agile software development projects. The study investigates the characteristics of management in agile projects, and how leadership relate to the management regime, regarding project and teamwork. The study seeks to understand the possible challenging contradiction between the two concepts leadership and management. Literature and knowledge about agile methodology, leadership, and management, serve as a foundation for the study.
The study shows leadership and management perceived as two distinct roles but conducted by the project manager in a trust-based leadership style, and the impression is that the two roles are perceived and conducted as two complementary functions in an appropriate manner. Establish trustworthy working conditions, and management respecting agile values, mentions as challenging factors, but the study did not find that the management and leadership of these factors is challenging. The results shows that the leadership and management processes “live” as complementary processes and functions in harmony with agile working conditions. The adoption and practices of agile methodology within software industries seems matured and moving into consolidation with leadership and management in agile software projects. The findings have implications for future research on agile software development projects and supporting guidelines for management and leadership in the projects. | |