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This is the published version of a paper presented at Fifth International Scientific Conference
on Project Management in the Baltic Countries, April 14-15, 2016, Riga, University of
Latvia.

Citation for the original published paper:

Gustavsson, T. (2016)
Benefits of Agile Project Management in a Non-Software Development Context: A
Literature Review
In: Project Management Development – Practice and Perspectives: Fifth
International Scientific Conference on Project Management in the Baltic Countries,
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS (pp. 114-124). Riga: Latvijas Universitate
Project Management Development – Practice and Perspectives

N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper.

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 BENEFITS OF AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN A NON-SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT – A LITERATURE REVIEW

Tomas Gustavsson
Karlstad University, Sweden, Universitetsgatan 2, 651 88 Karlstad, [email protected], +46-54 700 1904

Abstract. In the last fifteen years we have witnessed a vast spread of new methods for managing projects within
software development. In 2001, the Agile Manifesto stated the common values and principles of these methods, all
aimed at producing better software. Several of these values and principals are specifically expressed for designing and
programming software products. Since then, the benefits of these methods have led to a widespread use of agile project
management even in non-software development contexts. But, how does these values and principals affect projects in
non-software areas since some values and principals are not applicable? Do they perceive the same benefits? This paper
presents a systematic literature review aimed at identifying benefits in projects adopting agile methods in non-software
development contexts. Out of the 21 case studies analysed, most reported projects were from manufacturing companies
but even from areas such as library management and strategy management. The most frequently reported benefits were
related to team work, customer interaction, productivity and flexibility. The main parts of the benefits were
corresponding to the first value in the Agile Manifesto: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

Key words: agile project management, scrum.

JEL code: M10 – Business Administration: General

Introduction
The methods originating in the nineties such as Scrum (Schwaber & Beedle, 2001; Schwaber, 2004)
or eXtreme programming, XP, (Beck 1999) has now become famous under the term “agile project
management” or “agile methods”. Today, most of the agile methods have been used in the IT
industry for projects within software development (Mafakheri et al. 2008; Sheffield & Lemétayer,
2013). But although originating in the IT industry, agile project management is now moving into
other businesses. Methods spreading from one context to another are nothing new. For example,
Toyota Production System (TPS), originally used for car manufacturing, later became famous under
the name Lean and has now moved into all kinds of industries such as healthcare (Kim et al. 2006).
Although there is extensive evidence of agile project management used in software development,
there is a lack of empirical studies in other types of industries and projects. In an article by Pope-
Ruark (2015, page 116) she states that “agile is not only popular in software development; a quick
Google search reveals its reach in design, marketing, publishing, energy management, financial
services, and civil and mechanical engineering, to name a few.” That can be found by executing a
Google search, but what about published articles describing actual case studies of organizations that
are not within software development? This literature review is an attempt to map articles showing
case studies of agile project management used in other contexts than software development.
The main research question (MRQ) for the systematic literature review is: What are the experiences
from using agile project management in a non-software development context? In order to answer
the MRQ and evaluate the results, the question has been divided into the following two specific
research questions (SRQ):
SRQ1: What benefits are experienced from using agile project management in non-software
development contexts?
SRQ2: What challenges are experienced from using agile project management in non-software
development contexts?

Agile project management

The popularity of agile project management methods are growing and research shows an increasing
amount of successful projects due to the transition into agile project management (Schatz &
Abdelschafi, 2005). In a project executed with agile project management, project plans are aimed at
being flexible and to allow changes even late in the process. Reoccuring reviews of the project
result and retrospectives to learn from experience allow the project team to constantly decide new
ways of action for the project. Follow-up does not have the purpose of comparing progress with the
original plan but instead to show the actual status in the project for better decisions for the future
(Schwaber, 2004). Agile project management is characterized by working in short iterative cycles
with delivery of some part of the project result at the end of every cycle. In 2001, seventeen of the
originators of these methods met to state what values and principles that are common for these
methods. The Agile Manifesto (Beck et al. 2001) states that agile practitioners 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.”
(Beck et al. 2001)

To further explain the values of the Manifesto, it was also accompanied by twelve principles:
“1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable
software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the
customer's competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference
to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and
trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is
face-to-face conversation.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be
able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity -- the art of maximizing the amount of work not done -- is essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its
behaviour accordingly.”
(Beck et al. 2001)
Since the second value of the Manifesto implies only to software development, non-software
development organizations are not able to live totally according to the Agile Manifesto. Also,
principles 1, 3 and 7 are directly related to a software development context.

