Teamwork in Agile and Plan-based Companies Martina Ceschi, Alberto Sillitti, Giancarlo Succi Free University of Bozen {Martina.Ceschi, Alberto.Silitti, Giancarlo.Succi}@unibz.it Abstract This paper is an empirical investigation of how Agile and Plan-based companies address teamwork. We have performed an investigation interviewing managers of 64 companies, 23 agile (hereafter defined with the term “agile companies”) and 41 non-agile (“plan-based”). The results of the study evidence a quite different approach to teamwork and team organization. Such differences are mainly in the selection of the developers and in the emphasis of the collaboration in the development teams. 1. Introduction In a rapidly changing world, software development success cannot be defined and measured only in terms of functionalities implemented. The conformance of the product to the actual needs of the users is one of the main success factors [4]. In order to achieve such goal, an organization has to react promptly to changes. A flexible structure allows the development team to capture, share, and use the new information in the decision making process. One of the most powerful knowledge sharing mechanism is collaboration. Collaboration among team members involves a joint participation in producing a product, or making a decision [10]. Therefore, the importance of teamwork in an organization increases with the level of existing uncertainty and the need for rapid decision making process [10]. Agile Methods (AMs) [6] are new development techniques designed to support software development in environments with a high level of variability. The aim of such methods is to overcome the difficulties that Plan-based approaches experience in dynamic environments [11]. Accordingly, AMs place more emphasis on the people factors in a project, including collaboration, talent, skills, and communication [13]. To compare the approaches to teamwork in Agile and Plan-based companies we focus on: 1. Team structure and organization 2. Teamwork and communication To investigate these two aspects, we have used empirical data obtained in a survey conducted in 2004. This survey addressed most of the issues about project management, including collaboration and conflicts among team members. This paper is organized as follows: section 2 presents the theoretical background; section 3 describes the structure of the investigation; section 4 presents the results; finally section 5 draws the conclusions. 2. Background 2.1 Agile Methods Agile Methods are a set of development and management techniques designed to address the increasing uncertainty and complexity of software development. Most of the key principles and practices of AMs derives from theories introduced in manufacturing during the eighties. In fact, AMs incorporate techniques from Theory of Constraints (1984), Just in time (‘80s), Total quality management (‘80s), and Lean production (end of ‘80s) [2]. The main differences between Agile and Plan-based approaches are [16]: • AMs are adaptive rather than predictive. AMs are designed to work in unstable and uncertain environments, and when the application domain is not well understood. • AMs are people-oriented rather than process- oriented. They rely on people’s expertise and competency. They focus on direct, frequent, team collaboration and communication. The main values proposed by the agilists are [6]: • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools • Working software over comprehensive documentation • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation • Responding to change over following a plan. The Agilists consider more important the left side of the Agile Manifesto value statements. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the items on the right are