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Nowadays many organizations, corporations and public institution pay special attention to the approach of how to manage their organizational knowledge efficiently. Knowledge management, the process of capturing, processing, disseminating and reusing the knowledge, is also aligned to business strategy, IT support level and HR management policies of the organization. Software organizations are not excluded from making KM efforts, because performing knowledge-intensive tasks demands fostering learning and sharing expertise on computer science, engineering, IT technologies and particular application domains. Agile methods propose software development frameworks which ensure fast delivery of high-quality software products. Light-weighed approaches impose cultural changes in organization and emphasize tacit interpersonal knowledge, what reflects in the different view on KM from software development perspectives.

Knowledge Management, Agile Software Development, Scrum --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Multidisciplinaire, généralités & autres

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COVID-19 has thrown Belgium and the world into a health, economic and social crisis with many impacts. This pandemic forced companies and their employees to adapt and adjust, what Agile Software Development values. The purpose of this Master Thesis is therefore to discover and understand the impacts of the pandemic on Agile teams working in IT through three research questions: “What are the psychological and operational impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on teams working in Agile IT companies?”, “Were Agile teams better prepared than traditional teams for this type of change in the IT sector?” and “What are the main differences between remote Agile and traditional face-to-face Agile?”
To realize this qualitative study, nineteen semi-structured interviews with practitioners in the field were conducted and analyzed via the Grounded Theory method. Although Agile Software Development methods are extremely widespread in technological companies, it remains a new theory scarcely developed in the literature, all the more since the pandemic is recent and still current. The interviews have thus allowed to develop some points identified in the literature and to highlight others.
Firstly, it appears that the pandemic had a strong impact on teams, both psychologically and operationally. Teams had difficulties with work-life balance, to keep contact, they expressed the importance of camera in communication, the usefulness and development of Agile tools, the fear of hybrid meetings, the gain in flexibility and comfort, the willingness to continue to practice telework after the crisis, and numerous others.
Secondly, being Agile seems to have been an asset to get through this crisis. It allowed the teams to react quickly and efficiently while maintaining a culture of collaboration, mainly thanks to Scrum events and the Scrum Master.
Finally, three major differences between remote Agile and face-to-face Agile have emerged. In remote it is even more important to foster individuals and interactions, to use the tools, and finally, to “formalize the informal” to recreate these moments of exchange.
In conclusion, there were numerous findings and it is clear that COVID-19 will leave its mark not only in history, but also in our way of working. This dissertation has revealed many of them, and opens the doors to further research.

Agile Software Development --- Agile teams --- Scrum --- COVID-19 --- Pandemic --- Home working --- Impact --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Gestion de l'entreprise & théorie des organisations

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How does one of the world’s biggest Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suppliers develop software? How do Oracle, SAP, Microsoft and Co really work? Christine Grimm presents a first-hand account of a social researcher who entered the software laboratory of one of the biggest ERP providers. Presenting an in-depth ethnography on how people act within such labs, she reveals the highly unexpected social character of programming and shows how the vendor reorganizes himself to find new ways to respond to the expectations of the market. Furthermore, the author highlights the informal practices when an ERP system, as a defective or incomplete product, re-enters the supplier’s labs. The book provides a window into what happens if bugs are dug up and emotions on both the supplier and customer sides are running high.

Computer software -- Development -- Management -- Social aspects. --- Computer software industry -- Social aspects. --- Management --- Commerce --- Business & Economics --- Management Theory --- Local Commerce --- Computer software industry --- Computer software --- Social aspects. --- Development --- Software, Computer --- Business. --- Management science. --- Business and Management. --- Business and Management, general. --- Computer systems --- Computer service industry --- Trade --- Economics --- Industrial management --- Quantitative business analysis --- Problem solving --- Operations research --- Statistical decision