Planning and executing the review

All searches were executed by using OneSearch which is a new type of library research system
(also called a "discovery tool") available within on-line university library resources. OneSearch
finds books, e-books, magazines, journals, newspaper articles, documents and publications. This
includes databases such as Scopus, Business Source Premier, Inspec, Science Direct and IEEE
Digital Library to name a few. The start-up of the search process by executing ad hoc searches was
in order to stabilize the search strings. Especially, the start-up was used to find out the proper use of
Boolean operators (NOT, AND and OR). The resulting keywords and search strings are presented
in the concept table (Table 1). The use of a concept table (Rumsey, 2008) is to start the information
gathering process by defining a relevant search term (in my case: “agile project management NOT
software”) and thereafter define search terms that are: synonyms, broader terms, narrower terms,
related terms, alternative spelling and parts of speech.

Table 1
Concept table

Concept Agile project management NOT software

(first search)
Synonyms Agile project management NOT software NOT IT
(second search)
Broader terms Agile NOT software NOT IT
(third search)
Narrower terms agile AND scrum NOT software NOT IT
(fourth search)
Related terms Agile method* NOT software NOT IT
(fifth search)
Alternative spelling (none used)
Parts of speech (none used)
Source:author’s construction based on Rumsey’s concept table (2008)

The search for literature was delimited to apply only to articles published after 2001 since that was
the year for signing the Agile Manifesto. An initial selection criterion was performed against title
and abstract. An article was considered relevant if, after evaluation of the title and the abstract, it
contained one or several case studies that contributed to answer the main research question. The
execution of all search strings yielded over 21 000 articles distributed according to Table 2. For the
first iteration of the review, the first 100 results were considered of each search engine. For each
article, data was extracted as presented in Table 3. The selection criteria by title and abstract
narrowed the set down to 51 references whose full text was downloaded and studied in detail. The
main amount of search hits not relevant for the study depended on the common use of the word
“agile” not related to the investigated term “agile methods”.

Table 2
Total results by search engine (with highest amount of hits)

Search phrase and number of Business Scopus Science Inspec

total hits Source Premier Citation
Index
Agile project management NOT 3638 61 46 85
software (6 173 hits)
Agile project management NOT 135 50 28 31
software NOT IT (595 hits)
Agile NOT software NOT IT 1188 1782 1037 1325
(13 506 hits)
agile AND scrum NOT software 1 3 3 0
NOT IT (50 hits)
Agile method* NOT software 120 74 291 0
NOT IT (1136 hits)
Source:author’s construction based on Rumsey’s concept table (2008)
 Table 3
Data extraction categories

Category Criteria Related to research question

Author Author/Authors of the article
Title Title of the article
Context Within what context was the described case?
Implementation What parts of agile methods did they use?
Benefits What benefits did they experience? SRQ1
Challenges What challenges did they experience? SRQ2
Source:author’s construction based on research questions.

The following iterations focused on reviewing and extracting the information required in Table 3.
For this purpose, an Excel sheet was designed which served as data extraction template. Each line
of the excel sheet represented a relevant paper and columns represented the categories in Table 3.
In the analysis of relevancy of the case studies, an important aspect was to identify what parts of
“being agile” the projects actually implemented in order to verify if the article referred to the actual
agile methods apart from articles referring to the term “agile” in general. That is why
implementation was an important part of the data extraction for every case. The most widespread
method within the family of methods for agile project management is Scrum (VersionOne 2014).
Scrum has its own language and interpretation of what was documented in the Agile Manifesto
(Beck et al. 2001) and its principles. In this analysis iteration, two case studies from articles were
delimited from this literature review since the information presented did not show actual agile
project management implementation. Some articles presented more than one case study so, although
16 articles where finally selected, the final amount of case studies to be analysed actually became
21.

Data analysis
The number of published articles per year (figure 1) contains too few articles to make any relevant
analysis regarding trends. However, it is interesting to see that there were no earlier articles found
than from 2006 (since the Agile Manifesto was written already in 2001).

Source:author’s construction based on analysed articles.

Fig. 1. Number of articles per year.

