When Agile Meets Waterfall - Investigating Risks and Problems on the Interface between Agile and Traditional Software Development in a Hybrid Development Organization

Abstract

This paper aims to map issues (risks and problems) at the interface of agile and traditional development approaches in hybrid organizations which have an impact on coordination and cooperation. Successfully combining agile and traditional development methods appears to be quite a challenge for many hybrid organizations. Both methods have their own strengths and added value but also bring their own culture and conditions. Combining these can lead to problems. If we want to handle such problems, we first need to understand the issues that can cause such problems. This study is aimed at identifying and validating an overview of these issues. Based on an exploration of literature a preliminary overview of issues was derived. These were classified into a coherent set. The result was validated in a case study within a large financial institute in the Netherlands. The resulting list of twenty-four issues can be used as a starting point for handling the problem area.