Master Thesis Sheikh Muhammad Ali

Agile Project Management in Large
Scale Software Development
Sheikh Muhammad Ali
Master Thesis
Department of Informatics
UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
February. 2020
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© Sheikh Muhammad Ali
2020
Agile Project Management in Large Scale Software Development
http://www.duo.uio.no
Print: Reprosentralen, University of Oslo
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Abstract
The popularity of software development using agile methodologies have increased since the
formulation of agile manifesto in 2001. Several factors, like the collaboration with customer and
other stakeholders, welcoming change request, and changing business requirement through the
development life cycle enables the software companies to work productively and reduces the risk
of software failure. Agile methodologies were introduced for small-scaled projects, but with the
increase in use and its successful outcomes, there comes a need to adopt this for large-scaled
applications development involving various teams, stakeholders and customers.
Managing a project with a limited scope is easier, but when it comes to large-scale enterprise
applications involving extensive modules, having diffuse scope, different niche, integrations etc.,
not only increases the complexity of the project but also becomes a challenge for managers to
manage the project complexity. To ensure that the development process goes efficiently and
smoothly, reducing the risk of failures is essential.
In this thesis, we have addressed the problem of communication and trust issues in project
management. The method used is a combination of literature review and interviews/meetings with
project managers of different companies working on large-scale applications. The main focus of
my studies involves analysis and comparison of the challenges faced by the managers and the
problems identified in the literature. The highlights of solutions suggested by me in this thesis are;
to do frequent meetings, always recap meetings, use of consistent communication channels,
Monitor performance, give recognitions, make positivity a core value, provide trust and respect to
team members, protect interests of employees, act with integrity and keep commitments, be honest
and supportive to your team members, set clear goals, frequent feedbacks, open growth and
learning opportunities for employees. These suggested solutions will enable managers to manage
project easily and effectively. The result comprises on the analysis of data collected through
interviews and literature and by applying personal, professional development and managerial
experience.
Keywords: Project Management, Large Scale Agile, Communication, Trust, Knowledge Sharing,
Teamwork
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 7
1.1 Aim and Scope ...................................................................................................................... 7
1.2 Motivation ............................................................................................................................. 7
1.3 Problem description and Research questions ........................................................................ 8
1.4 Challenges ............................................................................................................................. 9
1.5 Method ................................................................................................................................ 10
1.6 Contribution ........................................................................................................................ 10
1.7 Thesis Structure .................................................................................................................. 10
2 Background ................................................................................................................................ 12
2.1 Traditional software development ...................................................................................... 13
2.1.1 Water Fall Model ......................................................................................................... 13
2.1.2 Spiral Model................................................................................................................. 15
2.2 Agile Software Development .............................................................................................. 16
2.3 Scrum .................................................................................................................................. 18
2.4 Agile versus Traditional Methodologies ............................................................................. 20
2.5 Communication and Trust in Project Management ............................................................ 22
2.6 Project Management and its role......................................................................................... 25
3 Method ....................................................................................................................................... 26
3.1 Data Collection ................................................................................................................... 26
3.2 Literature Review................................................................................................................ 27
3.2.3 Snowball sampling ....................................................................................................... 28
3.3 Other sources of Data Collection ........................................................................................ 34
3.3.1 Agile Project Management in Business/IT Industry .................................................... 35
3.3.2 Modes of Better Communication ................................................................................. 35
3.4 Information Gathering (Data Collection)............................................................................ 36
3.4 Interviews ............................................................................................................................ 37
3.4.1 Informant Selection ...................................................................................................... 38
3.4.2 Interview Questionnaire ............................................................................................... 39
3.4.3 Interview Process ......................................................................................................... 40
3.4.4 Transcribing interviews ............................................................................................... 40
3.4.5 Interview Analysis ....................................................................................................... 40
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4 Findings and Discussion ............................................................................................................ 41
4.1 Communication challenges in Project Management........................................................... 41
4.2 Trust challenges in Project Management ............................................................................ 41
4.3 Summarization of our Interviews and Discussion on Results. ........................................... 41
5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 64
6 Limitations and Future Work ..................................................................................................... 66
6.1 Limitations .......................................................................................................................... 66
6.2 Future Work ........................................................................................................................ 66
References ..................................................................................................................................... 67
Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 74
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 – Strength and weaknesses of waterfall model ................................................................ 15

Table 2 – Traditional vs agile software development [11] [41].................................................... 21
Table 3 – Data collection websites ............................................................................................... 26
Table 4 – List of research papers .................................................................................................. 34
Table 5 – Data collection sources ................................................................................................. 34
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 – Stages of Agile [5] ....................................................................................................... 12

Figure 2 – Phases of waterfall model [53] .................................................................................... 14
Figure 3 – Scrum Model [54]........................................................................................................ 16
Figure 4 – Overview of scrum [7]................................................................................................. 20
Figure 5 – Research / Literature Repository Structure ................................................................. 28
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1. Introduction
This chapter will enunciate the motivation, Problem Statement, Challenges and introduction of
project management with communication and trust issue for managers. It will also include models
in project management, tools, techniques etc. furthermore we will discuss scope of project
management, motivation and our research question in this chapter.
1.1 Aim and Scope

This research aims to identify and structure the core challenges faced by project managers and
organizational leaders in managing large scaled software development projects. The research work
is done within the scope of the software development industry, that provides software development
services through consultancy, in-house development, resource outsourcing or product-based
software development solutions. The products and services offered by the organizations include
Enterprise based Financial, Automation, Engineering, Management Applications on Web,
Windows, and Mobile, Services based platforms etc. Using cutting edge technologies and
competent resources. As the study is for managing the large-scaled agile project so it will probably
involve all types of development irrespective to the technology, platform, competence etc. Our
primary focus will be on the management practices related to communication and trust. The
researched results will base on data collected on the collective experience or the informants and
the literature review.
1.2 Motivation
The popularity of agile methodologies has been increasing day by day. Involving direct
communication with customers, managers and stakeholders. It provides the flexibility to handle
change request during the development stage as both technology and the business requirements
keep changing with time [4].
Agile project management is not limited to the functioning of project management instead it
encompasses all aspects of development that includes business requirement analysis, planning,
development, quality assurance, testing, change management and delivery [7].
During the practical course of software development experience and team management, I got the
opportunity to be a part of small and large-scale agile software development projects, Involving
communication with teams, clients, managers and stakeholders throughout the software
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development lifecycle. I am responsible not only for the software development but to manage,
extend and organize teams globally, to backup business demands with the rapid and extensive
software development needs, on critical solutions.
The studies in the course “INF 5181 - Process improvement and agile methods in software
development” arouses my interest and provided me good grounds for the research in that field,
particularly on the issue of challenges faced by the managers in executing a large-scale project
using agile methodologies. With the help of research analysis on literature and interviews with
leaders, I feel confident enough to carry out the research and come up with the solutions for the
challenges faced in development. I also believe that the results will help managers and leaders to
pave new paths in the field of adopting agile methodologies for large scaled software development
with good communication and trust-building methodologies.
In this thesis, I have used some ideas and theories from the master thesis of Amanpreet [41], The
discussion in her master thesis is relevant to the communication and trust on global level and is
mostly based on literature reviews and semi structured interview. So, I have decided to use more
practical approach in identifying issues and challenges by interviewing experienced professionals
and the literature review.
1.3 Problem description and Research questions

Agile project management is a broader term, and it involves several exciting areas for research,
but I found communication and trust to be the most engaging part of the research. My research on
agile project management will try to contribute to increasing the insights of large-scale software
development and its management. Thereby, my master thesis has the following overall research
question.
How can communication and trust be managed in large scale software development?
The main question helps to further look into the topic of project management and its practical
implications. To better understand the practical approaches and its adoption, this research work is
carried out with multiple Companies, having CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration)
level-5 and also ISO following ISO standards. The companies are working with large scale
software development projects, using agile-based development methodologies.
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The research question is divided further into sub-questions to clear the vision of aspects that
interfere with management by looking at hindrances.
Sub Question 1: What are the barriers or challenges in communication and trust in large scale
software development?
Sub Question 2: What are the impacts of lack of communication and trust?
Sub Question 2: What are the possible solutions to overcome these challenges?
By conducting the research with the outlined goal and substantive sub-goals in mind. It will be
possible to identify the challenges faced by the managers, how they are managing communication,
trust in a practical working environment, and how they conquer these challenges.
1.4 Challenges
Large scale project management also have bigger problems and challenges like complex issues,
discussions, risk involved etc. The bigger the domain the more complex it will be, and more
complexity will lead to higher risk levels. In large scaled solutions the resources from multiple
groups, and stakeholders from various disciplines are involved. All stakeholders have different
competence levels, knowledge and views. Such large project needs high degree of transparency to
check and control problems, this requires identification of problems and their possibilities at the
initial level to reduce risk. Report generation also gets tougher because of excessive business
requirements. To keep transparency and everyone on a same page of communication plays a key
role. [10] Communication is a key element to create sense of ownership among all stakeholders
and team members. To enable effective communication online tools are used to keep everyone
posted with the current situation and avoid communication gap. The documentation is maintained
and regular meetings are arranged in order to keep everything in balance. To do this, it is necessary
to do regular meeting to engage everyone, we must have to create peaceful environment that all
must show respect to others opinions, this will help in reducing conflicts.
Projects having complex domain or working at critical projects need expert’s engagement from
day 1. In small scale projects project manager can be expert too, but in large scale projects project
managers cannot be acting project manager and expert at same time, we need full time experts
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dedicated to our project as we mention above that proactive approach is very important in order to
avoid problems. For this we can hire agile coaches, agile project managers, business analyst,
solution architect, devOps agile coaches etc. [10]
There have not been done extensive empirical research regarding large-scale software
development so one of the main challenges we will be not to repeat what others already have found
in their literature reviews, but we’ll try and contribute with some new insight. As the main focus
of this search is from a project manager view there might be some limitations for the research
being done, as large-scale agile project management is quite a new field of study. As there are time
constraints on this project this can also be seen as a challenge as we will have to read many articles
within a short time frame and base the result on what we find within the time. We have chosen
some few articles to work closer with, and with better time, there would be likely to maybe found
even more articles and analyzed them closer.
1.5 Method
The research in this thesis is based on in depth analysis of interviews taken from the practically
experienced professionals that are leading teams in different companies and the literature review.
The selection of companies for interview, criteria for article selection and the rationale for chosen
approach is explained in details in chapter 3.
1.6 Contribution
The thesis work will be useful for managers/leaders of different organizations of all sizes, who are
interested in understanding the organizational or team level challenges faced by managers
globally? The strategies presented in this thesis will not only help leaders in dealing with the
challenges but will also be helpful to students and researchers, who want to board on the journey
of exploring more challenges and solutions in large scale software development.
1.7 Thesis Structure

