Business Development in Large-Scale Agile Software Development: Barriers and Enablers

Abstract

Currently, many financial organizations must undergo a digital transformation. In this study, we investigated a transformation in a Norwegian fintech company with the aim of understanding how the tasks performed by business development can be better aligned with the work of cross-functional development teams. Specifically, we examined the enablers and barriers to coordination between business development and software product development in large-scale agile software development. The organization under study had 25 software product development teams that followed an in-house agile model. We collected data by conducting 13 interviews and collecting various documents. Our findings suggest that having cross-functional fora, having a common understanding of what business development is, and coaching the whole organization to be more agile can improve coordination between business and software development.