Systematic literature review – improving business processes by implementing agile

Abstract

Purpose

Numerous approaches from the field of economics already exist for the improvement of business processes. In the field of software development, work has been done on improving development processes. For years, the focus here has been on agile approaches. Although various approaches for improving business processes exist, it is becoming increasingly difficult to adapt business processes to the fast-moving conditions of the market and the business environment. Agile approaches address this issue. Thus, not only software development processes, but also business processes should benefit from agile approaches.

Design/methodology/approach

To this end, values and principles of the Agile Manifesto, agile methods such as Scrum, and various agile practices such as the Kanban board should be applied in business processes. This paper examines the work already done on this topic. With the help of a systematic literature review (SLR), literature studies dealing with the implementation of the agile approach in business processes are identified.

Findings

This paper presents, investigates and contrasts 12 primary sources dealing with agile and business processes and shows how they are different/ equal regarding three research questions.

Originality/value

We provide an overview of existing approaches handling the combination of agile and business processes to improve business processes.

Citation

Schmitt, A. and Hörner, S. (2021), "Systematic literature review – improving business processes by implementing agile", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 868-882. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-10-2019-0422