Our first chapter is introduction to project management, motivation, our problem statement and
challenges faced at large scale project management.
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In our second chapter I will tell about the background of software project management, its
methods, tools and techniques. We will also discuss work done in literature about project
management, in large scale software industry and the skills observed in literature to build
relationship in software project management.
In third chapter I will discuss in detail about all the work done, in the field of software project
management in small companies as well as in large companies, their problems, solutions and
challenges that are discussed in literature and I will also discuss about data collection methods and
the interviews. The structure of this chapter is also similar with the structure used by my senior in
her thesis, I have adopted the same technique as her to spend more time on the practical issues and
their solutions [Error! Reference source not found.]
In chapter 4 we will share our findings, interviews performed during this thesis, comparison of
results.
In chapter 5 we will conclude our thesis, and in our last chapter, I will discuss its limitations and
future work.
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2 Background
This chapter describes about the most commonly used traditional and agile software development
methods before going further in details of agile project management. Afterwards, we will discuss
the issues and benefits in adopting agile project management for large scale software development,
and the challenges faced by the managers.
Traditional agile software development uses different types of software development life cycle
models, i.e. Waterfall model, spiral model etc. Agile method is an iterative method and team-based
approach, the main difference between agile methodology and traditional methodology is the
sequence of steps performed during software development, like traditional method uses linear
approach in which activities are performed in sequential order. While agile methodology is an
iterative methodology and its main goal is to quickly deliver product with complete functionality,
they are completed in sprints and every sprint consist of 1 to 4 weeks and list of deliverables are
mentioned for each sprint. Typical agile approach consists of three stages that we conclude by
doing literature review [5].
Project Sprint
Demos
initiation Planning
Figure 1 – Stages of Agile [5]
Communication in agile does not happens by chance it focuses on interactions and verbal
communication rather than documentation. That’s why it is necessary for everyone in team to
understand communication protocol and objectives. It must be clear regarding how each function
and individual is expected to interact, deliver and communicate outputs to team. Agile has no
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specific approach when someone need to say anything, say it. Rather than ignoring the issue
thinking it will go away, the more early an issue is dealt, better are the chances of recovering from
loss with minor impact. [19]
Scrum is an iterative and incremental software development process that is designed to respond
changes quickly. This methodology is suited for small self-organizing teams of not more than 10
members, to enable close collaboration, teamwork, effective communication and fast feedback.
Every team member has a clear role to work on and collectively whole team is focused on a single
goal to achieve [7].
2.1 Traditional software development

Below are some of the traditional software development models that are in use, I will discuss two
of them and then will proceed with the agile development methods as discussed in literature.
2.1.1 Water Fall Model

The waterfall model was first developed in the 1950s [51]. It is a traditional software development
approach which has been used for many years for the development of software [52]. The waterfall
model approach for software development is also called (by many people) as linear sequential life
cycle model, In waterfall model the project work is divided into different phases and these phases
are completed sequentially [53]. The picture given below helps in understanding the flow in
waterfall model [53].
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Figure 2 – Phases of waterfall model [53]
Waterfall model follows through the following phases [54]
System Requirements: in this phase the basic building blocks are established.
Software requirements: In this phase the software requirements are gathered.
Architectural design: In this phase the specific requirements are defined
Detailed design: In this phase the software part is defined.
Coding: Coding Implementation is done in this phase.
Maintenance: Issues after the post release are done in this phase.
Every approach has its advantages and disadvantages, many people argue that the waterfall model
approach has some issues, one of the most notable issue is that changes into the software
development are not possible [53]. Following table describes the attempts for strengths and
weaknesses of the waterfall model [54].
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Strength Weakness
• Minimizes planning overhead since it • Inflexible
can be done upfront • Only the final phase produces a non-
• Structure minimizes wasted effort, so it documentation deliverable
works well for technically weak or • Backing up to address mistakes is
experiences staff difficult
Table 1 – Strength and weaknesses of waterfall model
The waterfall model is ideal for usage for projects which have clear goals and detailed
requirements but for projects which are complex it is not ideal [54].
2.1.2 Spiral Model

The spiral model combines the iterative development process model and the waterfall model
approach [55]. A spiral model consists of four stages Planning, Risk Analysis, Engineering and
Evaluation [54]. The spiral model provides advantages as it has the capacity to add new feature to
the software while it is still being developed another aspect which makes it a better approach is
that the user input in the whole process begins at a very early stage [55]. The following picture
shows a spiral model [55].
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Figure 3 – Scrum Model [54]
In the spiral model in every cycle a prototype is developed having the user requirements, this helps
keep the progress in track [51]. The four steps in the spiral model are defined below.
Objective setting: Aims for this phase are defined.
Risk assessment and reduction: Potential risks in the project are identified and actions are taken
to reduce them.
Development and validation: Development for the model is identified and implemented.
Planning: The project is assessed and the planning for the next phase is done.
2.2 Agile Software Development

The software development processes today are affected by change, and project requirements are
often unclear, and even unknown, which urge the need of more agile strategies to be developed
[7]. In late 1990’s, several methodologies came along with the different combination of old and
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new ideas. These new methodologies had several methods in common, they all emphasized on
close collaboration between the development team and business stakeholders.
The agile manifesto was formulated in 2001, Which states the following principles for new ways
to uncover valuable strategies for software development [6].
Individuals and interactions over process and tools

working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
responding to change over following the plan
Some of the characteristics of agile methods is the value of competent people within the team who
has knowledge and relations that proves to be a valuable contribution in software development.
Also, evolutionary delivery through short iterative cycles - of planning, action, reflection - intense
collaboration, self-organizing teams, and a high degree of developer discretion are all aspects of
agile practices [8]. Agile methods focus on actively involving customer from the beginning of
process, facilitate feedback and reflection. With the help of this development process becomes
smoother and is more likely to end up with satisfying outcome [10].
As compared to traditional development methodologies, agile development has a different way of

thinking, working and collaboration. “Most organizations cannot ignore the agile wave, but for
those steeped in traditional systems development, adoption of agile methodologies will likely pose
several challenges.” Which means it will have a high impact on organizational structure, culture,
and management practices. In order to adapt agile methodologies successfully, the organization
must rethink of their goals and reconfigure human, managerial, and technology components [11].
While traditional methods focus on stricter management and rely on up-front planning, agile
methods aim at accepting and efficiently managing change [12].
Highsmith summarizes agile practices to encourage change request and questioning assumptions.
He states the importance of flexible planning, extensive collaboration, and learning to be able to
achieve agility in a project [13]. Since agile approach emphasizes less documentation, it gives the
flexibility to respond and cater the changing requirements [14]. Lee & Xia (2010) defines the team
ability to respond to changing requirements efficiently and effectively, as software development
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agility [15]. This agility is possible by having short, incremental, iterative development cycles,
self-organizing teams, active involvement of stakeholders, and continuous delivery.
Agile software development has a different approach to planning, control and coordination, and
especially the inter-team coordination. By enhancing thorough collaboration and communication
between team members, it provides the basis for collective action. This also empowers the team
members with the ability to contribute in decision making process and not to be restrained to a
certain specialized role. This increases the diversity/variety of the teams and enables them to self-
organize and respond with alacrity to emergent situations [11]. One of the characteristics of agile
teams, which Dybå et al. refer to, is that “they have faith in their abilities, show respect and
responsibility, establish trust, and preserves the quality of working life” [16]. This describes the
foundation for good agile practices, where the team members are motivated, self-organized and
empowered.
Agile development is fundamentally people-centric and recognizes the value of team members'
competence, whereas, empowering right people with appropriate skill set for decision making is
also critical. Diverse skills and perspectives trigger learning and innovation, which can lead to
efficient solutions, to conquer complex challenges and problems [15]. However, this relies on team
member’s communication and collaboration skills. As diverse teams will have different opinions
and solutions that may cause conflicts. This will be elaborated further in section below. [22]
Unlike the traditional methodologies, agile methodologies deal with unpredictability by relying on
people and their creativity rather than on processes [11]. the recurrent and fast communication in
agile software development results in excellent performance of teams and this results in excellent
product [32].
2.3 Scrum
Scrum is an iterative and incremental software development process that is designed to respond
changes quickly. This methodology is suited for small self-organizing teams of not more than 10
members, to enable close collaboration, teamwork, effective communication and fast feedback.
Every team member has a clear role to work on and collectively whole team is focused on a single
goal to achieve [7].
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Scrum represents a lightweight process framework used to manage and orchestrate software
development [17]. In scrum people can address complex adaptive problems, productively and
create deliverable product of the highest possible value [18]. The model of how scrum process is
practiced is presented in Figure 2.2. Further it will be described as.
In Scrum teams are self-organizing and cross-functional and the team model is designed to
optimize flexibility, creativity and productivity. The scrum team consists of Product owner,
Development team and a Scrum Master [18]. The development team designs the architecture of
the project and identifies the chief architect in the first phase of Initial Planning. At this stage all
the scope/goal and vision of the project is defined and the chief architect has to ensure the
consistency of vision throughout the development process [7].
After the initial planning, the project is divided into small workable increments called sprints
where the goal of the project is to deliver the working product incrementally. Each sprint usually
lasts from one to four weeks, and the key idea behind each sprint is to deliver valuable, qualitative
functionality at the end of a sprint, and each of these product increment will be developed on
previous increments [7]. During a sprint it is usual to have a daily standup meeting, to get the status
of what has been done and what the plan for today is. This meeting build coherence and works as
a team-building purpose as it makes your work visible to others as well as feeling part of a group.
It also serves as keeping everyone informed of team progress and obstacles, and give the
opportunity to solve obstacles as quickly as possible.
The team also have to decide on a Scrum master. A scrum master should work as a motivator and
coordinator for the rest of the group by ensuring that everyone makes progress, record the decisions
made and tracks action items, and keeps the scrum meetings short and focused. The below picture
that we studied in literature is describing about clear overview of scrum [7].
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Figure 4 – Overview of scrum [7]
The scrum model works on the following three artifacts Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and
Increment [18]. The team then have to define and organize all the tasks/features and create product
backlog. Here, the high-level description of all the required features of the project is defined. While
starting a new feature or task from product backlog a sprint planning was done and a sprint backlog
is created, that contains all the information to how to carry out and what to achieve in the sprint.
At the end of a sprint the team shall have produced a valuable increment which builds on previous
increments. There is common to have a sprint retrospective at the end of a sprint where all the
stakeholders also should be in evolved where work can be added, eliminated or reprioritized.
2.4 Agile versus Traditional Methodologies

