Project Success in Agile Development Projects

TL;DR

This paper reviews literature and case studies to clarify project success criteria in Agile development, compares it with Waterfall, and examines if success motivates organizations to adopt Agile methodologies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of success criteria, motivations for adopting Agile, and observed outcomes through literature review and case studies.

Findings

Agile adoption is often motivated by perceived success benefits.

Organizations report improved project outcomes after switching to Agile.

Success criteria vary across different contexts and studies.

Abstract

The paper explains and clarifies the differences between Waterfall and Agile development methodologies, establishes what criteria could be taken into account to properly define project success within the scope of software development projects, and finally tries to clarify if project success is the reason why many organizations are moving to Agile methodologies from other ones such as Waterfall. In the form of a literature review, it analyses several, publications, investigations and case studies that point out the motives why companies moved to Agile, as well as the results they observed afterward. It also analyses overall statistics of project outcomes after companies evolved from traditional methodologies such as Waterfall to Agile development approaches.