Making Software Teams Effective: How Agile Practices Lead to Project Success Through Teamwork Mechanisms

How does good teamwork emerge?
Can we control mechanisms of teamwork?
The author has analyzed these questions in a study involving 227 participants of 55 software development teams. First, he empirically confirmed his teamwork model based on innovation research, goal setting and control theory. Second, he measured the impact of a wide selection of agile practices on these teamwork mechanisms. Third, he explained these impacts based on a thorough review of current psychological research.
This book is intended for people working in agile contexts as they will gain insight into the complexity of how «good teamwork» emerges. This insight on team dynamics may also prove valuable for upper management for calibrating agile practices and «soft factors», thus increasing the effectiveness of software teams.

Chaehan So is a researcher in social psychology focusing on self-regulation and learning strategies. Prior to obtaining his Ph.D. in Psychology, he worked for 8 years in the IT industry as a project manager and consultant for agile methods. He has master’s degrees in engineering (Technical University Berlin) and business (Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris). His first encounter with agile software development dates back to his Silicon Valley experience at Netscape in 1997 and to research conducted at Stanford University in 1998.