Agile methodologies differ in many ways from the traditional development methodologies. The
following Table 2.1 that we pick from literature has illustrated the most important differences
between traditional and agile methodologies which one should notice [41]
Traditional Agile
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Fundamental Assumptions Systems are fully specifiable, High-quality, adaptive
predictable, and can be built software can be developed by
through small teams using the
meticulous and extensive principles of continuous
planning design improvements and
testing based on rapid
feedback and change
Control Process centric People Centric
Management Style Command-and-control Leadership-and-collaboration
Knowledge Management Explicit Tacit
Role Assignment Individuals favors Self-organizing teams

specialization encourages role
interchangeability
Communication Formal Informal
Customer’s Role Important Critical
Project Cycle Guided by tasks or activities Guided by product feature
Development Model Life cycle model (Waterfall, The evolutionary-delivery

Spiral etc.) model
Desired Organizational Mechanistic (bureaucratic Organic (flexible and

Structure with high formalization) participative encouraging
cooperative social action)
Technology No restriction Favors object-oriented

technology
Table 2 – Traditional vs agile software development [11] [41]
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Several agile development methodologies have been developed since the introduction of the agile
manifesto - like Scrum, XP, Crystal methodologies, Feature-Driven Development (FDD), etc.
They all share a more collaborative development, "lean" mentality1, Close collaboration with
customer, and an acceptance that uncertainty is a part of software development. Each method has
its strengths and weaknesses and is thereby suitable for different kinds of projects [11]. In next
section the most commonly used agile methodology “Scrum” will be discussed.
2.5 Communication and Trust in Project Management

When teams working on same project work together effectively and efficiently then all
stakeholders and team members need trust among them, because each member have different
interests and roles. Like a product owner has responsibility of defining and refining product
backlog, then we have multiple issues like meeting deadlines, choosing the most valuable work.
Bug fixing, managing time, cost etc. if trust between team’s breakdown it effects our products and
process too, the consequences may be rumors, gossips whining, hidden agendas and sometimes
destabilizing behavior by team members such as delaying of information, providing misleading
answers, giving random and unrealistic ideas or lying. In short, projects suffer a lot if there are
trust issues in process [22]. Agile methodology talks in favor of environment in which we have
collaborative environment and effective communication, while effective communication is very
difficult in distributed environment in which there are dispersed teams [26] Authors[27] compared
two distributed agile development case studies, and conclude that bad communication in
organizations can result in severe problems even project failures, there must be solid requirements
and sufficient communication for successful completion of project. The best way to look are
cooperate communication is to understand how functions are developed in organization. In old
times a term used communication was “public relations” and it was very strategic at that time.
With time other communication techniques and tools evolved like media relations, digital
communication was introduced for communicating with stake holders [29] [30].
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Lean mentality means in this context: minimizing unnecessary work
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Low level of trust may result in project blend, low morale in team, and unsatisfied customers. As
product owner we have many responsibilities to maintain a healthy product development
community. We understand from literature that there are three type of trust that effect the trust of
organization. [23]. In literature [24] authors discussed that, how self-managing teams are involved
in agile technique, teams are authorized and accountable for meeting projects objectives. Project
managers have a more sense of trust in agile software development rather than traditional methods.
Trust is developed by positive attitude, behavior good perceptions, building trust in organization
helps to create a better environment [27]
2.5.1 Types of Trust
Contractua
l
Trust
Communic
Compente
ation
ncy
Type of trust required in organization [23]
Contractual trust: this kind of trust is based on unstated contract
Communication trust: It states that there must be honest and frequent communication between
team members, team member must have courage to tell truth, admit their mistakes and there must
be level of confidentially between team members
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Competence trust: it states that there must be respect and appreciation for team members getting
their job done on time, and organization must promote mutual learning and developing skills for
everyone.
The best time for trust building is at the start of project when we decide what to develop, but trust
building is most difficult task, especially the major stage of project is when team launches and
define scope of project, and refine its backlog. In order to maintain all above-mentioned level of
trusts product owner has to do work consistently from liftoff and throughout the product life cycle.
Nils Brede described that how globally distributed software development became problematic, and
difficult to manage. They also discussed about the main factors that causes mistrust some of them
are poor socialization, increased monitoring on resources, lack of direct meetings and how these
factors decrease moral of teams [25]
As mentioned in Literature [40] trust can be build using the Competence, connection,
communication and honesty.
Competence: be capable
Connection: be empathetic
Communication: be clear
Honesty: be reliable
As stated in diagram [40] below
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Be Capable
Project
Be
Be Reliable Manager Empathetic
trust
Be Clear
2.6 Project Management and its role

Project management is the practice of originating, preparation, achieving, managing, and closing
the work of a team to accomplish exact goals and meet precise success criteria at the specified
time. The major challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the
given constraints. We have studied in literature below mentioned challenges for project managers.
[34]
1. Poorly defined Goals

2. Unrealistic deadlines
3. Scope creep
4. Insufficient team skills
5. Improper communication
6. Geographically dispersed teams
7. Risk Management
8. Not taking benefits from project management tools
9. Issues within Teams
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3 Method
Data gathered in this thesis is mostly from understanding and reading of literature related to project
management, project management tool, issues and challenges. Reading research papers and
literature related to project management and its issues helped me a lot to understand the basic
theory and problems. Apart from this literature review, Interview process helped me a lot, I have
learnt a lot of ideas concepts after meeting with project managers of companies and conducting
their interview. In this chapter I will discuss about my understanding of literature and other data
collection techniques that I used in this thesis. I will also discuss about the choices I made in
literature review and which methods and tools I used.
3.1 Data Collection

I read multiple things I found on the internet/ library that is related to project management, agile,
communication and trust in software project management. Following mentioned websites were of
my main interest during literature review and understanding of this thesis
Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com.pk/

ACM https://www.acm.org/
IEEE https://www.ieee.org/
Research gate http://researchgate.net
Science Direct https://www.sciencedirect.com/
Table 3 – Data collection websites
The Main keywords of my research are:
Project Management, Large Scale Agile, Trust, Global software development, dispersed
Teamwork, success criteria, challenges, distributed teams, agile projects, and qualitative study.
26
3.2 Literature Review
Before starting the journey of this thesis, I have gone through a lot of research articles, books, case
studies related to my field. It helped me to understand the overview of available theory related to
communication and trust issues in project management. For evaluation of relevant research papers,
I made a search measure, the measures used for selection process is stated below
It says that research article must contain issues related to communication

Distributed Study
and trust issues in project management
This method says that an appropriate data collection methods must be

Data collection Method
used and explained multiple methods of data collection
An empirical study
Empirical study says that we must include research from industry
After downloading research articles from websites mentioned above, I make a repository in my
computer the structure of repository is given below. All the research articles were saved with their
relaxant’s tags, it made my research easy, that when I need to consult some paper it was easy for
to approach it.
27
Figure 5 – Research / Literature Repository Structure
3.2.3 Snowball sampling

I have found this technique the most relevant one that helped me in finding out the most relevant
articles. It is defined as a method of selecting new studies from already selected studies, in other
words this method is based on the similarities between old and new studies [42] in my thesis I have
used this method as articles were selected from reference list of selected articles. Amanpreet has
also used the same technique in her thesis and that gives me confidence in identifying this
technique to be most relevant for my thesis [41]. It helped is in finding most relevant articles below
is list of few research papers with some summary of them that are studied during literature review
of this thesis.
Year Title Summary

