Organizations are increasingly adopting Agile frameworks for their internal software development. Cost reduction, rapid deployment, requirements and mental model alignment are typical reasons for an Agile transformation. This article presents an in-depth field study of a large-scale Agile transformation in a mission-critical environment, where stakeholders’ commitment was a critical success factor. The goal of such a transformation was to implement mission-oriented features, reducing costs and time to operate in critical scenarios. The project lasted several years and involved over 40 professionals. We report how a hierarchical and plan-driven organization exploited Agile methods to develop a Command & Control (C2) system. Accordingly, we first abstract our experience, inducing a success model of general use for other comparable organizations by performing a post-mortem study. The goal of the inductive research process was to identify critical success factors and their relations. Finally, we validated and generalized our model through Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling, surveying 200 software engineers involved in similar projects. We conclude the article with data-driven recommendations concerning the management of Agile projects.

中文翻译：

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敏捷成功模式

组织越来越多地采用敏捷框架进行内部软件开发。成本降低、快速部署、需求和思维模型对齐是敏捷转型的典型原因。本文介绍了对任务关键型环境中大规模敏捷转型的深入实地研究，其中利益相关者的承诺是关键的成功因素。这种转型的目标是实现面向任务的功能，降低在关键场景中运行的成本和时间。该项目历时数年，涉及 40 多名专业人员。我们报告了一个分层和计划驱动的组织如何利用敏捷方法来开发指挥与控制 (C2) 系统。因此，我们首先抽象我们的经验，通过进行事后研究，为其他可比较的组织引入一个普遍使用的成功模型。归纳研究过程的目标是确定关键的成功因素及其关系。最后，我们通过 Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling 验证并推广了我们的模型，调查了 200 名参与类似项目的软件工程师。我们以有关敏捷项目管理的数据驱动建议结束本文。