An Agile Enterprise Architecture Driven Approach to Enhance Communication in

Geographically Distributed Agile Development

Author:

Yehia Ibrahim Alzoubi

Supervisors:

Dr Asif Gill

Dr Bruce Moulton

Dr Ahmed Al-Ani

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology

University of Technology Sydney

Date of Submission:

December 2016

i

Certificate of Original Authorship

I, Yehia Alzoubi, certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted

for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as

fully acknowledged within the text. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me.

Any help that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis

itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and

literature used are indicated in the thesis.

Yehia Alzoubi December 2016

ii

Acknowledgements First, and foremost, praise is due to Allah who has bestowed upon me many blessings

and patience, ability, and skills to complete this work.

I would like to express my sincere thankfulness to all those (named or not) who helped

me to complete this long trip. I would like to thank my supervisors Drs. Asif Gill,

Ahmed Al-Ani, and Bruce Moulton for their supportive guidance.

Special thanks go to my supervisor Dr. Asif Gill for his continuous support and

encouragement, without which this study would have never been completed. I am also

appreciative of his countless hours of advice and unlimited support in improving my

research skills.

I would like to thank each respondent and interviewee who has participated in this

study. I also would like to thank each expert who has helped me in evaluating the

research outcomes.

I am grateful to my brothers, sisters (especially Om-Bishr), relatives, father and mother

in law, and friends who have always encouraged me during this time.

I would like to thank my wife for her patience and continuous encouragement to

complete this thesis. My last words are for my two little angels: Yousef and Judi, whose

childhood play and mess have been pleasant melodies to my ears and eyes during my

trip.

iii

Dedication

I dedicate this work to my late father (1933-1992), may Allah bless his soul, who first

taught me the alphabets of this life. Even after all these years, you are in my thoughts

every day dad. I also dedicate this work to my unlimited love and support-my mum

(A’ishah), may Allah give you healthiness and long life.

iv

List of Publications Book Chapters

Alzoubi, Y.I. & Gill, A.Q. 2016, 'An agile enterprise architecture-driven model for

geographically distributed agile development', in D. Vogel, X. Guo, H. Linger, C.

Barry, M. Lang & C. Schneider (eds), Transforming Healthcare Through Information

Systems, Springer International Publishing, pp. 63-77.

Journal Articles

Alzoubi, Y.I., Gill, A.Q. & Al-Ani, A. 2015, 'Distributed agile development

communication: an agile architecture driven framework', Journal of Software, vol. 10,

no. 6, pp. 681-94. {Double-blind review; ERA ranked B journal}

Alzoubi, Y.I., Gill, A.Q. & Al-Ani, A. 2016, 'Empirical studies of geographically

distributed agile development communication challenges: a systematic review',

Information and Management, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 22-37. {Double-blind review; ERA

ranked A* journal}

Conference Proceedings

Alzoubi, Y.I. & Gill, A.Q. 2014, 'Agile global software development communication

challenges: a systematic review', In Proceedings of the 18th Pacific Asia Conference on

Information Systems (PACIS 2014), p. 20. {Double-blind review; ERA ranked A

Conference}

Alzoubi, Y.I. & Gill, A. 2015, 'An agile enterprise architecture driven model for

geographically distributed agile development', In Proceedings of the 24th International

Conference on Information System Development (ISD 2015), Harbin, China. {Double-

blind review; ERA ranked A Conference}

v

Table of Contents Certificate of Original Authorship ................................................................................. i

Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... ii

Dedication ....................................................................................................................... iii

List of Publications ......................................................................................................... iv

Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ v

List of Figures ................................................................................................................. xi

List of Tables ................................................................................................................ xiii

List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................... xvi

Glossary ........................................................................................................................ xvii

Abstract .......................................................................................................................... xx

Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1

1.1 Research Background ......................................................................................... 1

1.2 Research Problem ............................................................................................... 4

1.3 Research Questions and Objectives ................................................................... 5

1.4 Research Design and Methodology .................................................................... 7

1.4.1 Research Strategy ............................................................................................................... 9 1.4.2 Survey .............................................................................................................................. 10 1.4.3 Semi-Structured Interviews .............................................................................................. 11 1.4.4 Theoretical Foundation .................................................................................................... 11

1.5 Research Scope and Key Assumptions ............................................................ 12

1.6 Research Findings ............................................................................................ 13

1.7 Research Implications ...................................................................................... 14

1.8 Organisation of this Thesis ............................................................................... 15

1.9 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................. 19

Chapter 2 Overview of Geographically Distributed Agile Development ............. 20

2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 20

2.2 Historical Perspective on Software Development ............................................ 21

2.3 Plan-Driven (Waterfall/Traditional) Development .......................................... 24

2.4 Spiral Software Development .......................................................................... 25

2.5 Agile Software Development ........................................................................... 27

2.5.1 What Is an Agility of SD? ................................................................................................ 32 2.5.2 Overview of Some of Agile Methods .............................................................................. 33

2.6 Distributed Traditional Software Development ............................................... 45

vi

2.7 Geographically Distributed Agile Development .............................................. 46

2.8 Literature Gaps ................................................................................................. 56

2.9 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................. 58

Chapter 3 Challenges of Communication in Geographically Distributed Agile

Development .................................................................................................................. 59

3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 59

3.2 GDAD Challenges ............................................................................................ 60

3.3 GDAD Communication Challenges-SLR ........................................................ 65

3.3.1 SLR Method and Limitation ............................................................................................ 66 3.3.2 SLR Findings ................................................................................................................... 74

3.4 GDAD Communication SLR Overview- State-of-the-Art ............................... 93

3.5 Thesis Motivation and Literature Gaps Fine-Tunning ..................................... 95

3.6 Rationale for Adopting EA in GDAD .............................................................. 96

3.7 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................. 97

Chapter 4 Research Model ....................................................................................... 99

4.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 99

4.2 Common Ground Theory ............................................................................... 100

4.3 Agile Enterprise Architecture ......................................................................... 106

4.3.1 Traditional Enterprise Architecture Overview ............................................................... 106 4.3.2 Agile Enterprise Architecture ........................................................................................ 113 4.3.3 An Overview of Agile EA Frameworks ......................................................................... 116 4.3.4 Adaptive EA Framework ............................................................................................... 119

4.4 Agile EA Driven Communication Approach ................................................. 122

4.4.1 Architecture Owner Roles .............................................................................................. 126 4.4.2 Agile EA Driven Communication Roles ........................................................................ 128

4.5 Research Model Constructs ............................................................................ 129

4.5.1 Agile EA Construct ........................................................................................................ 131 4.5.2 GDAD Active Communication ...................................................................................... 137 4.5.3 GDAD Performance ....................................................................................................... 146

4.6 Hypotheses Definitions .................................................................................. 148

4.6.1 Effect of Agile EA on GDAD Active Communication .................................................. 150 4.6.2 Effect of Agile EA on GDAD Performance ................................................................... 152 4.6.3 Relationship between GDAD Active Communication Dimensions (Efficiency,

Effectiveness) ................................................................................................................................. 153 4.6.4 Effect of Communication Efficiency on GDAD Performance ....................................... 154 4.6.5 Effect of Communication Effectiveness on GDAD Performance .................................. 155

vii

4.7 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 156

Chapter 5 Research Design and Methodology ..................................................... 158

5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 158

5.2 Research Design ............................................................................................. 159

5.3 Research Philosophy ...................................................................................... 163

5.3.1 Defining Research Paradigms in IS Research ................................................................ 164 5.3.2 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 168 5.3.3 Theoretical Foundation .................................................................................................. 174 5.3.4 Research Strategy ........................................................................................................... 176

5.4 Research Data Collection Methods ................................................................ 177

5.5 Preliminary Research Model Evaluation ........................................................ 179

5.6 Survey ............................................................................................................. 181

