Agile Information System Development Organizations Transforming to Large-Scale Collaboration

TL;DR

This case study examines how a large agile ISD organization adapted to distributed digital work during COVID-19, highlighting changes in knowledge sharing, tool usage, and team dynamics.

Contribution

It applies socio-technical concepts of large-scale collaboration and sociability to analyze digital transformation in agile ISD organizations during a crisis.

Findings

Introduction of various forms of distance and digital tools

Increased task orientation among teams

Importance of relation-oriented communication for sociability

Abstract

We report findings from a case study of a large agile information systems development (ISD) organization`s sudden transformation to distributed, digital work in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. It seeks to understand how knowledge creation and sharing changes. The findings show various forms of distance being introduced, digital tool usage, increased task orientation, and variations across teams. To analyze the findings, we use the concepts of large-scale collaborations and sociability. Large-scale collaboration offers a socio-technical perspective on tackling distributed knowledge sharing and creation in the presence of multiple, loosely coupled partners using digital tools for collaboration. We show what the digital tools afford using the concept of sociability. We discuss how distributed digital practices make teams more task-oriented and that creating and maintaining sociability, a key issue for knowledge sharing in agile ISD organizations, require relation oriented communication during practical problem solving using digital tools.