Decision-Making and Team Autonomy in Large-Scale Agile Software Development: An Analysis of Scaling Frameworks
摘要
Team autonomy—the extent to which teams can make decisions—is a central tenet of agile development. When scaling agile, technical and coordination challenges necessitate restricting autonomy. While greater autonomy is often considered better, the reasons for, and the extent to which, autonomy is, or should be, restricted in large-scale agile development remain poorly understood. In this paper, we address this gap by analyzing large-scale agile frameworks using decision-making theory. Applying inductive thematic analysis to the primary documents of scaling frameworks, we identify and categorize their decisions and related decision-making elements by decision-maker, decision type, decision-making style, decision timing, and affected artifacts. This research contributes to decision-making knowledge by providing a systematic categorization of decision points in large-scale agile development. For practitioners, the resulting classification helps identify key decision points, define roles and responsibilities, and plan team autonomy in large-scale agile.