5.6.1 Research Instrument Development ................................................................................ 183 5.6.2 Research Instrument Validation ..................................................................................... 191 5.6.3 The Consent Form and Information Sheet ..................................................................... 197 5.6.4 The Questionnaire of the Survey.................................................................................... 198 5.6.5 Sample Population ......................................................................................................... 198 5.6.6 The Comments Parts of the Survey ................................................................................ 200 5.6.7 Survey Data Collection Method ..................................................................................... 200 5.6.8 Quantitative Data Analysis Approach ............................................................................ 201

5.7 Qualitative Case Study ................................................................................... 202

5.7.1 The Semi-Structured Approach of the Interviews .......................................................... 204 5.7.2 The Interview Protocol................................................................................................... 205 5.7.3 The Participants of the Interviews.................................................................................. 205 5.7.4 Interviews Process ......................................................................................................... 206 5.7.5 Qualitative Data Analysis Approach .............................................................................. 206

5.8 Ethics Consideration ....................................................................................... 207

5.9 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 209

Chapter 6 Survey Data Examination and Preparation ....................................... 210

6.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 210

6.2 Demographic Analysis of the Sample ............................................................ 211

6.2.1 Industry of Respondent’s Organisation .......................................................................... 213 6.2.2 GDAD Approach Used by Respondent’s Organisation ................................................. 214 6.2.3 Open Source Solutions Approach Used by Respondent’s Organisation ........................ 214 6.2.4 Respondent’s Job Title ................................................................................................... 215 6.2.5 Experience, number of Teams, and Number of Members in Teams .............................. 216

6.3 Data Screening and Cleaning ......................................................................... 216

viii

6.4 Missing Data Analysis .................................................................................... 217

6.5 Outliers Testing .............................................................................................. 222

6.6 Testing the Underlying Assumptions of Multiple Regression ....................... 223

6.6.1 Normality ....................................................................................................................... 224 6.6.2 Linearity ......................................................................................................................... 226 6.6.3 Homoscedasticity ........................................................................................................... 227 6.6.4 Multicollinearity ............................................................................................................ 227

6.7 Exploratory Factor Analysis ........................................................................... 228

6.8 Generalisability Testing ................................................................................. 234

6.8.1 Common Method Bias ................................................................................................... 234 6.8.2 Non-Response Bias ........................................................................................................ 235

6.9 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 237

Chapter 7 Survey Findings ..................................................................................... 239

7.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 239

7.2 PLS-SEM Approach ....................................................................................... 240

7.3 Assessment of Measurement Model ............................................................... 242

7.3.1 Content Validity ............................................................................................................. 244 7.3.2 Reflective Measurement Model Evaluation ................................................................... 244 7.3.3 Formative Measurement Model Evaluation ................................................................... 249

7.4 Assessment of Structural Model ..................................................................... 251

7.4.1 Model Predictive Power (R2) ......................................................................................... 252 7.4.2 Hypotheses Testing ........................................................................................................ 253 7.4.3 Effect Size ( 2) ............................................................................................................... 256 7.4.4 Predictive Validity of the Model .................................................................................... 257 7.4.5 The Mediating Effect ..................................................................................................... 258

7.5 Second-Order PLS Model .............................................................................. 263

7.6 Goodness-of-Fit of the Model ........................................................................ 265

7.7 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 266

Chapter 8 Case Study Findings .............................................................................. 268

8.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 268

8.2 Cases Description ........................................................................................... 269

8.3 Data Validity and Reliability .......................................................................... 271

8.4 Content Analysis Approach Used in the Study .............................................. 272

8.5 Data Analysis ................................................................................................. 274

8.5.1 Data Preparation and Familiarisation ............................................................................. 274 8.5.2 Data Reduction............................................................................................................... 275

ix

8.5.3 Data Display................................................................................................................... 276 8.5.4 Data Synthesis and Drawing Conclusions ..................................................................... 276

