Impact of the agile software development methodology on employee motivation

Abstract

The Agile Software Development process is becoming more popular in the software industry and a lot of software development firms are adopting Agile in recent times. Having a motivated workforce benefit organizations in several ways as motivation affects project productivity, software quality and project's overall success. According to current literature, there have not been any empirical researches done to see the impact of Agile Software Development Methodology on employee motivation in the Sri Lankan context. Therefore, this study performs an in depth analysis of the impact of Agile Software Development on employee motivation. Based on existing literature, several dimensions were identified to measure the Agile process and employee motivation. Then a questionnaire was distributed and the interviewing method was used to gather data to capture the extent Agile is practiced in organizations and the motivation level of employees. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were done to analyze how several Agile practices each related to employee motivation. The results revealed that Common Software Engineering Best Practices Applicable to Agile, Scrumbased Project Management Practices, Agile Product Delivery Management Practices and People Management Practices have a strong positive relationship with employee motivation. The study concludes with recommendations of best practices to follow when adopting Agile.