The agile practices impact model. Idea, concept, and application scenario

Because agile development has become more important in software engineering in recent years, many companies want to become agile. One way to do so is context-specific improvement, preferably performed by selecting the right agile practices and integrating them into the current software development process. For making an appropriate selection, the impact on the improvement goals needs to be known. Therefore, the idea is to build an overall model that includes the impact of at least the most commonly used agile practices. This impact model is mainly built on these agile practices, on various impact characteristics, and on their connections. A larger example of some practices and their (possible) impact characteristics is presented. Additionally, the Agile Capability Analysis is introduced as an example application scenario of the model. The Agile Practices Impact Model presented in this paper could support context-specific integration of agility into any current development process. Nonetheless, the model needs to be filled with existing evidence.