8.6 Qualitative Findings ....................................................................................... 276

8.6.1 Leximancer Results ........................................................................................................ 277 8.6.2 Agile EA ........................................................................................................................ 278 8.6.3 GDAD Active Communication ...................................................................................... 288 8.6.4 GDAD Performance ....................................................................................................... 298 8.6.5 Relationship between Agile EA and Communication Efficiency .................................. 299 8.6.6 Relationship between Agile EA and Communication Effectiveness ............................. 300 8.6.7 Relationship between Agile EA and GDAD Performance............................................. 302 8.6.8 Relationship between Communication Efficiency and Communication Effectiveness . 304 8.6.9 Relationship between Communication Efficiency and GDAD Performance................. 304 8.6.10 Relationship between Communication Effectiveness and GDAD Performance ............ 305

8.7 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 306

Chapter 9 Discussion of Research Findings .......................................................... 308

9.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 308

9.2 Summary of the Survey Findings ................................................................... 309

9.2.1 Descriptive Findings ...................................................................................................... 309 9.2.2 PLS Model Findings ...................................................................................................... 310

9.3 Cross-Analysis Findings-Addressing Research Questions (RQ3-RQ5) ........ 313

9.3.1 Effect of Agile EA on GDAD Active Communication (RQ3) ....................................... 315 9.3.2 Effect of Agile EA on GDAD Performance (RQ4) ....................................................... 317 9.3.3 Relationship between GDAD Active Communication Dimensions (Efficiency,

Effectiveness) ................................................................................................................................. 318 9.3.4 Effect of GDAD Active Communication on GDAD Performance (RQ5) ..................... 320

9.4 Recommendations for Using Agile EA and Enhancing Active Communication

321

9.4.1 Agile AE ........................................................................................................................ 321 9.4.2 Communication Efficiency and Communication Effectiveness (RQ6) ......................... 323

9.5 Reflectional Learning (Main Research Question) .......................................... 324

9.6 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 325

Chapter 10 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 327

10.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 327

10.2 Overview of the Study ................................................................................ 327

10.3 Summary of the Study Findings ................................................................. 329

10.4 Contributions of the Study .......................................................................... 331

10.4.1 Contribution to Academic Research and Theory ........................................................... 331

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10.4.2 Contribution to Practice ................................................................................................. 334 10.4.3 Contribution to Teaching and Learning ......................................................................... 336

10.5 Limitations of the Study ............................................................................. 337

10.6 Prospective Directions for Future Research ............................................... 338

10.7 Concluding Remarks................................................................................... 340

10.8 Chapter Summary ....................................................................................... 341

Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 343

Appendices ................................................................................................................... 367

Appendix 3.1: GDAD Challenges Systematic Review References .......................... 367

Appendix 3.2: GDAD Communication Challenges Systematic Review References -

Empirical GDAD Studies .......................................................................................... 369

Appendix 5.1: List of Initial Generated Items .......................................................... 371

Appendix 5.1(a): Initial Pool of Items ............................................................................................ 371 Appendix 5.1(b): Initial Set of Instrument’s Items Sent to Experts ................................................ 375

Appendix 5.2: The Full-Scale Survey Questionnaire ............................................... 377

Appendix 5.2(a): Full-Scale Consent and Information Form (The Ethics Form) ........................... 377 Appendix 5.2(b): Full-Scale Questionnaire .................................................................................... 380

Appendix 5.3: The Interview Protocol ...................................................................... 390

Appendix 5.3(a): Interview Consent Form ..................................................................................... 390 Appendix 5.3(b): Interview Protocol .............................................................................................. 392

Appendix 6.1: Items’ Coding (Labels of Variables Used in the Study) ................... 394

Appendix 6.2: Correlation Matrix for Reflective Indicators (Pearson Test) ............ 395

Appendix 6.3: Non-Response Bias Test for Indicators ............................................. 396

Appendix 7.1: Cronbach’s Alpha Values for Reflective Measures .......................... 396

