Comparison of Agile, Quasi-Agile and Traditional Methodologies Vladimir Ivanov (B ) , Sergey Masyagin, Alan Rogers, Giancarlo Succi, Alexander Tormasov, Jooyong Yi, and Vasily Zorin Innopolis University, Universitetskaya St, 1, 420500 Innopolis, Respublika Tatarstan, Russia {v.ivanov,s.masyagin,g.succi,tor,j.yi,v.zorin}@innopolis.ru Abstract. In this study we were able to gather a substantial quantity of detailed responses from a group of individuals and companies that are broadly quite similar to those found in several of the major world centers of technological innovation. As such, our analysis of the results provides some tantalizing hints to organizational and methodological challenges and practices of a broad range of groups. One intriguing suggestion is that while “traditional” and well defined Agile groups function according to the standards established to sup- port those approaches, Quasi-Agile groups do not. Instead, Quasi-Agile groups seem to pursue the goals of Agile using measures and underlying approaches more similar to traditional methods. One might expect that such a discordance to affect the effectiveness of a group’s efforts. Keywords: Agile methods · Empirical study · Adoption of technology 1 Introduction Agile development methodologies continue to gain popularity. In a recent Stack Overflow survey conducted in 2017, more than 80% of the responding profes- sional developers stated they are using Agile development methodologies. At the same time, challenges and problems in transforming to Agile are also reported anecdotally and in the literature. The tension created by these two contradicting phenomena—high popularity of Agile and difficulties in adopting Agile—causes a creation of a group of developers who adopt Agile only superficially. Some people call the Agile practices performed by these developers Quasi-Agile. How different are organizations practicing Quasi-Agile from those practicing Agile or traditional development methodologies? This is the question we ask in this study to better understand an emerging phenomena of Quasi-Agile. To find answer, we conduct an observational study with more than 40 companies sampled in the Innopolis Special Economic Zone. In this paper, we report pervasiveness of Quasi-Agile and the unique patterns of organizations practicing Quasi-Agile dif- ferentiated from those practicing Agile or traditional methodologies. We believe c  Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 P. Ciancarini et al. (Eds.): SEDA 2018, AISC 925, pp. 128–137, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14687-0_11