Abstract
The purpose of this study was to better understand how a Scrum implementation altered socio-psychological phenomena, including group prototypes, in existing software teams. The specific socio-psychological phenomena under study were cohesion, collaboration, and motivation. Insight was gained by interviewing certified practitioners experienced in an agile methodology known as the Scrum framework. Each interview sought to understand their experiences regarding changes in group phenomena as well as insight into why any transitions occurred. |A transcendental phenomenological approach was used to explore the shared implementation experiences of the practitioners. Phenomenological methods emphasize the phenomena to be explored while a transcendental approach emphasizes practitioner descriptions of their experiences. Data was collected with an interview instrument during recorded interviews. Interviews were transcribed and coded to create common experience themes across the participants. |Three major themes arose from the data: psychological, cognitive, and environmental. Seven sub-themes of connectedness, empowerment, ownership, team success realization, team member fit, organizational preparedness, and management behavior also surfaced. Connectedness, empowerment, and ownership sub-themes comprised the psychological theme. Team success realization and team member fit subthemes encompassed the cognitive theme. The environmental theme contained the organizational preparedness and management behavior. Psychological and cognitive themes tended to advance the development of team-based socio-psychological phenomena while the environmental factors theme tended to restrain them.| The data likewise suggested that socio-psychological changes did occur within teams, individuals experienced self-categorization and depersonalization, and individuals with personal agency evolved toward teams with common goals. The data further raised the concept of agility parity between an organization and its teams. Agility parity illustrated the affect exogenous variables, as defined under the Institutional Analysis & Development (IAD) framework, may impart on an action situation. The data suggested strong exogenous variables could negate advancements in socio-psychological phenomena and force reversion to pre-Scrum behavior. |Two major implications arose from the data. First, organizations and managers should develop the commitment and capability to actively help teams during a Scrum framework implementation and provide ongoing validation of that support. Support includes fostering empowerment and ownership within teams, removing roadblocks and barriers, allowing teams to question their environment and make improvements, and by granting the authority to decide how to work and to solve problems. The data indicates that such support can reverse the negative influence of environmental factors. Organizations should also invest in training for executives and managers. |Second, agile coaches should encourage teams to embrace the leadership and mental responsibilities offered by the Scrum framework, nurture psychological theme advancements within teams, foster the team success realization while remaining prepared for the team member fit realization, raise levels of agility within the organization and management, and prevent an “us versus them” mentality from developing between management and teams. In general, influencing the level of organizational agility is key to sustainable Scrum framework implementations.