Appendix 7.2: Cross-Validation Redundancy Values for Reflective Indicators ...... 397

xi

List of Figures

Figure 1.1. Research model (an overview diagram) ......................................................... 9

Figure 1.2. Structure of the thesis ................................................................................... 18

Figure 2.1. Software methods evolvement ...................................................................... 22

Figure 2.2. The plan-driven development model ............................................................ 24

Figure 2.3. Spiral software development model (Boehm 1988) ..................................... 26

Figure 2.4. Agile and plan-driven development cost-of-change (Ambler 2006) ............ 31

Figure 2.5. Reasons for adopting agile methods (VersionOne 2014) ............................. 31

Figure 2.6. Agile methods used in practice (VersionOne 2014) ..................................... 34

Figure 2.7. XP process (Xprogramming 2014) ............................................................... 35

Figure 2.8. Scrum process (Sutherland & Schwaber 2011) ............................................ 39

Figure 2.9. Effectiveness of communication means (Ambler 2015) .............................. 51

Figure 3.1. GDAD communication SLR selection process ............................................ 68

Figure 3.2. Theoretical framework and selected categories of GDAD communication

SLR ................................................................................................................................. 74

Figure 4.1. TOFAF 9.1 ADM (The Open Group 2013)................................................ 112

Figure 4.2. The Gill Framework (Gill 2014b)............................................................... 120

Figure 4.3. Geographically distributed agile team’s structure (Ambler 2014b) ........... 122

Figure 4.4. Agile EA driven GDAD approach .............................................................. 125

Figure 4.5. Research model ........................................................................................... 130

Figure 5.1. Research design .......................................................................................... 162

Figure 6.1. Industry of respondent’s organisation ........................................................ 213

Figure 6.2. GDAD approaches of the respondent’s organisation ................................. 214

Figure 6.3. Open source activities portion of the respondent’s organisation ................ 215

Figure 6.4. Job title for respondent ............................................................................... 215

Figure 6.5. Scatter plot: EFFIC vs. EFFECT ................................................................ 226

Figure 7.1. The partial least squares (PLS) results........................................................ 253

Figure 7.2. The mediation model .................................................................................. 258

Figure 7.3. Results of the second-order PLS model...................................................... 264

Figure 8.1. Data analysis interactive model (adopted from Miles & Huberman 1994) 274

Figure 8.2. Leximancer concept map ............................................................................ 278

Figure 9.1. Strength of significant relationships in the research model ........................ 312

xii

Figure 9.2. Theory fine-tuning ...................................................................................... 325

xiii

List of Tables

Table 1.1: Main research iterations in the study ............................................................... 8

Table 2.1: Agile vs. Waterfall software development resolution (The Standish Group

2015) ............................................................................................................................... 23

Table 2.2: Agile software development principles (Agile Manifesto 2001) ................... 28

Table 2.3: Software development agility definitions ...................................................... 33

Table 2.4: Impact of XP practices on communication (adopted from Hummel et al.

2013) ............................................................................................................................... 38

Table 2.5: Impact of Scrum practices on communication (adopted from Hummel et al.

2013) ............................................................................................................................... 41

Table 3.1: Challenges of GDAD ..................................................................................... 62

Table 3.2: Techniques/ solutions to GDAD challenges .................................................. 64

Table 3.3: GDAD communication SLR search terms ..................................................... 69

Table 3.4: GDAD communication SLR assessment method .......................................... 70

Table 3.5: GDAD communication SLR quality criteria of selected studies (Dyba˚ &

Dingsøyr 2008) ............................................................................................................... 70

Table 3.6: GDAD communication SLR search results ................................................... 72

Table 3.7: Agile method used in the GDAD communication SLR selected studies....... 75

Table 3.8: Publication channel of GDAD communication SLR selected studies ........... 76

Table 3.9: Quality assessment of GDAD communication SLR selected studies ............ 77

