Engineering management

Software construction

Work (physics)

Project team

Mathematics

Domain (mathematical analysis)

Software development

Knowledge management

Schedule

Operating system

Software engineering

Scrum

Engineering

Mathematical analysis

Agile software development

Project management

Systems engineering

Software development process

Process management

Programming language

Lean software development

Software

Software project management

Computer science

Team software process

Mechanical engineering

Deleted Journal

Coordination of teams is critical when managing large programmes that involve multiple teams. In large-scale software development, work is carried out simultaneously by many developers and development teams. Results are delivered frequently and iteratively, which requires coordination on different levels, e.g., the programme, project, and team levels. Prior studies of knowledge work indicate that such work relies heavily on coordination through "personal" modes such as mutual adjustment between individuals or through scheduled or unscheduled meetings. In agile software development processes, principles and work structures emerge during the project and are not predetermined. We studied how coordination through scheduled and unscheduled meetings changes over time in two large software development programmes relying on agile methods. Our findings include transitions from scheduled to unscheduled meetings and from unscheduled to scheduled meetings. The transitions have been initiated both bottom-up and top-down in the programme organizations. The main implication is that programme management needs to be sensitive to the vital importance of coordination and the coordination needs as they change over time. Further, when starting a program, we recommend to early identify the important scheduled meetings, as having enough scheduled meetings is important to develop a common understanding of domain knowledge.

To schedule or not to schedule? An investigation of meetings as an inter-team coordination mechanism in largescale agile software development