As explained earlier, in some articles there was more than one case study described. Therefore, a
total of 21 case studies (from 16 articles) have been analysed and detailed in Table 4.
 Table 4
Details of the analyzed case studies

Authors (year the Context (type of project if What “parts” of agile ways of Reported benefits
article was applicable) working did they describe as
published) implemented?
Andersson et al. Supply chain Short sprints, daily stand-up Increased productivity, speed and
(2006) management/manufacturing meetings and a PO team. quality.
Denning, S. (2015) Top-level management, Customer value-focus, self- Transparency and collaboration in the
strategic work organizing teams, short sprints team, increased customer interaction,
and visual transparency. productivity, quality and speed.
Edin Grimheden, Education, course Not described. Flexibility, quality, focus, knowledge
M. (2013) development project sharing and coping with change.
Gangjun et al. Industrial design Iterative planning, iterative Productivity, speed, flexibility, know-
(2009) evaluation and iterative tracking. ledge sharing and coping with change
Gangjun et al. Industrial design (product Demand management, iterative Productivity, speed and knowledge
(2010) development projects) planning, iterative evaluation and sharing
iterative tracking.
Molhanec, M. Product design, packaging Iterations and reviews. Not specifically described in the article.
(2008) and electronics
Molhanec, M. Product design, packaging Iterations and reviews. Not specifically described in the article.
(2009) and electronics
Niemi-Grundström, Library management Not specifically described in the Collaboration, productivity, speed,
M. (2014) article. flexibility, quality (tasks/goals/req.).
Pope-Ruark, R. Higher Education (course Short sprints, scrum board, daily Collaboration in the team, Better
(2015) development project) stand-ups, sprint planning, review understanding of goals/tasks/req. and
and retrospectives. clear sense of progress.
Quaglia et al. Simulation modelling in Defined backlog, spring planning, Collaboration in the team,
(2011) electronics factory 1-2 week sprints and customer understanding of goals/tasks/req.,
reviews. increased customer interaction, priority
process.
Sommer et al. Manufacturing, Scrum boards, burn-down chart, Collaboration in the team,
(2015) Pharmaceuticals daily Scrum, product backlog and understanding of goals/tasks,
value-chain model. Increased customer interaction, know-
ledge sharing and resource allocation.
Sommer et al. Manufacturing, Toys Scrum boards, burn-down chart, Collaboration in the team,
(2015) daily Scrum, product backlog and task/goals/req work, transparency
work packages. priority and autonomy.
Sommer et al. Manufacturing, Electronics Scrum boards, burn-down chart, Collaboration in the team, increased
(2015) daily Scrum and product backlog. customer interaction, productivity,
speed, flexibility and motivation (less
complaints).
Sommer et al. Manufacturing, Windows Scrum boards, burn-down chart, Collaboration in the team, increased
(2015) weekly Scrum, product backlog customer interaction, priority process
and value-chain model. and collaboration.
Sommer et al. Manufacturing, Power Scrum boards, burn-down chart, Collaboration in the team, increased
(2015) cables daily Scrum, product backlog and customer interaction, collaboration and
work packages. motivation.
Sutherland, Altman Management, strategy, in- Scrum principles and one-week Interaction, understanding of
(2009) house consultancy sprints. goals/tasks/req., transparency,
impediment removal process.
Sutherland, Altman Management, strategy, in- Scrum principles and one-week Productivity, speed, transparency and
(2009) house consultancy sprints. individual autonomy.
Sutherland et al. Non-profit (internal change Scrum principles. Collaboration, transparency, focus and
(2009) project) coping with change and impediments.
Tolf et al. (2015) Health care, hospital Not specifically described in the Flexibility and motivation, coping with
management article. change and priority process.
Van Ruler, B. Public relations Scrum principles. Increased flexibility and coping with
(2014) change.
Wainer, M. (2006) Higher Education (course Scrum roles, short sprints, review, Collaboration and focus in the team,
development project) and retrospective. increased customer interaction,
productivity, quality and speed.
Source:author’s construction based on analysed articles.
The name of the articles can be found in the reference list at the end of this article. The reported
implemented “parts” (values, principles or practices) of agile ways of working in the different case
studies shows what the authors put forward as implemented agile elements. A problem in
completing the analysis has been that some case studies refer to the Agile Manifesto (and its
principles) while others refer to Scrum and its terminology. This cause problems in analysing what
parts of agile methodology the organizations implemented since the terminology as well as level of
detail differed.

SRQ1: What benefits are experienced from using agile project management in non-software
development contexts?
The above presented Table 4 contained a detailed description of the different case studies and
reported benefits. Table 5 presents the 17 reported benefits and number of occurrences in total
identified by the systematic review.

Table 5
Reported benefits from the case studies

Number of occurences # Reported benefits

11 1 Better collaboration in the team
9 2 Increased customer interaction
8 3 Increased productivity and speed
7 4 Increased flexibility , coping with change
6 5 Better understanding of goals/tasks/requirements
6 6 Increased transparency and visibility
5 7 Increased quality
5 8 Customer-centered value-add priority process
4 9 Increased knowledge sharing
3 10 Increased cross-organizational collaboration
3 11 Better focus
2 12 Impediment removal process
2 13 Increased individual autonomy
2 14 Decreased customer complaints
2 15 Increased motivation
1 16 Clear sense of progress
1 17 Improved resource allocation
Source:author’s construction based on identified benefits in the analysed articles.