Table 3.10: GDAD communication SLR selected studies aims ..................................... 79

Table 3.11: GDAD communication challenges and categories ...................................... 81

Table 3.12: GDAD communication challenges categories statistics .............................. 82

Table 3.13: Impact of GDAD communication challenges on communication process .. 83

Table 3.14: Techniques to overcome GDAD communication challenges ...................... 88

Table 4.1: Comparison between agile EA and traditional EA frameworks .................. 118

Table 4.2: Architecture owner roles among agile project ............................................. 128

Table 4.3: Impact of GDAD communication using agile EA on GDAD project (adapted

from Madison 2010) ...................................................................................................... 129

Table 4.4: Summary of the theorised constructs and their definitions .......................... 131

Table 4.5: Literature review and agile methods principles about agile EA .................. 134

Table 4.6: Principles of agile methods regarding GDAD active communication......... 139

xiv

Table 4.7: Literature review about GDAD communication efficiency......................... 143

Table 4.8: Literature review about GDAD communication effectiveness .................... 145

Table 4.9: Software performance aspects ..................................................................... 148

Table 4.10: Summary of the research hypotheses ......................................................... 149

Table 5.1: Characteristics of Positivism, Interpretivism, and Critical Realism ............ 164

Table 5.2: The settings of this research endeavour ....................................................... 178

Table 5.3: The set of questionnaire after experts and pilot feedback............................ 185

Table 5.4: Items’ results of the panel of experts’ judgements ...................................... 189

Table 5.5: The research constructs and their items ....................................................... 190

Table 5.6: The demographic data of the pilot study...................................................... 193

Table 5.7: Pilot study-reliability statistics of reflective constructs ............................... 194

Table 5.8: Pilot study-factor analysis of reflective constructs ...................................... 196

Table 5.9: Pilot study-collinearity test of formative construct ...................................... 197

Table 6.1: The characteristics of the sample population ............................................... 212

Table 6.2: Summary of deleted cases ............................................................................ 217

Table 6.3: Summary statistics for missing data ............................................................ 219

Table 6.4: Little’s MCAR test results ........................................................................... 220

Table 6.5: Normal distribution and outlier tests for reflective indicators ..................... 223

Table 6.6: KMO and Bartlett’s sphericity tests, and communality matrix for reflective

constructs ...................................................................................................................... 230

Table 6.7: Scree plot and component matrix for reflective constructs ......................... 232

Table 6.8: Harman’s one-factor test for reflective constructs ....................................... 235

Table 6.9: Non-response bias test ................................................................................. 236

Table 6.10: Summary of data preparation ..................................................................... 237

Table 7.1: Reliability statistics for reflective constructs ............................................... 245

Table 7.2: The cross-loading of reflective constructs and their items .......................... 246

Table 7.3: AVE statistics for reflective constructs........................................................ 247

Table 7.4: Correlation matrix for reflective constructs ................................................. 248

Table 7.5: HTMT ratio values for reflective constructs ................................................ 248

Table 7.6: VIF and tolerance statistics for formative indicators ................................... 249

Table 7.7: Collinearity results for formative indicators ................................................ 250

Table 7.8: The partial least squares (PLS) results ......................................................... 254

Table 7.9: Effect size ( 2) values for latent exogenous constructs ............................... 256

Table 7.10: Cross-validation redundancy (Q2) values for reflective constructs ........... 257

xv

Table 7.11: Effects results for the model ...................................................................... 260

Table 7.12: Mediation effect results for the model ....................................................... 261

Table 7.13: Mediation effects for communication efficiency and communication

effectiveness .................................................................................................................. 262

Table 7.14: Collinearity and validity results for second-order model .......................... 265

Table 7.15: SRMR value ............................................................................................... 266

Table 8.1: Case description ........................................................................................... 270

Table 8.2: Survey comment respondent’s demographic ............................................... 271

Table 9.1: Summary of the research hypotheses testing results.................................... 311

