Agile Project Management: The Degree of Agility in Projects : A quantitative study of factors that affect the degree of agility in projects

Abstract

Agile project management methods have become more prevalent in recent years, as a response to rapidly changing business requirements, technologies and market conditions. The traditional, plan-driven approach was unable to handle these changes, as it is more efficient with projects that are stable. Research on the agile management methods in projects have become quite extensive over the last decade. The main focus has been on the adoption of the approach as a whole, meaning that the choice of being agile seems to be a matter of binarity. However, some researchers state that a project might not favora pure methodology. The aim of this research was thus to explore factors that affect the “degree of agility” in projects. The hypothesis in this research consider how team size, customer involvement, organizational culture, complexity in the environment, and project planning affect the degree of agility in projects. The moderating effect of expertise among team members was also included.A quantitative method was chosen for this research. To explore the research question, an online questionnaire was utilized to collect data. The questionnaire was distributed by several project organizations across the Nordic countries, and a totalof 98 respondents completed the questionnaire. To further analyzethe results, PLS-SEM was utilized. The results showed that the independent variables customer involvement, organizational culture, and project planning all have an affect on the degree of agility in projects. This research contributes by presenting a new perspective on agility, by identifying factors that can increase the degree of agility in projects.