Team Adaptability in Agile Information Systems Development

While agile development methods have enjoyed widespread adoption, literature has lagged behind in the development of theory to explain its impact on team performance. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model to explain the impact of agile software development on the performance of information systems development (ISD) teams. We first propose a new construct “ISD team agility” which we conceptualize along the iterativeness and collaborativeness of conducting fundamental activities of software development. Based on team adaptability theory as well as on empirical exploration, we then develop a model that explains the impact of ISD team agility on team performance. Central team aspects of adaptive teams are proposed to be directly and indirectly influenced by team agility and, therefore, help us explain the effects of agile ISD on team performance. This research project intends to quantitatively test the model using data from professional software developers.