Table 9.2: Summary of mediation effects ..................................................................... 313

Table 9.3: Cross-analysis findings of the survey and case studies ............................... 315

Table 10.1: Outcomes of the study ............................................................................... 342

xvi

List of Abbreviations AMOS Analysis of Moment Structures

ASD Agile Software Development

CB-SEM Covariance-Based Structural Equation Model

CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis

DSD Distributed Software Development

DSDM Dynamic Software Development

EA Enterprise Architecture

EFA Exploratory Factor Analysis

EM Expectation Maximisation

FDD Feature Driven Development

GDAD Geographically Distributed Agile Development

HTMT Hetero-Trait Mono-Trait

IS Information System

IT Information Technology

KSD Kanban Software Development

LISREL Linear Structural Relations

LSD Lean Software Development

MAR Missing Data at Random

MCAR Missing Completely at Random

MIS Management of Information System

MTMM Multi-Trait Multi-Method

PLS Partial Least Squares

RQ Research Question

SD Software Development

SEM Structural Equation Modelling

SLDC Systems Development Life Cycle

SLR Systematic Literature Review

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Science

TDD Test Driven Development

VAF Variance Accounted for

VIF Variance Inflation Factor

XP Extreme Programming

xvii

Glossary Item Explanation Reference

Active

Communication

Refers to the process of exchanging information

between agile team members (i.e. senders and

receivers) formally and informally, which should be

efficient and effective.

Alzoubi &

Gill 2015

Agile Software

Development

(ASD)

A software development method is said to be an agile

software development method when a method is

mainly people focused and communication-oriented,

flexible (ready to adapt to expected or unexpected

change at any time), speedy (encourages rapid and

iterative development of the product in small

releases), lean (focuses on shortening timeframe and

cost and on improved quality), responsive (reacts

appropriately to expected and unexpected changes),

and learning (focuses on improvement during and

after product development).

Qumer &

Henderson-

Sellers

2006b, p. 125

Agility A persistent behaviour or ability of a sensitive entity

that exhibits flexibility to accommodate expected or

unexpected changes rapidly, follows the shortest time

span, uses economical, simple and quality

instruments in a dynamic environment and applies

updated prior knowledge and experience to learn

from the internal and external environment.

Qumer &

Handerson-

Sellers

2006b, p. 281

Agile

Enterprise

Architecture

(EA)

A blueprint that describes the overall structural,

behavioural, social, technological, and facility

elements of an enterprise’s operating environment

that share common goals and principles with the

ability of responsiveness (scans, senses and reacts

appropriately to expected and unexpected changes),

flexibility (adapts to expected or unexpected change

at any time), speediness (accommodates expected or

unexpected changes rapidly), leanness (focuses on

Gill 2013a,

xviii

reducing waste and cost without compromising on

quality), and learning (focuses on enterprise fitness,

improvement and innovation).

Communication A process in which participants create and share

information with one another in order to reach a

mutual understanding.

Rogers 1986,

p. 199

Communication

Challenges

Refer to the characteristics of each medium that

decrease communication efficiency and effectiveness.

Clark &

Brennan

1991

Communication

Effectiveness

Delivering a message to the receiver who understands

it as it was intended with minimal disruption and

misunderstanding, even if it takes a long time.

Alzoubi &

Gill 2016

Communication

Efficiency

Delivering a message to a receiver with high quality

and with minimal time, cost, effort, and resources

required to establish communication.

Alzoubi &

Gill 2016

Enterprise

Architecture

The organising logic for business processes and IT

infrastructure, reflecting the integration and

standardisation requirements of the company’s

operating model.

Ross et al.

2006, P.9

Formal

Communication

Refers to explicit and clear communication such as

the agile requirements backlog, plans, and card walls.

Herbsleb &

Mockus 2003

Informal

Communication

Refers to the communication that happens outside the

official reporting hierarchy of the team.