2016 A qualitative study of success criteria in Paper described the success criteria of
Norwegian agile software projects from software industries who are using agile
suppliers' perspective methods. Success criteria of project
management is delivering product on
time, and client satisfaction. they
highlighted the difference of projects
who are using agile and those who are
using water fall model.
28
2003 Agile Software Development: It's about This paper discussed how agile software
Feedback and Change. Computer development bring a sensation of
firmness in software development
industry some school of thoughts argue
enthusiastically about agile and others
are equally against it, while some school
of thoughts consider a mix of agile and
plan driven methods a good approach.
2012 Agile Practices: The Impact on Trust in This study describes how self-managing
Software Project Teams teams are involved in agile technique,
teams are authorized and accountable for
meeting projects objectives. Project
managers have a more sense of trust in
agile software development rather than
traditional methods.
2008 Understanding a lack of trust in Global This study described that how globally
Software Teams: a multiple‐case study distributed software development
became problematic, and difficult to
manage. They also discussed about the
main factors that causes mistrust some of
them are poor socialization, increased
monitoring on resources, lack of direct
meetings and how these factors decrease
moral of teams.
2011 Effective Communication in Distributed Agile methodology talks in favor of

Agile Software Development Teams environment in which we have
29
collaborative environment and effective
communication, while effective
communication is very difficult in
distributed environment in which there
are dispersed teams
2001 The Role of Trust in Organizational Settings Trust is developed by positive attitude,
behavior good perceptions, building
trust in organization helps to create a
better environment
2007 Communication in Distributed Agile this study compared two distributed

Development: A Case Study agile development case studies, and
conclude that bad communication in
organizations can result in severe
problems even project failures, there
must be solid requirements and
sufficient communication for successful
completion of project.
2013 Corporate Communication The best way to look are cooperate

communication is to understand how
functions are developed in organization.
In old times a term used communication
was “public relations” and it was very
strategic at that time. With time other
communication techniques and tools
evolved like media relations, digital
communication was introduced for
communicating with stake holders,
30
2003 New directions on agile methods: a agile software development is
comparative analysis characterized by four attributes i.e. it is
incremental, cooperative,
straightforward, and adaptive. Overall
the methodology refers to software
release with rapid developments, more
collaboration and communication with
customers, and changing requirements
throughout the development cycle
2010 A teamwork model for understanding an agile This study did research in software
team: A case study of a Scrum project company that introduced scrum, they
focused on human sense making, that
how mechanism of teamwork is
understood by people. They explained
their project by Dickinson teamwork
model, their main focus is on leadership,
coordination, strong communication.
Communication in Distributed Agile Multiple case studies investigating

Development: A Case Study communication in distributed projects,
Data collection: Onsite observations and
interviews
2007 The qualitative interview in IS research: Interview are the main tool to guess what
Examining the craft is in mind of other people, other people
opinions, thoughts, feeling and
experience about some certain process,
event, product or service. Interviews in
further divided into three main
categories; structured interview,
unstructured interview and semi
31
structured interview. Interview can be
qualitative or quantitative but the
qualitative approach of interview the
most commonly used approach in
research
2011 Barriers in the selection of offshore software The main elements involved in software
development outsourcing vendors: An process improvements are processes
exploratory study using a systematic definition, appraisal, and process
literature review deployment. And organization politics is
one of the main barriers in software
process improvement. Because SPI is
the main change in organization and
people oppose changes, in results they
create political environment. Different
resources in employees in organization
have different interest, goals and skills,
so these things sometimes create
political environment in organization
that everyone is concerned about their
own goals and interests. If project
manager aligns organization goals with
employee goals then this political
environment can be reduced.
2008 Understanding a lack of trust in Global Projects in which large development is
Software Teams: a multiplex‐case study involved are not very much time bound,
so more the development the more
communication is involved and
sometime there might be miss
communication that leads to lack of trust
among resources. The Key factor that we
have studied from literatures are Poor
32
socialization, socio culture fit, bad work
practices, Increased monitoring on
employees, Reduction of
unpredictability in communication,
Conflict handling and Cognitive based
trust so the solution of these is to avoid
these mentioned problems in order to
create sense of trust in company
2016 Ethical Leadership Behavior and Employee This study discusses using the data
Justice Perceptions: The Mediating Role of gathered at two phases, and discusses
Trust in Organization how ethical leadership behavior impacts
employees’ evaluations of organization
focused justice, for example procedural
justice and distributive justice. This
justice is the key to establish trust in
organization.
2019 Trust in Virtual Teams: A Multidisciplinary The organizations have increasingly
Review and Integration turned to the use of virtual team to
handle the nature of work, also
technology is helping a lot to establish
trust within organizations. This study
review 124 theoretical articles related to
multidisciplinary literature on trust in
virtual teams
2017 The Power of Positive Leadership: How and This Books discusses multiple concerns
why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and related to establishing positivity within
Organizations and Change the World organization, how to remove negativity
and how they are affecting our culture.
2018 Small Group and team communication This book addresses the concerns of
groups on organization, their
interactions, roles, norms diversity in
33
people. It also discusses in details about
verbal and nonverbal communication,
decision making and problem solving,
conflicts and creativity in organizations
2015 What drives knowledge sharing in software This study provides a detailed literature
development teams: A literature review and view on knowledge sharing drivers in
classification framework software teams and establish
classification framework using an
organizational change perspective.
Table 4 – List of research papers
3.3 Other sources of Data Collection

In addition to above mentioned research papers, following video courses helped me to understand
the literatures and basic concepts about my thesis.
Source Name
edX Agile Project Management by University of Maryland
Coursera Agile Development Certification by University of Virginia
Udemy Agile Development Certification by Agile Certification Training Courses

Online
Coursera Software Processes and Agile Practices
Pluralsight Agile Learning Path
Table 5 – Data collection sources
34
3.3.1 Agile Project Management in Business/IT Industry
It is important to note that agile project management encompasses all aspects of project delivery
and not just the sole function of project management practices. It is inclusive of all business
analysis, systems analysis and development, as well as all levels of quality assurance and testing
The principles of the Agile Manifesto are as follows: We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools working software over comprehensive
documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation responding to change over
following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. (“Agile
Manifesto,” 2001) Agile methodologies are not a single methodology; it is a group of software
development methods based on iterative and incremental development approaches. In addition,
agile methodology focuses on customer satisfaction and bug free products. According to
Abrahamsson, P. et al. (2002), agile software development is characterized by four attributes i.e.
it is incremental, cooperative, straightforward, and adaptive. Overall the methodology refers to
software release with rapid developments, more collaboration and communication with customers,
and changing requirements throughout the development cycle. It is more adaptive with the ability
to react to the most recent changes. Agile methodology practices are friendlier towards the shifting
priorities that are a fact of life in today’s fast paced, competitive organizations and because of this,
stakeholders are more satisfied with this process (Cohn, 2009). Agile methodology has resulted in
faster growth and development in the software industry 9 as well as improving the communication
and collaboration both inside the agile team and with the customers. Extreme Programming (XP)
and Scrum are the two dominant methods used in agile methodology. XP concentrates more on
the development rather than managerial aspects of software projects, while Scrum method includes
both Scrum management and Scrum development process.
3.3.2 Modes of Better Communication

We have concluded from above research that below mentioned are some of the modes for better
communication.
35
Face to face conversarion
White Board
Email conversarion
conversation
Online chat/Telephonic
Documentation Option Video Conferencing conversation
3.4 Information Gathering (Data Collection)

Some of the information gathering techniques are given below, we gather information using case
studies, interviews and observations.
Case Studies Checklists Interviews
Surverys and
Observations
Questionnaire
36
3.4 Interviews
For Research purpose and data collection I scheduled my discussion session with project managers
of companies, I sent them my interview questionnaire few days before going to their office so that
they are prepared for every answer. I when reached for my session and before starting session I
asked for their permission of recoding interview and they all are open to it. I recorded all sessions
and write after session I transcribed all the recordings in my laptop. For recordings I used my
mobile recorder and for transcription I used Microsoft word. After transcription I managed all the
questions and their answers properly. In next chapter I have shared my all research sessions, my
finding of research and discussion on this research.
Interview are the main tool to guess what is in mind of other people, other people opinions,
thoughts, feeling and experience about some certain process, event, product or service. Interviews
in further divided into three main categories; structured interview, unstructured interview and semi
structured interview. Interview can be qualitative or quantitative but the qualitative approach of
interview the most commonly used approach in research. [35][36][37]
Structures Interview: Structured interviews are highly planned pre-determined and has
regularized in terms of sequence. Proper guideline available in this interview. The main goal of
this interview is that same questions are presented by interviewee. [35][36][37]
Unstructured interview: in literatures this term in interchangeably used with informal discussion,
detailed interview and non-standard interviews. In this interview questions and answers are not
categorized and predetermined. As it has pre-determined questions it doesn’t means that questions
can be non-directive and random, it cannot be started without complete preparation and
information. Researcher must have idea about the purpose of interview. There are many challenges
of this interview, researcher must know about the field and he/she must develop trust and good
rapport to get access to interviewees, because session time of unstructured interview is more as
compared to semi structured and structured interview [35][39]
Semi structured interview: in semi structured complete script of interview is available

beforehand. But it still needs some inventiveness during the interview means interviewer has some
room to change or improvise questions at run time based on the answers of interviewees.
37
I have used semi structured approach in my interview, but I do not want to restrict responded in
some boundary or restricted answers. I want responded to discuss about the ideas and past
experiences about the communication and trust in project management. I wrote all questions
beforehand because I do not have previous experience of conducting interviews that written
questionnaire helped me and gave me confidence during the interview process.
3.4.1 Informant Selection

