A conceptual framework for effective management of conflict risk within Agile software development environments

Abstract

Background: Whenever teams obtain together to work towards a common goal, the lingering of an inherent conflict risk is always a possibility. This applies to software development teams as well. Researchers even argue this inherent conflict existence as necessary. Agile development environment is no exception. The main purpose for adopting Agile is to improve the technology adequacy to facilitate organisation competitiveness. Agile manages the achievement of this through its advocacy for change, adaptability and constant satisfaction of market demands. This is because Agile enables organisations to create software of quality standard that allows for quicker response to the continuously changing market needs of todays’ world. Objectives: Henceforth, this article investigates this topic to develop a conceptual framework for effectively managing conflict risk in Agile teams, to improve the organisation technology adequacy. Method: This article employed quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. A structured online questionnaire was used for data collection and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used for data analysis. Pearson’s correlation was used to test the relationships among variables. Results: The findings show affirming results on the existence of conflict risk among Agile software development teams. The results indicate that there is a strong positive significant correlation between effective interaction, discussions and quality software application. Moreover, the findings demonstrate a strong relation between effective conflict management and achievement of set agile project goals. Conclusion: Agile allows companies to address the market requirements while still being adaptive to constant change. However, the literature identifies conflict risk as one of the hindrances to realising this purpose.

Keywords

• risk management
• conflict management
• it projects
• agile approach
• technology competitiveness