Employee Performance when Implementing Agile Practices in an IT Workforce

TL;DR

This study explores how agile practices impact employee performance in South African IT workforces, highlighting benefits and challenges, and emphasizing the importance of addressing obstacles for optimal performance.

Contribution

It provides qualitative insights into the influence of agile practices on employee performance in the African IT context, an area previously underexplored.

Findings

Agile practices improve team dynamics and collaboration.

Obstacles include adoption, engagement, leadership, and mindset issues.

Addressing challenges can significantly enhance employee performance.

Abstract

Adoption of agile practices has increased in IT workforces. However, there is a lack of comprehensive studies in the African context on employee performance when implementing agile practices. This study addresses this gap by exploring employee performance in agile environments for IT workforces in South Africa. An interpretivist mono-method qualitative approach was used, with the use of interviews as a research strategy. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with agile practitioners from various roles. Our results indicated that agile practices influence employee performance significantly, with participants reporting on aspects which included planning, communication, employee development and well-being, collaboration, team culture and progress. Additionally, our results reported obstacles when using agile practices that included adoption, team engagement, leadership and instilling an agile mindset. Agile practices influence employee performance in IT workforces by fostering improved team dynamics, enhanced collaboration, improved efficiencies, risk management, planning, continuous improvement, learning, personal development and well-being. Conclusively, our findings suggest that if agile challenges are addressed and additional support is provided, employee performance can be significantly improved.