The main task for me was to find the right people for interview. I struggled a lot to get a case study
or to get respondents who willingly wanted to participate in the interviews. As the topic of my
thesis is related to communication and trust issues in agile project management was the major task
was to find respondents who have experience with agile project management.
Below is the introduction of interviewers that were part of my research,
Respondent 1: He is CEO at company managing 5 departments, with average 5-6 members in one
team following Hierarchal organizational structure. Before starting the interview he stated some
basic knowledge and work flow about his company he said I usually help my teams, by providing
them the tools they need, by talking with them about how we treat your colleagues and employees,
it comes to ethics and morals how we handle employees, I personally don’t try to give instructions
but tries to give advice. For me if I am giving instructions, I can do it by myself.
Respondent 2: He is CTO at a company managing 3 main teams and each team has average size
of 7 people following flat organizational structure. He further added before starting interview that
he helps his team members by keeping they upgraded new IT things that are of their interest as
well as interesting for the business. By arming them up with the latest tools and technologies and
by keeping my self -available when they need me at all times.
Respondent 3: He is CTO and Co-founder at a company managing 4 teams with 3-5 members in
each team, following Hierarchal organizational structure. He said that Being business owner I
consider them as an asset and treat them like team members but keeping balance is a key thing for
example when it is about to take decisions then as an employee. He further added before starting
interview that he helps his team mates by listening their problems and coming up with the solution
to make them enjoy the work they do. By providing tools needed for their job to work efficiently
38
and by talking with them how to communicate with other colleagues and customers to keep the
working environment good. Preferably advices over instructions.
3.4.2 Interview Questionnaire

Opening I started the interview by giving my introduction and gave the short introduction of my
thesis and before going further all the interviewees have also introduced themselves.
Starting Questions: As I have written all questions before hand, I also had some idea about the
company form their social profiles and website. As I wrote all questions beforehand because I do
not have previous experience of conducting interviews that that written questionnaire helped me
and gave me confidence during the interview process.
Key Questions: My key question was related to communication and trust issues, challenges in
project management.
General Questions
1. What is your communication style with employees?

2. How will you ensure that there are no communication gaps between you and the team you
are managing?
3. How will you ensure that your team is comfortable talking to you about any toxic problems
they're facing?
4. How do you team up resources and manage sense of trust among them?
Closing Questions: My closing questions was asking them about the suggestions and new Ideas
and I also discuss is there are any gap in my questions. Few closing questions are mentioned below.
1. What other challenges are you facing regarding communication and trust issues among
teams? And how are you overcoming these challenges?
2. In case of any confusion after this interview, can I contact you for more questions?
39
3.4.3 Interview Process
I conducted all the interviews live, I approached them over emails and by using some friend’s
contacts to agree them for interview. Before going to conduct interview, I contacted all the relevant
person on skype and gave my confirmation and also asked about their availability for interview.
3.4.4 Transcribing interviews

I have recorded all interview with the permission of interviewers and also note some relevant
details on notebook. When I reach home after conducting interview I listen to all interviews and
transcribe them into a word file. I did this process for all three interviews conducted.
3.4.5 Interview Analysis

As I had done transcription of interview the next big challenges was for me to perform my analysis.
As discussed by Maxwell [43] that performing analysis on data is a cyclic process not linear
process. As mentioned in diagram below.
Data Analysis
collection on Data
Gather more
data
40
4 Findings and Discussion
In This chapter, I will share my findings about the interview conducted during my research, and I
will also discuss about the challenges in my research and what challenges software industry is
facing related to communication and trust issues in project management.
4.1 Communication challenges in Project Management

The main findings were the following
• Lack of trust among resources
• Lack of appreciation for hard working resources
• Language barriers and cultural differences
• Difference of time zone between teams
4.2 Trust challenges in Project Management

The main findings were the following
• Lack of Team Interconnection
• Bad socializing culture
• Lack of face to face meetings
• Miss commitments
4.3 Summarization of our Interviews and Discussion on Results.
Question 1: When multiple teams are working together, there is a possibility that the political
obstacles can be created and carried out by some of the political players. How can you identify the
political players and what steps do you take to gain their confidence and buy-in on project goals
in order to eliminate the political barriers to achieve the project goals?
Discussion based on Interviews and Literature:
According to Literature [57] [58]. The main elements involved in software process improvements
are processes definition, appraisal, and process deployment. And organization politics is one of
41
the main barriers in software process improvement. Because SPI is the main change in organization
and people oppose changes, in results they create political environment. Different resources in
employees in organization have different interest, goals and skills, so these things sometimes create
political environment in organization that everyone is concerned about their own goals and
interests. If project manager aligns organization goals with employee goals then this political
environment can be reduced. Sometimes Project managers try to eliminate political barriers by
escalating political problems up the hierarchy, but this is sometime counterproductive, but
literature and interviews we can conclude that align organization goal with employee goal and
dealing everything with proper communication, tact and finesse is the key [59]60].
Respondent 1:
“The bigger the organization the bigger the issue”, Personal Goals to achieve that might be
interfiled by the bigger picture. It’s about being able to work with the greater Good, to have
common goals. It is easier to identify the political goals each one has in terms of identifying the
interest, in terms of benefits etc. that needs to be identified by having an open dialog with everyone
at the same time understanding that how someone personal goal might affect the department or the
job. Otherwise you need to face the reluctance and you don’t know what is reluctant in your goals.
It always resolves by spending time with different departments.
Respondent 2:
When it comes to employee, they have different interest, personal goals etc. that might affect their
work. It is wise to collaborate with each and every one and identify their interest and personal
goals that might affect the job they are doing or not and finding a common solution to get most out
of the person either by changing the task, close monitoring or by using someone else for the same
task. Because personal goal might affect the company in achieving the main goals.
Respondent 3:
It comes at the individual levels, based on the persons interest and personal goals, If it is in opposite
direction to the personal goals that might create barriers in achieving something so it is always
better for the team leads to spend time with employees and identify their personal goals so that
will help him to distribute tasks based on their interest and have a control that personal interest
should not affect the business activity.
42
Question 2: How do you handle communication among teams if mistrust and chaos are created
among them?
According to [61[[62] Projects in which large development is involved are not very much time
bound, so more the development the more communication is involved and sometime there might
be miss communication that leads to lack of trust among resources. The Key factor that we have
studied from literatures are given below:
1. Poor socialization
2. socio culture fit
3. bad work practices,
4. Increased monitoring on employees
5. Reduction of unpredictability in communication
6. Conflict handling
7. Cognitive based trust
So, the solution of this problem is to avoid these above-mentioned problems in order to create
sense of trust in company
Respondent 1
By creating understanding for all the arguments, It’s all about Dialog, Dialog and Dialog.
Informing each party impact of the different solution and the response from the other side.
Respondent 2:
It is all about communication. It is important to find out the problem and then looking into the
impact on business and then sitting with both parties collectively or individually to sort out the
problem.
Question 3: How could you ensure effective communication among organizations or remotely
distributed teams if they have organizational or cultural differences?
43
According to [63] [64] [65] I have concluded below mentioned points
Adopt a use of consistant

Creating digital
common communocation
framework
language channels
Develop a Emphasize the

Always recap
community anc team's shared
meetings
company culture mission
Respondent 1:
It’s about having one lead; one lead is needed on all the project who controls and have the final
say. If the project is same for all the countries. To be an effective organization we cannot have
democracy all the way through, we have to have one who takes the decisions. We can say that in
a meeting all the ideas and thoughts are allowed but when it comes to the decision it should be
taken by one. But as soon as we involve different project leaders or task leaders or team leaders
that have strong positions that have their own goals and path it is seldom that we reach at the
decision in a single meeting. So, it can be done in different takes (meetings) and then comping up
with the final decision and involving all the parties.
Respondent 2:
It is by following the hierarchal structure with in the organization, all information or

communication should be carried by the lead/manager of the team and the decision authority
should be maintained. Also, it involves the personal interest of the team/department that might
conflict with the other team/department that will take time to find out the common interests that is
needed to achieve the business targets.
44
Respondent 3:
We face this issue almost on daily basis as we have teams working globally with us and the in-
house teams. So, I usually prefer to talk with the lead instead of involving every one directly,
because it is easy to communicate with lead and agree. The lead then communicates with the whole
team based on their understanding levels and will answer their questions.
The same goes for the decisions from lead’s communication with team and taking the final
decision, and then he delivers the information to me in a summarized way involving all parties.
Question 4: Often when specialists from different disciplines get together to discuss project related
matters, there is a tendency for each side to make assumptions (often tacitly) regarding a common
understanding of specialized jargon. How do you identify the specialized terminology used by
different disciplines such as accounting, IT, marketing etc.?
As also mentioned by our respondents that the problem is people think they understand but they
don’t and the best thing is to google or to ask to clear the thing. There is a need to use more
effective language instead of using wide terms etc. one of the problems is that sometimes people
ate just nodding their heads when I reality they are not understanding jargons in their
communication. The key of best and effective communication that common ground must be
established between parties. The fundamental is to use the right words for the right audience in an
environment that encourages others to press for clarity when the language is unclear. [89]
Respondent 1:
This is the problem that we have within our organization because we use different terminology
and we assume that everyone understands. The problem is people think they understand but they
don’t and the best thing is to google or to ask to clear the thing. There is a need to use more
effective language instead of using wide terms etc. To gain upper hand on the party as a way of
intimidating others by using a language to create a barrier among you and others as a way of saying
that we are smarter than you are. We should use normal language for all by using the everyday
language. It’s a question about US and THEM that’s why it’s a problem between organizations
45
and businesses, is basically understanding the code and the terms while others don’t understand
what they are talking about.
Respondent 2:
This is a common problem among most of the organizations and especially if there is a language
or cultural differences. The simplest thing to do is to use the common language with easy words
so everyone can understand. It is also wise to include relevant examples from natural life as an
analogy so people can understand what exactly you wanted to say. It is also a problem that people
think that they understood but they did not because of the cultural differences and personal attitude.
Respondent 3:
As a CTO I have the responsibility to communicate in all the verticals having different disciplines,
niche and understanding levels. For example, an accountant does not understand the technical
things etc. So, I prefer to use the simple English words and short sentences to deliver information
what is supposed to be delivered like you can say what is achieved and what’s the future
achievement you are looking for instead of how you did something.
Question 5: How do you evaluate the abilities of the project team to either: a) determine if
appropriate competency exist to fulfill the communication requirements or b) if training will be
required for the project team?
46
According to [86][87][88] following are the key measure to identify that if trainings are required
Set clear Monitor