Table 5 shows that the most reported benefits are related to team work, customer interaction,
productivity and flexibility. Some of the reported benefits are concepts that are not explicitly stated
in the agile manifesto, such as the impediment removal process or better focus.
SRQ2: What challenges are experienced from using agile project management in non-
software development contexts?
Table 6 shows 11 challenges identified by the systematic review. Although with very few
references to challenges, the most reported challenges were problems in changing mindset to allow
flexibility, lack of process visibility and buy-in from managers.

Table 6
Reported challenges from the case studies

Number of references Reported challenges

3 Changing mindset to allow flexibility
3 Lack of process visibility
2 Buy-in from managers
2 Difficult to see benefits early in the project
2 Inadequate knowledge sharing
2 Individual work, lack of communication
2 Long-term planning
1 Lack of stakeholder engagement
1 Scope creep
1 Insufficient resource allocation
1 Redundant work
Source:author’s construction based on identified challenges in the analysed articles.

Interpretation of the results

Regarding SRQ1: What benefits are experienced from using agile project management in non-
software development contexts? To get a better overall view of the reported benefits, table 7 was
constructed to show what benefits that correlates to specific values of the agile manifesto. The
number after each reported benefit shows list placement in table 5 (which was organized based on
number of references).

Table 7
Values of the agile manifesto and corresponding benefits

Value from the agile manifesto Corresponding reported benefit

Individuals and interactions over Better collaboration in the team, 1
processes and tools Increased transparency and visibility, 6
Increased knowledge sharing, 9
Better focus, 11
Impediment removal process, 12
Increased individual autonomy, 13
Increased motivation, 15
Clear sense of progress, 16
Improved resource allocation, 17
Working software over comprehensive Increased productivity and speed, 3
documentation Increased quality, 7
 Customer collaboration over contract Increased customer interaktion, 2
negotiation Better understanding of goals/tasks/requirements, 5
Customer-centered value-add priority process, 8
Increased cross-organizational collaboration, 10
Decreased customer complaints, 14
Responding to change over following a Increased flexibility , coping with change, 4
plan.
Source:author’s construction based on identified benefits compared to values of the Agile Manifesto ((Beck et al. 2001).

A look at the reported benefits in table 7 shows that the highest amount of benefits corresponds to
the first value of the Agile manifesto “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”. The
second highest amount of benefits corresponds to the third value: “Customer collaboration over
contract negotiation”. The second and fourth value of the agile manifesto corresponds only to three
of the reported benefits, together.
Regarding SRQ2: What challenges are experienced from using agile project management in non-
software development contexts? As earlier reported, the most reported challenges were related to
changing mindset to allow flexibility, lack of process visibility and buy-in from managers. However,
very few case studies actually reported specific challenges from their projects. Rather than
presenting challenges, the differences in strength of each benefit was mostly highlighted.

Limitations
Typical threats in systematic literature review studies come from misclassifying by the researcher, a
bias in the selection of articles or inaccuracy in the extraction of data. These issues have been
addressed in this study. To deal with the risk of misclassification, a control mechanism was
introduced where some papers have been reviewed by other colleague researcher at the Karlstad
university. The selection of papers was mainly limited by the available research resources, limiting
the review to the top 100 results from each search engine. Finally, with regards to data extraction,
the articles were frequently discussed among fellow researchers.

Conclusions
As this research work has shown, there is a vast interest for using agile project management in areas
not even close to software development. Several articles were identified that showed successful case
studies were agile project management had been applied. Nevertheless, these are initial results and
more research is needed to better generalize and build on their success.
The main benefits reported from case studies in a non-software development context were related to
team work, customer interaction, productivity and flexibility. Some of the reported benefits are
concepts that are not explicitly stated in the agile manifesto or the accompanying principles, such as
the impediment removal process or better focus. Also the highest amount of benefits corresponds to
the first value of the Agile manifesto “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”.
These findings are interesting for further research since they imply that the first value of the agile
manifesto could have the largest impact on benefits in agile applications in non-software
development contexts. Further research needs to be carried out in order to make that kind of
conclusions, however.
As noted, very few challenges have been reported (and sometimes only differences in strength of
each benefit). Is it possible that there are so few challenges in agile implementations or could the
authors have been biased when studying the cases so that they did not investigate challenges enough?
Or could it be that the selected cases for this study, only 21, were not representative for the
experiences from implementing agile in general? Even here, further research is needed to make any
kind of conclusions regarding reasons for the absence of reported challenges.
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