Date
7-15-2024
Department
Graduate School of Business
Degree
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
Chair
Mike Kipreos
Keywords
agile software development, agile principles, project success, higher education
Disciplines
Business | Higher Education
Recommended Citation
Stanley, Douglas A., "Does Deviating from Agile Principles Have an Impact on Project Success in North Carolina Higher Education Institutions?" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5788.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5788
Abstract
Agile software development projects are over three times more likely to succeed than waterfall projects, but 58% of agile-led projects are unable to satisfy the timeline, budget, and customer (Standish Group, 2020). This quantitative correlational study examines if a relationship exists between deviating from the 12 agile principles outlined in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development (Beck et al., 2001) and the perceived level of success for agile software development projects within North Carolina higher education institutions. The general problem addressed by this study is the failure of organizations adhering to agile principles resulting in unsuccessful software development projects. Using a derivative of the Chow and Cao (2008) survey instrument, ordinal data was collected using a secure online survey platform from 351 Information Technology professionals and project managers employed at North Carolina degree-granting, not-for-profit higher education institutions. The 12 agile principles outlined in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development served as the independent variables, and project success was the dependent variable. Three primary research questions and 12 sub-questions guided the study. SPSS was used to perform correlation analysis to test for an association between the variables and regression analysis was used to determine the strength of the relationships. The results of the statistical tests revealed that only four of the 12 agile principles had a statistically significant correlation with project success. They are management commitment, face-to-face collaboration, simplicity, and team environment, and they explain approximately 7.9% of the variance in project success for agile software development projects. This study is significant to organizations who manage software development projects using agile methods so IT leaders can avoid deviating from principles that impact project success.
