Analysis of adoption of agile project management in financial organizations that use in-house software development

Abstract

The custom developments of software to satisfy on-going and emerging organizational needs are typically recognized as a vital factor for the success and sustainability of modem enterprises. The dynamic changes that modem businesses face create an immense pressure on them to find solutions. They have to rely on modem technological and custom-built software based solutions that are developed rapidly and delivered to exacting customer requirements. The traditional development methodologies used by software companies are no longer suitable to manage these volatile requirements of client organizations. This is since both business requirements and business environments undergo rapid and unexpected changes. In this context, the software development approach termed as Agile Methodology has introduced many advantages to modem software builders. The ability of agile methods to accommodate changes in volatile and ambiguous settings is one ofthe most appreciated factors. In the widely used approach ofin-house software development, it is common to find both the client and the development team in an on-site setting. This could occur because of necessity, as in-house software development demands to encourage better communication between the development team and the customer. This research is a comparative study of in-house software development, specifically in the financial sector where developers may use both agile and traditional development methodologies. The study focused on two determined factors that motivate adoption of either agile methods or traditional methods and measured their significance. This research, which is based on an empirical approach, used as its survey population software professionals working in licensed commercial banks, licensed specialized banks and financial organizations registered with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. This research comparatively studied the project management success with requirement engineering, customer commitment, team capabilities and management initiatives in agile and traditional project management environments. It found that projects in agile project management environments, in terms of explained variables are more successful compared to traditional project management environments. To apply agile methodologies, requirement engineering, customer commitment and management initiatives are important. On the other hand, these factors should be in satisfactory level to deliver projects successfully with a higher customer satisfaction. Recommendations based on the research findings of this study could help organizations to adopt agile project management successfully.