Challenges and Success Factors in Large Scale Agile Transformation—A Systematic Literature Review

The extraordinary success of agile software development in small software teams pushed organizations to find ways to scale the practices to large projects and multiple teams. However, agile works differently in the large than in the small. This paper assimilates organizational challenges and success factors for large-scale agile transformations. We further explore these factors in their business domain and the transformation framework implemented. We conducted a systematic literature review of 15 case studies and found that organizations may share common challenges and success factors. However, agile’s challenges and success factors are very case-specific, and what works for one may not work for the other, even when both are in the same business domain or following the same framework.