How Artefacts Influence the Construction of Communications and Contexts during

Collaboration in an Agile Software Development Team

Presented by 劉乃菀Department of

Computer Science & information EngineeringMay 30th, 2011

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Background

A three-days observation in March, 2009A large telecommunication and media

company in the UKAn agile development team with 2 customers

and 5 developers, one of them is a project manager

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Physical Artefacts of the Team

A cabinet (a wall)Index cards and story cards, which are based

on user storiesAcceptance tests, discussed in stand-up

meeting and written at the back of the story cards

A big whiteboard, in front of the cabinetMany small whiteboards

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Daily Practice of the Team

Stand-up meetingWhere: Next to the wallWhat to discuss: The work they did the day

before Problems they have

encountered The work / story cards for

today The partners for today

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Daily Practice of the Team

Pair-programming sessionsDriver: The one who currently has control of

the keyboardNavigator: The one who contributes to the task

verbally and by other means

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Data Gathering

Video recordings of the daily stand-up meeting

Audio recordings of different pairs of each day

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Data Analyzing

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FindingsArtefact Primary Usage

Cabinet (Wall) • Arrangement

Story card • Customer’s perspective• System’s behavior

Acceptance test • The way to implement a user story

Big whiteboard • Data structure• Algorithm

Small whiteboard

• Logical steps

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Discussion

The various artefacts influence the communication process in a mutually constraining relationship with the context.

The collaboration among different participation role changed the relation of how the artefacts are used together.

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