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As the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) impacts the world, software practitioners are collaboratively working remotely from home. The pandemic has disrupted software practitioners’ productivity forcing changes to agile methodology adopted by software practitioners in software organizations. Therefore, this study aims to provide implication on the issues and recommendations for improving software practitioners’ productivity and also examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agile software development.

This paper adopts a narrative literature review to provide early assessment based on secondary data from the literature and available document reports from studies published from 2019 to 2022 to explore software practitioners’ productivity and agile software development during the working from home directive amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 60 sources which met the inclusion criteria were used to provide preliminary evidence grounded on secondary data from the literature. Descriptive analysis was used to provide qualitative findings from the literature.

Findings from this study present the significance of working from home directive on agile software development and software practitioners’ productivity. More importantly, findings from the secondary data shed light on software practitioners’ productivity adopting agile software development amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the findings present virtual collaborative platforms used by software practitioners, technical and social barriers of agile software development during the pandemic and recommendations for remote agile software development.

This study explores the significance of working from home directive on software practitioners’ productivity during COVID-19 pandemic and further investigates how are software practitioners’ productivity adopting agile software development practices amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, this study discusses the challenges software practitioners currently face and offers some strategies to bridge the gaps in agile software development to help software practitioners, system developers, software managers and software organizations adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors facilitating and influencing the adoption of DevOps practices specifically tailored to mobile software development, with a focus on understanding the influence of mobile-specific requirements on DevOps integration.

The study employs a qualitative methodology, including a literature review, exploratory case research and partial quantitative assessments through DORA metrics and survey applications. This approach, guided by the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, prioritizes in-depth insights into the adoption of DevOps practices and explores strategies for integrating DevOps in mobile software development.

The research identifies several key themes specific to Mobile DevOps adoption, including tool integration issues, testing complexities, deployment challenges and security concerns. These findings underscore the necessity for tailored DevOps solutions that can effectively address the unique demands of mobile software development. The study also proposes actionable strategies to overcome these challenges, thereby enhancing the efficiency, quality and security of mobile applications.

The insights gained from this study provide valuable guidance for practitioners in the mobile software development sector. By understanding and addressing the specific challenges of Mobile DevOps, organizations can improve their DevOps practices and achieve better outcomes in terms of project delivery speed, quality and security. For example, implementing robust testing strategies, investing in compatible tools and developing well-defined rollback procedures can significantly enhance Mobile DevOps effectiveness. Furthermore, incorporating continuous security measures and improving cross-functional collaboration can lead to more secure and efficient mobile application deployments.

This study offers valuable starting points for researching Mobile DevOps in real-world settings, based on insights from practical DevOps implementations in a single-case organization. Organizations can use this information to compare their own DevOps approaches with those of the studied organization, and can facilitate self-assessment and improvement.

This study contributes to the limited literature on Mobile DevOps adoption and proposing actionable strategies. By incorporating the TOE framework, it provides a comprehensive guide that enhances understanding and management of DevOps practices throughout the mobile application development lifecycle and offers significant value to practitioners and researchers alike.

Security in large-scale agile is a crucial aspect that should be carefully addressed to ensure the protection of sensitive data, systems and user privacy. This study aims to identify and characterize the security practices that can be applied in managing large-scale agile projects.

A qualitative study is carried out through 18 interviews with 6 software development companies based in Portugal. Professionals who play the roles of Product Owner, Scrum Master and Scrum Member were interviewed. A thematic analysis was applied to identify deductive and inductive security practices.

The findings identified a total of 15 security practices, of which 8 are deductive themes and 7 are inductive. Most common security practices in large-scale agile include penetration testing, sensitive data management, automated testing, threat modeling and the implementation of a DevSecOps approach.

The results of this study extend the knowledge about large-scale security practices and offer relevant practical contributions for organizations that are migrating to large-scale agile environments. By incorporating security practices at every stage of the agile development lifecycle and fostering a security-conscious culture, organizations can effectively address security challenges in large-scale agile environments.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate job demands–resources theory with core self-evaluation theory to examine how and when sustainable project leadership stimulates sustainable project performance. Psychological empowerment is used as a mechanism between sustainable project leadership and sustainable project performance, whereas core self-evaluation acts as a moderator between sustainable project leadership and psychological empowerment.

This study adopts a time-lagged two-phase approach to collecting data from 257 software engineers working in medium-sized and large companies in the Polish financial sector.

This study reveals the direct and indirect (through psychological empowerment) effects of sustainable project leadership on sustainable project performance. It also confirms that the “sustainable project leadership–psychological empowerment” relationship strengthens with increasing level of project team members’ core self-evaluation.

This article explores a unique research framework. It significantly enriches the literature on sustainable project management, increasing the understanding of effective leadership practices that address the needs of software engineering teams to support sustainable project performance.

This research demonstrates the theoretical merit of a reference architecture-based approach to life cycle cost (LCC) analysis system provision in the built environment. LCC insight is considered fundamental to sustainable decision making by asset managers; however, the current capabilities in practice do not align with the political ambition and the scale of competencies required to realise sectoral emissions–reduction targets.

