Abstract
Background: Whenever teams are created with the purpose of working together to deliver a software product, conflictrisk is always inherent; some even argue it is necessary. This is because the teams consist of various roles that have differing aims, expectations, views, values, or even purposes. However, these differing purposes or expectations can have either a negative or positive effect on the overall successful delivery of a software product. Purpose: This study aimed to explore the conflict-risk that exists in a software development project managed using the Agile methodology with the purpose of developing an effective conflict management framework to manage conflict-risk. Methods: An online questionnaire as well as semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 189 Agile development professionals South Africa. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were employed, resulting in a framework for effective conflict management within Agile development environments. Results: There is existence of conflict-risk in Agile projects. Since Agile is interactive and collaborative, it leads to high chances of differing views among team members, causing numerous disagreements that results to conflict-risk. The study has also found that the existence of such conflict-risk has negative and positive effect on the development environment, and this is dependent on how the conflict-risk is mitigated and managed when it arises. Finally, the study identified approaches to manage conflict-risk effectively within the Agile environment, inclusive of contingencies like effective communication, skilled resources, effective discussions and negotiations as well as strategies like accommodate, collaborate and compromise. Identification of such contingencies and strategies led to the development of a framework for effective conflict-risk management for projects managed using the Agile methodology. Conclusions: The findings from this study may be utilised to give Agile professionals such as product owners and scrum masters some direction on contingencies and strategies that can be applied to manage the conflict-risk within Agile development environments...
M.Com. (Information Technology Management)