Ask Away
expectations performance
Setting up a
Setup Personal
Settingup a focus System of
Development
group mentoring and
Plans
coaching
Respondent 1:
We seldom have actual trainings as schooling, it is done within the organization while practicing
your job, it is important that your leader needs to have communication with you regarding your
strengths as weaknesses. It is required that you have the base communication skills and abilities
and they can be identified by the communication.
Respondent 2:
We believe that people learn with experience and guidance. The leader should understand the
strength and weakness of their team mates and help them in improving it. Also, at the same time
it is required that the person should have base level of skills because work environment is not a
school.
Respondent 3:
Every organization have some style of communication and attitude towards working with
customers and colleagues. Everyone at professional positions have their own style so it is better to
sit and have a talk and convey what style we follow in communication in this organization so
everyone will get into the comfortable zone. Also, there are many things that employee adopts or
improves with experience.
47
Question 6: How did you share important information or urgent issues among teams to ensure that
the information is received and perceived correctly?
According to literature [79] [80] key points are discussed to control flow of information are Build
spaces for knowledge sharing i.e. conference rooms, casual meetings, enable multiple channels i.e.
face-face collaboration and schedule offsite events and meetings to increase knowledge sharing
within company.
As a lead you might be thinking of the 15 different rationales while the person you are speaking
with might be thinking of only 2 among them and they will answer based on that only. For example
within an organization even on a common goal, different leaders will have different perspective
based on their need and this will be resolved by gathering all the parties to sit down and discuss
and then leave them so they can agree on the common solution by understanding the objectives of
the others for example operational lead will have concerns related to day to day operations and
that might differ from the concerns of the CEO or IT
Respondent 1:
When it comes to communication the sender is responsible that the information is perceived
correctly. Often you say that I gave the information but it doesn’t mean that receiver gets the
information what you have communicated. The easiest part is spoken communication because it is
easier to read the speakers message. It seems to be impossible to ensure that information is
delivered correctly
The easiest thing is to ask the recipient to get back to you with the short answer on how you
understand the communication. If it’s a project it is sometimes the sender requires something from
the receiver let say data and most of the time sender uses his experience and identifies that the data
is incorrect and then sender understands that receiver didn’t have that correctly. Normally, you
receive a partially communication that tells that you are on a wring track. You need to have the
person who identifies the information.
48
The more thing is instead of giving them the task give them the problem to see if they are inclined
with you or ask as a question, we have this situation this is how we are thinking, what do you think
how this will affect? And you will see how they understand the main thing is to include the problem
and the reason behind what you ask for this will give the opportunity to think in a different way
for solution A instead of solution B. Then they will come back and say how we understand.
As a lead you might be thinking of the 15 different rationales while the person you are speaking
with might be thinking of only 2 among them and they will answer based on that only. For example
within an organization even on a common goal, different leaders will have different perspective
based on their need and this will be resolved by gathering all the parties to sit down and discuss
and then leave them so they can agree on the common solution by understanding the objectives of
the others for example operational lead will have concerns related to day to day operations and
that might differ from the concerns of the CEO or IT
Respondent 2:
If this is by email then it is the responsibility of an employee to ask their team lead if he/she did
not understand it same for the lead to ensure everyone gets the information correctly. It also
depends upon the importance of the email If it is quite critical you can ask for the reply with their
understanding. I believe that the leads play a vital role in communication throughout the
organization when you have multiple teams to ensure the information flow is received and
perceived correctly. Also, how the information is understood varies from work disciplines from
example CEO said something from business point of view that might be taken negative by the
accountant point or software engineer’s point of view. So, the leader has to think for both verticals
and make his team understand what is exactly said.
Respondent 3:
I prefer to do video conferencing when involving everyone and answering their questions.
Sometimes if it is detail oriented then I send an email to everyone to ready first and write their
questions before the meeting and in Meeting I try to explain a bit again in a short form and welcome
questions that resolves their confusions. On the other hand, for short information I prefer to
communicate with the team leads.
49
Question 7: Which Project Management tools and Communication medium do you use (for
communication among teams)?
Apart from our respondents the methods discussed in [83][84][85] are:
1. Jira software
2. Zoho projects
3. Slack
4. Microsoft teams
5. Cisco WebEx teams
6. Dropbox
7. Google drive
8. One drive
9. Emails
10. Telephonic conversations
Respondent 1:
Email is mostly used for important and official communication whereas with in office Spark or
Microsoft Teams is used.
Respondent 2:
Email for high-up. Microsoft Teams for on board teams and skype and Teams for Offshore Teams
Respondent 3:
Standup meeting, mostly Email and then in groups on Microsoft Teams and Skype
Question 8: On which basis do you decide which communication method you need to use?
As mentioned above by our respondents that It varies from number of peoples involved, severity
of information, relevancy of information and geographical location. According to [79] [77] below
50
are the points that helps us in deciding our communication method, we can use below mention
criteria
Level of sensitivity Relationship with communication

of information to communicating methods that
be communicated party recipient prefers
Your prefered
method of Level of urgency
communication
Respondent 1:
I think you have to see how important it is for you that everyone is aligned, if everyone is included
then you need to do the project together by sitting together in a meeting room. It is not required
and you are not able to inform everyone. You need to sit and decide which parties should be
involved and who will be affected with it. Personally, being in copy on the emails is a hectic task
while you are busy with the other things and it is hard to be in line with all the information. You
have to trust that you will be asked when a decision is taken in which you need to be involved.
Asking people is an easy way of not taking the responsibility, thinking that they have to prioritize
and they have to read through it Instead it should be like after the communication instead of
sending a summarized email with the decision, It should be sent like this is the issue we had and
this is the solution we choose. And it is easier to have updates in the meetings like in conference
or in meetings to deliver all the information what you have.
Respondent 2:
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It varies from number of peoples involved, severity of information, relevancy of information and
geographical location. You need to decide which teams should be involved and which are good to
be involved. I personally like to do the meeting involving everyone or by
Email: When some decision or information to be forwarded,
Video conferencing when involving people from global locations.
When it comes to the collective meeting it is important to involve people based on their roles for
example multiple teams can conclude something and based on their conclusion, they can involve
high-ups with the summarized details to conclude some decision. The important thing is to keep
people aligned and to keep the flow clear
Respondent 3:
For communication with everyone in my team: I like to use email when things needed to be formal,
but people tend to change email in chat with questions and loses the main topic. So, for discussion-
oriented topics, I used to send them an email and invite them to ask questions to their lead and then
the remaining one to me through their lead.
For one to one or in groups: I like to use skype groups or video conferencing involving global team
leads
Question 9: How do you summarize the information from the teams and deliver it to other stake
holders and to the board?
As mentioned above by our respondents that communication is the key, establish the dedicated
key of communication, also gathering all the summarized information from all the teams and
conclude summary. As mentioned in [81] [82] that sending presentation, decks and other material
before meeting is the effective sometimes, and the main thing is we must know that facts in our
metrics, be specific about the meeting goals, take responsibilities, review your strategies, create
transparencies and be proactive. The things to avoid in flow of communications are don’t provide
your audience with too much details, never surprise other with bad news, ignore the dynamics in
your surroundings.
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Respondent 1:
This is the chain of communication, if you have a team of 8, they all don’t have to communicate
with me, the decision needs to made and confirmed by the leader of the team or the project and
they will inform their leaders. It’s a good to make a blind copy to the team as well, so it is ensured
that the information is secured and conveyed as well to make them inclined.
Respondent 2:
I gather all the summarized information from all the teams and conclude my summary over it to
discuss with the board and other stake holders.
Respondent 3:
It is the sequence of communication either from team lead to their manager or from manager to
their Chiefs or board members. The best way is to always gather information from your team leads
or managers and then create a summarized short report for the type of meeting with short details
of their interest for example the information related to how many goals we have achieved and how
far are we is of customer or stakeholders’ interest. Whereas for board members they are interested
in figures how much we did so far and how much are we targeting from number of customers.
Question 10: How do you control the information flow or knowledge sharing among the teams?
As also mentioned above by our respondents that it is always advised to keep everyone updated to
keep them inclined with the direction of business goals and letting the people to suggest things
based on their experience and creative mindset. And Not all the information is for everyone, you
need to decide what is needed and what is good to know and the same goes to the leads and
managers but information related to company’s goal and its’ direction is something that on abstract
level what everyone needs to know. According to literature [79] [80] following key points are
discussed to control flow of information and to increase knowledge sharing within company.
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Enable multiple
Build spaces for
channels i.e. face-face
knowledge sharing i.e Incentivize knowkedge
collaboration and
conference romes, sharing
schedule offsite events
casual meetings
and meetings
Renovation your Find rights knowlegde

