Agile methods are widely used in the software industry as a way to more rapidly develop and deliver new software. They define iterative work processes, advocate self‐organization and openness for change, and prescribe how software developers interact with each other and external stakeholders. Despite their popularity, it is unclear how agile methods influence work exhaustion in software developers and how developer skills play into this effect. On the one hand, agile methods may reduce software developers' work exhaustion by levelling out their workload across the entire duration of a project. On the other hand, agile methods exert a high level of pressure on software developers to continuously deliver working software, create many intensive social interactions, and to frequently adapt to changes. In light of these effects, prior research could not explain why some software developers become less exhausted from using agile methods, whereas others perceive the exact opposite. Based on the job demand‐control model, we develop a theoretical model connecting agile method use to individual developer skills and to two established determinants of employee exhaustion: role conflict and role ambiguity. We tested our research model in a field study among 1894 software developers in 217 project teams that used agile methods. The random coefficient modelling results show that agile method use facilitates the achievement of clear and unambiguous role perceptions and thereby reduces work exhaustion in developers, particularly if developers possess the organizational skills to effectively interact with others in their organization. We highlight implications for theory on the individual‐level effects of software development methods and provide practical insights for software companies.

中文翻译：

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敏捷软件开发方法如何减少工作疲劳：对角色认知和组织技能的洞察

敏捷方法被广泛用于软件行业，作为一种更快速地开发和交付新软件的方式。它们定义了迭代工作流程，提倡自组织和对变化的开放性，并规定了软件开发人员如何与彼此和外部利益相关者进行交互。尽管它们很受欢迎，但尚不清楚敏捷方法如何影响软件开发人员的工作疲劳以及开发人员技能如何发挥这种作用。一方面，敏捷方法可以通过在整个项目期间平衡他们的工作量来减少软件开发人员的工作疲劳。另一方面，敏捷方法对软件开发人员施加了很大的压力，要求他们持续交付可工作的软件，创建许多密集的社交互动，并频繁地适应变化。鉴于这些影响，先前的研究无法解释为什么一些软件开发人员在使用敏捷方法后变得不那么疲惫，而其他人则认为恰恰相反。基于工作需求控制模型，我们开发了一个理论模型，将敏捷方法的使用与个人开发人员技能以及员工疲惫的两个既定决定因素联系起来：角色冲突和角色模糊。我们在使用敏捷方法的 217 个项目团队中的 1894 名软件开发人员的实地研究中测试了我们的研究模型。随机系数建模结果表明，敏捷方法的使用有助于实现清晰明确的角色认知，从而减少开发人员的工作疲劳，特别是如果开发人员具备与组织中其他人有效互动的组织技能。