An Empirical Investigation of Geographically Distributed Agile Development: The Agile Enterprise Architecture is a Communication Enabler

Abstract

Agile software development performance depends on active communication. Active communication is an arduous task when agile teams are geographically distributed. Agile enterprise architecture was reported to enhance such active communication and performance. There is little empirical evidence on how agile enterprise architecture can enhance communication and performance of geographically distributed software development. This paper contributes to this research gap by empirically examining the relationships between agile enterprise architecture, active communication, and performance (on-time completion, on-budget completion, software functionality, and software quality). Using a quantitative data analysis approach, the PLS results of survey responses of 160 research participants suggest that agile enterprise architecture has positive effects on active communication, on-budget completion, functionality, and quality. The results also indicate that communication efficiency has positive effects on on-time and on-budget completion; while communication effectiveness has positive effects on functionality, quality, and on-budget completion.

Keywords

• Agile software development
• agile enterprise architecture
• active communication
• geographically distributed software development
• partial least square