Adopting Agile in a large organization: balancing the old with the new

Much has been written about adopting agile software development within a large organisation. A key aspect of this significant organisational change is to ensure that a common understanding of the new technology emerges within all stakeholder groups. We propose that an analysis framework based on the concept of Technological Frames (TFs) can identify where understanding is in conflict across different stakeholder groups. We used TFs to analyse data collected in one organisation in the process of adopting an agile development approach. In doing so, we identified several dimensions (called ‘elements’ in TFs) which characterise a group’s understanding of agility. In this paper, we present these elements and describe the TFs for four distinct groups. We suggest that these elements may be used by other organisations adopting agile methods to help understand the views of different stakeholder groups.