Structural Elements that Improve Coordination in Agile Software Development

Agile software development (ASD) enables project teams to coordinate their work. Many different ASD practices may contribute to effective coordination. This paper investigates the influence of three structural elements of agile project coordination, proximity, availability, and substitutability, on effective implicit coordination. Survey data from 340 agile practitioners worldwide was analysed using PLS-SEM. The results show that the structural elements of coordination each have a positive effect on the effective implicit coordination of agile software development projects. This paper guides practitioners on what agile practices contribute to improved coordination. This paper also validates the structural elements of an existing theoretical model of ASD coordination and shows that the model is generalisable to ASD contexts.