training and on software that fits your
boarding methods organization
Respondent 1:
This is that you need to know the one that needs the information, if you don’t need it is only nice
to have it is not important but at some time you need to bring all the team so they can know what
we are doing and why we are doing it So, they can do their fragment of it without being involving
into what everyone else is doing all the time and I think that is important. When I ask a small task
to someone, I always tries to explain the problem and why I need that. That helps the team to
understand what was intended and how the piece of my puzzle will fit in.
Respondent 2:
Information flow always depends upon the type of information. The flow is controlled by the
leaders like not all the information needed to be delivered to everyone. So, the originating leader
should have a say to release the information based on its sensitivity.
It is always advised to keep everyone updated to keep them inclined with the direction of business
goals and letting the people to suggest things based on their experience and creative mindset.
Respondent 3:
Not all the information is for everyone, you need to decide what is needed and what is good to
know and the same goes to the leads and managers but information related to company’s goal and
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its’ direction is something that on abstract level what everyone needs to know. So, that they feel
confident and them self to be a part of the team/company. Employees are the asset of the company
and they always want to feel them self as part of something. For me no matter what designation
you have the thing that matters is how far you go collectively.
When it comes to the problems the team needs to understand all the parameters so they can come
up with various Genius solutions.
Question 11: How do you keep everyone motivated to achieve the common goal through
communication?
As mentioned above by our respondents that keep the team motivated it is required to appreciate
in a good way collectively, we can also do by acknowledgment and delivering information how
far are we in achieving something, so, they know what they doing is something quite meaningful.
According to [74] [75] [76] [77] we can conclude the following key points to keep everyone
motivated to achieve the common goal through communication:
Encourage Dont
Set clear goals
happiness micromanage
Keep the lined Frequent Avoid negative

open feedbacks communication
Diversity your Growth and

Promote team
communication learning
works
plans opportunies
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Respondent 1:
If I answer without touching the field of motivation, it is like if you be a good example for others,
be a decent guy, treat them with respect and acknowledge what they are doing and of course give
those updates along the way. One thing that could be mentioned is take the time to celebrate small
wins because we forget that often, we only focus on a bigger picture and bigger picture is a never-
ending story more or less, there are always new things to be done we seldom stops and celebrates
the wins along the way. Wins are the things that gives us confidence and believes on what we are
doing. It can be small things like let’s go and take a cup of coffee or let’s go for 5 mins and just
relax.
Respondent 2:
It’s a hard thing to answer but to keep the team motivated it is required to appreciate in a good way
collectively (not individually). Because in collective appreciation the team members will feel like
team and it creates a sense of achievement among them. By taking some time in celebrating things
or achievements by gathering together instead of just sending an email like ordering a pizza for
every one or inviting every one for a cricket after office hours or even just for chit chat in a break
Respondent 3:
By acknowledgment and delivering information how far are we in achieving something, so, they
know what they doing is something quite meaningful. And It will motivate them in putting more
effort because they feel that they are a part of something that is going to make an impact.
It is good to deliver these kinds of information not by emails but by gathering them together. Along
with the business you need to understand the human psyche and benefit of sense of achievement
returns.
Question 12: How do you make people listen to and trust you irrespective to the position you
have?
According to Literature [40] trust can be build using the Competence, connection, communication
and honesty.
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Competence: Connection: be
be capable empathetic
Communication: Honesty: be
be clear reliable
So, to conclude apart from the above-mentioned parameters you have to be a good person in nature,
someone easy to talk with, have personality and sound in decisions.
Respondent 1:
If you don’t have the personality. This has a lot to do with your personality, if you remove your
position you will left with your personality, your communication skills and of course your
competence. If you are very competent you can be asked by the people but if you have competence
level but don’t have the personality or communication set that makes people not value your
opinion. The trust is not only about competence it about something if you have a good personality
a good way of communication that’s going to sum-up and you are going to ask, And you will see
this in any form, in a dynamic group of people, someone asks a question to person2 not to person1
although the question is relevant to person1 because of his experience but they ask it to person 2
just because that guy is more trustworthy kind guy.
Respondent 2:
On basic parameters you have to be a good person in nature, someone easy to talk with, have
personality and sound in decisions. People in your surrounding are looking for someone to listen
by wearing their shoes and then helping them out with the solution that is best for them.
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On competitive parameters: Your skill set and knowledge makes you’re differ from a group of
people and will let the people trust if you do have the basic parameters.
Respondent 3:
It is all about the personality traits. I think people might listen to you because of the designation
but they might not trust you. One should be good in personality and it is not only about dressing,
it is a combination of: how keen you are, how easy it is to understand you and how much you listen
to them, how valuable are you for them, how do you look etc. This is something that makes you
to stand out of them and give weight and trust to your words!
Question 13: What is your approach regarding criticism in the teams to abstain from negative
impact on communication and trust?
As per our respondents that people do things normally but they are might be irritating for others,
and in teams we have common issues that people are not happy, they notice how someone talks,
how they write, how they look, how they smell, this sometimes create negativity. As multiple
concerns in a book [72] are discussed related to establishing positivity within organization, how to
remove negativity and how they are affecting our culture. Below is our conclusion related to
removing negativity within organization in order to ensure smooth communication and trust within
organization [71][72][73]
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Write positive
Make positivity a
Quotes on wall and Talk with people
core value
emails
Provide opportunity
Provide trust and for growth and
Give recognitions
respect to other empower
innovation
Teach employees to
Build role models Gives
be grateful
Respondent 1:
As soon as you have a team you will have these kinds of issues, people are not happy, how someone
talks, how they write, how they look, how they smell, it might be everything. At some point this
will reach a level where you have to address it, and when addressing it, it is about tolerance and
understanding of others position. When you have an issue, In order to take a decision I tends to
talk with both parties one to one, It might be solved by talking one to one with each side or at some
point you have it involve them and changing the dialog from you are too I feel or this things.
Instead of saying you do this and you do that you can say how it does affects me.
Respondent 2:
It happens in all the teams; people do things normally but they are might be irritating for others.
The best thing is to sit and talk and find a reasonable ground to solve a problem but obviously you
cannot sit for small things or try to solve everything there should be a tolerance as well.
Respondent 3:
Negative impact and criticism are in all the teams, and the organizational culture among managers
keeps an important role here. I think when you see an issue you need to look at the artifacts from
59
both the parties and conclude or come up with something that they both should agree. It Is all about
tolerance and understanding the demands or problems and then coming up with something that
will have no or less impact on others.
Question 14: What other challenges are you facing regarding communication and trust issues
among teams and how are you overcoming these challenges?
As mentioned by our respondents the main challenge is to convey clear requirements and ensuring
everyone is on same page for any kind of task. In trust the main challenge is to build up the trust
among employees that you are a decent guy, easy to communicate with and reliable. Sometimes,
some people are quite trustable but hard to communicate with. Etc. According to literature [68]
[69] [70] Today’s Organizations are built on trust and in fact communication is very essential
element to build and retain trust. In other words, we can also say that we can use better and effective
communication to build trust. Below are the challenges related to better communication and trust
in organizations
Suppositions that
Unpredictability in Completly reply on my audience
communication technology understands the
jargon
Not Making
Not Listening to communication a Whole team
employees leadership Motivation
function
I can conclude that we can overcome these challenges using below mentioned points
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1. Boost Moral of employees
2. Motivate your team and demonstrate passion
3. Knowledge sharing
4. Keeping promises with employees
5. Communicate clearly and concisely
6. Listen to other people
7. Ensure multiple mediums of communication i.e. verbal non verbal
8. Build proper communication and trust strategy within company, take feedbacks about your
strategies.
Respondent 1:
In communication: The main challenge is to convey clear requirements and ensuring everyone is
on same page for any kind of task
In trust the main challenge is to build up the trust among employees that you are a decent guy,
easy to communicate with and reliable. Sometimes, some people are quite trustable but hard to
communicate with etc.
It’s a challenge to identify the strength and capabilities of the employees and to differentiate among
the problem
Respondent 2:
We are struggling with communication challenges in team’s communication globally you can trust
that the person has perceived the information correctly but after couple of days you understand
they are thinking in some other directions. So, it is sometimes hard to get them back on the directed
path.
Respondent 3:
Specifically, in communication during the flow of information people tend to forget the key points
or sometimes they say they got it but they did not. As a result, a whole team gets detracted from
one persons (Lead) misunderstanding. Especially in IT, it has a huge impact in terms of time, cost.
For example: you have asked for a wooden swing for a customer, but the lead/manager forgets
wood and his team has made it with the rubber tire.
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Question 15: How is trust developed and retained among teams or organizations?
As [66] discusses using the data gathered at two phases, and discusses how ethical leadership
behavior impacts employees’ evaluations of organization focused justice, for example procedural
justice and distributive justice. This justice is the key to establish trust in organization. Few of the
main key elements [67] to establish trust in organization are mentioned below:
Protect the Act with intergity