Herbsleb &

Mockus 2003

Software

Development

(SD)

The tasks undertaken to construct a [software-based

product], and the management of this effort, by a

group of stakeholders with agendas, who engage in

transactions over time within an institutional context

by applying structure to their work with a set of tools

and methodologies, and who judge outcomes of their

efforts and act accordingly.

Sambamurthy

& Kirsch

2000, p. 400

Software

Functionality

The extent to which the delivered software system

meets its functional goals, user needs, and technical

requirements.

Lee & Xia

2010

xix

Software

Quality

Represents the assessment of the quality of the task

performed by the individual, or the pair, on the

programming task. It is reflective of how well the

code satisfied the requirements stipulated in the

problem statement and produced correct results.

Balijepally et

al. 2009, p.

102

Software

Performance

Refers to four dimensions; on-time completion

(meets its baseline goals for duration), on-budget

completion (meets its baseline goals for cost),

functionality (meets its functional scope goals), and

quality (a good working product).

Alzoubi &

Gill 2016

xx

Abstract Agile development is a highly collaborative environment, which requires active

communication among stakeholders. This active communication helps in producing

high quality working software systems in short releases and iterations. Due to the ever-

increasing competition, there is an increasing interest among practitioners and

researchers in contemporary geographically distributed agile development (GDAD).

GDAD claims to offer several benefits over co-located agile development such as lower

production cost, around the clock development, faster time to market, and the liberty of

involving the most talented developers across the globe. However, in the GDAD

environment, active communication is difficult to achieve due to many challenges such

as differences in geographical locations and time.

Literature has reported that agile enterprise architecture (EA) could help enhancing

GDAD communication and performance. However, little empirical evidence is known

to support this claim. Furthermore, it is not clear how to effectively achieve and study

active communication construct in GDAD in terms of its dimensions, determinants and

effects on performance? As a result, there is a lack of understanding about how GDAD

organisations can establish and maintain active communication among distributed

teams. This dissertation contributes to this research gap, first, by developing a research

model based on an extensive systematic literature review on the GDAD communication

challenges, techniques and strategies to mitigate these challenges, and the impact of

communication on GDAD software performance. This study provides important

insights about GDAD communication by identifying and empirically examining the

relationships among the two dimensions of active communication (communication

efficiency and communication effectiveness), one antecedent that can be controlled

(agile enterprise architecture (EA)), and four aspects of GDAD performance (on-time

completion, on-budget completion, software functionality, and software quality).

The study then validates the research model using an integrated research approach that

combines quantitative and qualitative data analyses. The quantitative data are collected

using a survey technique from 160 responses and analysed using Partial Least Squares

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(PLS) analyses. The qualitative data are collected using interview techniques through 10

post hoc case studies and analysed using content analysis technique.

This study reports that agile EA has positive impacts on communication efficiency and

communication effectiveness, and on GDAD performance. It has also been found that

communication efficiency and communication effectiveness have significant differential

impacts on GDAD performance aspects. While communication efficiency is, generally,

related to on-time and on-budget completions, communication effectiveness is,

generally, related to functionality and quality aspects.

While the prior GDAD literature offers little guidance for GDAD communication issue,

this research contributes to both theory and practice, and offers a number of useful

insights and agile EA driven GDAD model. From theory perspective, insights and

model are theoretically based on and empirically tested about the value and positive

impact of agile EA on active communication dimensions and GDAD performance, and

the impact of communication efficiency and communication effectiveness on GDAD

performance in the GDAD environment. Moreover, from practice perspective, this

study indicates that agile EA, communication efficiency, and communication

effectiveness together increase the GDAD performance and thus, facilitate a better

GDAD performance than in GDAD that does not employ agile EA.

Despite the above-mentioned contributions, like any other studies, this study has also

some limitations such as sample size, time and potential analysis bias of applied

qualitative and quantitative research methods. A number of steps were taken to mitigate

or minimise the effects of these limitations. Thus, findings of this work should be

considered with its limitaiotns when interpreting it in the relevant theoretical and

practical context.