The principles of agile software development provide structures to promote better communication, which is an important factor in successfully working in a distributed setting.
[2] During this time, the Agile Manifesto was released,[3] which represents an evolution from the prevailing heavyweight approaches to software development.
Research continues to be done on all of its facets, indicating that it offers unique opportunities and advantages over more traditional methods, but not without imposing its own challenges and risks.
Through adoption of agile principles and practices, the visibility is made clearer as there are multiple iterations where one can visualize the issues or criticalities on the initial stages of the project.
Continuous integration of programming code, which is one of the focal pieces of agile software development, additionally serves to reduce setup of the executive issues.
Adopting of agile principles appears to positively affect correspondence between groups as advancement in cycles makes it simpler for members to see the short-term objectives.
Sprint reviews can be seen as a powerful method to improve external correspondence whilst they help to share data about the features and prerequisite conditions between partners or stakeholders.
Agile practices also assist in building trust between various teams associated with the process by stimulating consistent communication and conveyance of programming deliverables.
As indicated by an investigation made by Passivara, Durasiewicz and, Lassenius, the software quality and correspondence are improved and communication and coordinated effort are more regular comparatively as a result of the Scrum approach utilized in the undertaking.
[9] Along these lines, adopting agile practices in a distributed environment has demonstrated to be valuable for the quality of the project and its execution.
Members from a wide range of cultures get the opportunity to gain and share knowledge from their associates, from an alternate point of view.
The team members can be benefited with abundant freedom and opportunities on the way of working, with the sole aim being completing the tasks and handing in the deliverables on time.
This scenario is also applicable when the employee cannot be present in office and clock-in the hours, he can work from home to complete the tasks, thus, not affecting the deliverable.
Also, as multiple people contribute their part and it goes through a number of iterations, the end quality of the work is enhanced, which is beneficial for the company.
However, this adoption of agile principles and practices in a distributed environment helps in reducing the travel costs as it opens up the platform to communicate via video conferencing and other feasible options.
This breaks down the need for physical presence, and enhances the idea of face-to-face interaction, so the meetings can be conducted from any part of the world and be made accessible to the others in the team.
As the progress of the work is in an iterative fashion, a regular check can be done to track the status of the deliverable and if all the members are on the same page in the level of understanding.
Also, this way makes it easier in identifying errors and bugs and can be corrected in the earlier stages as the process goes through multiple iterations.
As the same work is being carried out in different parts of the world, it increases the range of abilities of the group by getting to a more extensive pool of Human Resources worldwide.
This introduces the need for all the HRs acting as one mind to enforce collaborations and decision-making in different verticals and horizontals within an organization, as well as to communicating with stakeholders and prioritizing the deliverable.
The distributed agile environment enhances the idea of remote working, hence the need for expanding office spaces to accommodate more employees is not required anymore.
Combining it with agile principles and practices, in turn, increases the severity of the risks involved, as both methods are in direct contrast with each other.
Agile software development was originally designed to be used by co-located teams, as it is based on informal communication and close collaboration.
Distributed development, however, requires formal communication, clear standards, set guidelines and rigid structure.
[11] This section describes the risks and challenges involved in distributed agile software development as a result of the aforementioned compatibility issues.
[11] A more comprehensive study has tried to categorize the risk factors for distributed Agile projects in,[16] this was done utilizing both research literature and real-world experience from thirteen IT organizations.
To manage the risks involved with a lack of group awareness, spatially dispersed teams will have to use a more disciplined approach in communication using the latest technological tools.
To keep every team member informed about the adopted agile approach, it is important to maintain documentation for the project.