Date & Time
Thursday, June 6, 2024, 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM
Location Name
Seminar 4
Name
Comparing Stability and Sustainability in Agile Systems
Description

The World Health Organization (WHO) highlights the significant threat that unsustainably long working hours pose to our mental and physical well-being. Aligning with this concern, an Agile principle emphasizes that Agile processes promote sustainable development. However, work by Healy et al. debunked this notion of inherent stability in Agile systems. In this study, we aim to analyze the relationship between system stability and the tendency of teams to work outside reasonable office hours. We inspect 295 historic Agile projects completed in Intive, a software development company. We assess the percentage of late-night, early-morning, or weekend hours where a Product Backlog Item (PBI) was created or resolved, and compare this percentage of Unsustainable Hours metric to the Stability Metric and the number of Inventory Days remaining. The analysis showed that almost no correlation exists between the Unsustainable Hours worked and either the system stability or outstanding inventory. These findings indicate that, while working unconventional and potentially excessive hours is a concern, it does not appear to be linked to the stability of Agile systems. This highlights the need for a deeper understanding of individual and team motivations to foster long-term sustainable work practices.

Brian Fitzgerald Rob Healy
Track
Engineering