In pursuing practical outcomes, the study employs a custom design science research-inspired methodology. Domain requirements are gathered via literature research as an initial top-down software reference architecture which is refined, bottom-up, through testing and implementation in a representative case study. A prototype IT system and reference architecture artefact are developed and used to evaluate the concept qualitatively through broad practitioner focus groups.

Sentiment analysis of the expert opinions is broadly positive and helps to substantiate the proposal’s theoretical suitability in addressing the scalability challenge. Additionally, constructive feedback provides guidance towards this trajectory, highlighting the importance of aligning with existing communities and standards, broadening future research scope to consider further scenarios and prioritisation of efforts to build trust around contracts and data quality.

The novelty of the work is the provision of the reusable LCC reference architecture development methodology.

The concept has the potential to provide LCC capabilities to industry at scale while the artefacts developed herein can be appended to existing LCC standards as implementation guidance to support IT system developers. Furthermore, the developed methodology can be employed in harmonisation efforts between policy and practice.

This study introduces the Digital Maturity Assessment Model (DMAM), a model tailored to assess the digital maturity of SMEs, tracing its development from addressing business challenges to establishing a comparative analysis framework grounded in Resource Dependence Theory (RDT).

DMAM is based on positivist philosophy and objectivist epistemology, supported by Design Science Research (DSR) and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). The methodology involves iterative development, from problem identification to creating a practical solution for assessing SMEs' digital maturity and guiding digitalization efforts.

DMAM offers a clear and specific methodology, distinguishing itself by addressing the unique needs of SMEs, particularly resource-dependent ones. The model’s development fills critical gaps in existing literature and provides a practical artifact for SMEs' digitalization.

DMAM is original in its focus on the specific needs of resource-dependent SMEs, offering actionable recommendations and addressing shortcomings in existing models. It serves as a foundational framework for SMEs' digital transformation, making a significant contribution to the digital maturity assessment literature.

This aims to explore the relationship between the agile methods barriers in large-scale contexts and the benefits for business, team and product and process, exploring the organizational readiness (OR) mediating role.

We propose a theoretical model through survey-based research, applying partial least square structural equation modelling.

We confirmed that OR mediating effect on the relationship between agile methods barriers and team benefits. We operationalized OR in a broader context that embeds the strategic alignment of large-scale agile implementation, considering variables such as organizational structure and culture.

The data are cross-sectional rather than longitudinal, which limits temporal interpretations of the associations between agile methods and organizational issues.

The findings offer a way forward for organizations already using or planning to implement agile management to understand the pathway towards achieving the expected benefits. Our study also unveils the importance of looking at OR when implementing such a complex change in management from traditional to large-scale contexts.

Our results show the significant and positive influence of agile method on all three benefit variables (team, business, product and processes). Furthermore, we identified the significant and positive mediating role of OR on the relationship between agile method and team benefits.

The proliferation of industry platforms has disrupted several industries. Firms adopting a platform business model have experienced a substantial expansion in size and scale, positioning themselves as the foremost valuable entities in market capitalization. Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial expansion in the body of literature dedicated to platforms, and different streams of research have emerged. Despite considerable efforts and the significant progress made in recent years toward a comprehensive understanding of industry platforms, there is still room for further harnessing the field’s diversity. As a result, the aim of this article is to examine the field’s structure, identify research concerns and provide suggestions for future research, thereby enhancing the overall understanding of industry platforms.

We conducted a thorough examination of 458 articles on the topic using bibliometric methods and systematic review techniques.

Through co-citation analysis, we identified five distinct clusters rooted in various bodies of literature: two-sided markets, industry platforms, digital platforms, innovation platforms and two-sided networks. Furthermore, the examination of these five clusters has revealed three key areas that demand further consideration: (1) terminologies, (2) classifications and (3) perspectives.

While previous reviews have provided valuable insights into the topic of industry platforms, none have explored the structure of the field so far. Consequently, as a first step toward advancing the field, we uncover the structure of the literature, identifying three major areas of concern. By addressing these concerns, our goal is to converge different clusters, thereby harnessing the diversity in the field and enhancing the overall understanding of industry platforms.

Leadership research has traditionally focused on formal leadership; however, leaders may emerge in informal settings in self-managed teams, and little is known about who emergent leaders are and what their characteristics are. This study investigates emergent leaders' behaviors, roles, skills, and leadership style, drawing on a multi-method approach.

We first identify emergent leaders using social network analysis and aggregation approaches. Second, we investigate emergent leaders' characteristics using interviews with forty agile team members in five organizations.

Results indicate different roles of emergent leaders (i.e. coach, liaisons), leadership styles (i.e. supportive), skills (i.e. culturally intelligent, strategist), and influencing factors (i.e. personality, technical knowledge, social circle).

We contribute by identifying emergent leaders through multiple identification methods (i.e. network analysis, aggregation), and then through identifying their various characteristics, we contribute to leadership literature as well as idiosyncrasy-credit theory. We also add to agile-leadership theory, showing that multiple informal leaders may emerge within agile teams. Finally, our findings have practical implications for self-managed teams, informal group settings, organizational change professionals, and organizations with horizontal structures.