The influence of critical success factors in the implementation of an environment for the management and development of agile software

This research study aims to map the perception of Brazilian stakeholders regarding the degree of influence of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) identified in the implementation of an environment for the management and development of agile software. First we conducted a literature review and we identified 21 Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and group them in three categories: Personnel, Organizational and Technical/Process. After we applied a survey to experts in software management and development that reached a sample of 101 respondents, a ranking was made of the factors that most influence the adoption of agile methods with a focus on the quality of the final product. As result, it was found that the most important factors were Personnel, followed by Technical/Process and Organizational. The four most important CSFs were: “Competence, training and specialization”, “Team work”, “Communication Skills + Focus, client’s satisfaction and engagement”, and these CSFs are in the category Personnel. This research contributes to the body of theoretical knowledge by studying the CSF, in addition to emphasizing the company's need to invest in the Personnel area for the management and development of quality software. The CSFs can help the companies to improvement in the development process with the use of agile methods, and provide quality to the delivered software.