Agile Practices and Impacts on Project Success

Abstract

Abstract The creation of Agile frameworks signified the development of practices specifically aimed at delivering projects - in an unpredictable world - on time, within budget and to the required quality. The purpose of this study is to present the potential effects of common Agile practices on conditions for project success. Two literature reviews are conducted. The first literature review identifies commonly reported Agile practices, while the second literature review focuses on these Agile practices’ reported effects. The two literature reviews identify twelve commonly reported Agile practices and their reported effects on six conditions for project success. Some Agile practices are shown to be more common than others. An abundance of identified terms used for Agile practices complicates the review of the existing empirical studies and the establishment of a common research agenda. Furthermore, the research shows that most of the examined Agile practices have both positive and negative effects on the conditions for project success. Only a few of the commonly reported Agile practices are shown to have a solely positive effect. The study identifies variations in the amount of available research on the effects of the various Agile practices. For research, this study identifies Agile practices and effects that need further attention. For practice, this study shows that Agile practices should be implemented with the desired effects, and the organizational and contextual conditions, in mind.