Agile cultural challenges in Europe and Asia: insights from practitioners

Abstract

The challenges of adopting agile software development methods vary from one context to another. This work investigates how the European and Asian cultural backgrounds may impact agile practices adoption. The focus is on three countries: Belgium, Malaysia and Singapore. We gathered data about practices, challenges and impediments encountered by software development teams from interviews of 19 practitioners and two agile software development events (discussion groups). The results of the analysis are prioritized and discussed using the Hofstede Model for national cultures comparison. The identified hypotheses can serve as a guidance for contextual agile practices improvement. The results need to be considered carefully since more empirical data are required to confirm the practitioners' opinion. In fact, studying socio-cultural differences is sensitive. Yet such information may be valuable for onshore teams (culturally homogeneous) as well as teams working on globally distributed projects.