Be Honest and
interests of and keep
supportive
employees commitments
Better
Be consistent communication is
the key
Discussion and Solution to challenges faced by Communication and trust in Project

management
Considering all the challenges regarding communication and trust issues, the solutions that I
suggest is discussed below.
It varies from team to team locally or globally and based on cultures as well. You need to
understand to whom you are talking with their level of understanding with you because you cannot
by pass and communicate with the team all the time. It is his job. So, you need to ensure he
understood correctly by asking him questions after the briefing. You can trust him but not a blind
trust that will never solves the problem. It is all about communication, the major problem in the
62
organizations is that the leaders do not find time to sit with their team mates to identify the
problems or things bothering them at the same time based on the geographical locations their
attitude towards work is different than the others. They have to be kind and courageous to listen
and pamper the other persons or to come up with the solution for them.
Respondent 1:
With effective communication trust will be developed, by keeping everyone one inclined and
keeping goals and information clear. By being a good example for others in your work etc.
I think trust is one thing, I think you can have blind trust but big issues, but I think trust is important
as the base but trust doesn’t delete your problems it makes them easier to fix but you as a leader
even if you have a trust from all the employees you will have a problems within the group but it is
easier to solve if you have trust among employees that you are a decent guy.
Respondent 2:
It is all about communication. By keeping everyone one inclined and keeping goals and
information clear. By being a good example for others in your work etc.
Respondent 3:
There are many ways but the main thing is the person’s personality and communication style. And
how much respect he gives to the others. Because you will get what you give.
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5 Conclusion
In this thesis I have discussed multiple problems and discussion on these problems in large scale
agile project management related to communication and trust. As I have also discussed in my
findings section that misunderstandings and delayed feedbacks in communication lead towards
trust issues among employees. Communication and trust issues are interrelated, for instance; poor
socializing, lack of team interconnection, and lack of commitments also leads towards trust issues.
These trust issues create complications, poor performance of employees and delayed feedbacks of
work. The solutions to deal with communication and trust issues is to improve communication, do
as frequent visits, fulfill commitments, provide good and helping work environment. As trust and
communication is a two-way road, doing trust helps build trust on other side too. After all this
research I can state this that no communication in project management can be successful without
presence of trust among parties.
Solutions for good, fast and accurate communication is to address language, cultural issues, do
meetups and face to face meeting. If face to face meeting is not possible, prefer video conferencing.
It varies from team to team, locally or globally and based on cultures as well. You need to
understand that whom you are talking to. You must come to the level of understanding of other
party. So, you need to ensure he/she understand correctly by asking him/her questions after
briefing. You can trust him/her but not a blind trust that will never solves the problem. It is all
about communication, the major problem in the organizations is that the leaders do not find time
to sit with their team mates to identify the problems or things bothering them at the same time
based on the geographical locations their attitude towards work is different than the others. They
have to be kind and courageous to listen and pamper the other persons or to come up with the
solution for them. You must be honest and supportive, act with integrity and keep commitments
with other in order to do better communication, because trust building is all about healthy
communication.
To conclude communication and trust in large scale agile project management we can say that It
is about dialog and understanding that a lot of people when they have a problem; they have a
problem with others and you have to understand that, you are a problem solver, and you should
come up with the solution or it tends to be the other way around. If I have a problem, I need to fix
64
it for me. As you can’t choose your colleagues, your family and your coworkers. It is not your
choice that whom you are not going to work with. I think the one having the problem or coming
up with the problem might have the problem more then they think, as overthinking create problems
too. You need to solve it by communication and you need understand that it needs to be solved,
and trust is the key and major element in communication. No communication can be successful
and fruitful if there is lack of trust among both parties, and in my case I have addressed the problem
of communication and trust issues in large scale project management, large scale organizations
have huge issues and huge issues need more communication to solve these issues on permanent
basic and at that point trust is like oxygen in air, no oxygen in air mean we cannot breath properly
similarly no trust in communication means bad communication. It must be there to make effective
communication.
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6 Limitations and Future Work
6.1 Limitations
At start of my thesis my goal was to find communication and trust issues in project management
but after doing literature review, I came to the point that issue of communication and trust in large
scale project management is not discussed in detail in literature. So, I changed focus of my thesis
to this topic, another limitation was there was a smaller number of respondents available for these
interviews.
6.2 Future Work

This thesis discussed communication and trust issues in companies following agile technique, and
we discussed these issues from current environment as well as from literature research. The Aspect
of ensuring self-trust and self-understanding within a resource is not discussed in this research. It
might be an interesting research to investigate how to ensure self-trust and self-understanding in a
resource.
66
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73
Appendix
Interview Questionnaire
The questions below are related to communication and trust, in relation to management point of
view based on the reader’s experience, that will not involve any confidential information to be
shared. The identity of the company and the reader will be kept confidential nor it will be used in
the thesis, neither it will be published or shared.
Starting of Interview
1. Company Name:
2. Designation:
3. Experience and Expert at
4. Team or Departments you are managing
a. Departments under management?
b. No of members in each time
c. Does all teams/departments work on the same domain
5. what’s the structure of your organization (hierarchal or Flat)?
6. How do you see the employees as an employee, colleague or team member?
7. Being at your position how to do think helping your team mates (at any level)?
General Questions
5. What is your communication style with employees?

6. How will you ensure that there are no communication gaps between you and the team you
are managing?
7. How will you ensure that your team is comfortable talking to you about any toxic problems
they're facing?
8. How do you team up resources and manage sense of trust among them?
Key Questions Regarding to Communication and Trust
74
1. When multiple teams are working together, there is the possibility that the political
obstacles can be created and carried out by some of the political players. How could you
identify them and What steps do you take to gain their confidence and buy-in on project
goals. To eliminate the political barriers to project goals.
2. How do you handle communication among teams if sense of mistrust and chaos is created
among them?
3. How could you ensure effective communication among organizations or remotely
distributed teams having organizational Cultural differences (not from countries)?
4. How do you identify the linguistic needs in the sense of specialized terminology used by
different disciplines such as accounting, IT, marketing etc.? Often when specialists from
diverse areas get together to discuss project related matters, there is a tendency for each
side to make assumptions (often tacitly) regarding a common understanding of specialized
jargon.
5. How do you evaluate the abilities of the project team to determine if appropriate levels of
competency exist to fulfill the communication requirements or if training will be required
for the project team?
6. How did you escalate important information or urgent issues among teams to ensure that
the information conveyed is received and perceived correctly?
7. Which Project Management tools and Communication medium do you use (for
communication among teams)?
8. What communication medium proves best for you for example communication via email,
messages (through immediate managers), one to one meetings or Standup meeting with
everyone. And on which basis you decide which communication method you need to use?
9. How did you increase the efficiency of communication (via email) among teams and
stakeholders, do you have any guidelines for that?
10. What do you think how trust is develop and retained among teams or organizations?
11. How do you handle information gathering and its delivery from your team to the stake
holders and high-up’s (above designations)?
12. How did you control the information flow or knowledge sharing among the teams?
13. How do you keep everyone motivated to achieve the common goal through
communication?
75
14. What are your attributes that help others in listening you and understanding you
irrespective to the designation you have (means why people should listen you or trust you)?
15. Considering all the above problems regarding communication and trust issues, what
solutions do you suggest?
Ending Questions
3. What other challenges are you facing regarding communication and trust issues among
teams? And how are you overcoming these challenges?
4. In case of any confusion after this interview, can I contact you for more questions?
76

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Agile Project Management in Large

Scale Software Development

Sheikh Muhammad Ali

Agile Project Management in Large Scale Software Development

Table 1 – Strength and weaknesses of waterfall model ................................................................ 15

Figure 1 – Stages of Agile [5] ....................................................................................................... 12

1.1 Aim and Scope

1.3 Problem description and Research questions

1.7 Thesis Structure

Figure 1 – Stages of Agile [5]

2.1 Traditional software development

2.1.1 Water Fall Model

Waterfall model follows through the following phases [54]

Table 1 – Strength and weaknesses of waterfall model

2.1.2 Spiral Model

2.2 Agile Software Development

Individuals and interactions over process and tools

As compared to traditional development methodologies, agile development has a different way of

2.4 Agile versus Traditional Methodologies

Control Process centric People Centric

Management Style Command-and-control Leadership-and-collaboration

Knowledge Management Explicit Tacit

Role Assignment Individuals favors Self-organizing teams

Communication Formal Informal

Customer’s Role Important Critical

Project Cycle Guided by tasks or activities Guided by product feature

Development Model Life cycle model (Waterfall, The evolutionary-delivery

Desired Organizational Mechanistic (bureaucratic Organic (flexible and

Technology No restriction Favors object-oriented

Table 2 – Traditional vs agile software development [11] [41]

2.5 Communication and Trust in Project Management

Type of trust required in organization [23]

Contractual trust: this kind of trust is based on unstated contract

As stated in diagram [40] below

2.6 Project Management and its role

1. Poorly defined Goals

3.1 Data Collection

Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com.pk/

Table 3 – Data collection websites

The Main keywords of my research are:

It says that research article must contain issues related to communication

This method says that an appropriate data collection methods must be

3.2.3 Snowball sampling

Year Title Summary

2011 Effective Communication in Distributed Agile methodology talks in favor of

2007 Communication in Distributed Agile this study compared two distributed

2013 Corporate Communication The best way to look are cooperate

Communication in Distributed Agile Multiple case studies investigating

Table 4 – List of research papers

3.3 Other sources of Data Collection

Coursera Agile Development Certification by University of Virginia

Udemy Agile Development Certification by Agile Certification Training Courses

Pluralsight Agile Learning Path

Table 5 – Data collection sources

3.3.2 Modes of Better Communication

3.4 Information Gathering (Data Collection)

Case Studies Checklists Interviews

Semi structured interview: in semi structured complete script of interview is available

3.4.1 Informant Selection

Below is the introduction of interviewers that were part of my research,