| Abstract: | Software development projects are very complex and often unsuccessful. As a result, the issues around the development processes have been of great concern for both practitioners and academics. However, academic research has been mostly focused on the identification of critical factors during implementation, and much less attention has been given to project management approaches, and while used in practice, they are mostly unexplored in the literature (Kraljic et al., 2014, 2018). Recently, most software development companies are promoting the usage of agile practices because they are expected to present better results and increase the chances of success. Nonetheless, there still has not been sufficient empirical and rigorous academic research investigating this phenomenon (Erazo et al., 2017; Gren et al., 2018), especially in the Ethiopian context. This descriptive study addresses this important and emerging topic by examining the usage of agile practices in software development projects to understand its influence on project success from a software team perspective. Primary data was gathered through questioners and interviews with experienced practitioners, and secondary data consisted of project documents and records. Fifteen agile practices were identified, and their benefits and challenges were discussed. Taxonomy of agile implementation critical factors was built from the findings of the cross-case analysis, including the conceptualization of success from the software vendors’ perspective, contextual factors, critical success factors, and project challenges. The results suggest that usage of agile practices can influence all dimensions of success in software development projects, including customer satisfaction, project performance, and perception of success. The findings show that agile practices have the potential to address many of the challenges and can generate many positive impacts, but their influence is context-dependent, and given unfavorable contextual factors, it could negatively affect project success. Therefore, the results suggest that the influence of agile practices in software development project success is dependent on a series of contextual factors that shape its effectiveness. These findings are mapped to a set of theoretical propositions, which have both academic and practical implications. |
