Interactive Digital Cardwalls for Agile Software Development

TLDR: Two empirical studies in industry seem to confirm the assumption, that large interactive surface technologies could bring the support for the collaboration of Agile teams to a new level, potentially making the teams more productive.

Abstract: Agile software development is characterized by very intensive communication and collaboration among members of the software development team and external stakeholders. In this context, we look specifically at cardwalls, noting that despite the wide availability of digital cardwalls, most Agile teams still use physical cardwalls to support their collaborative events. This is true even though a physical cardwall hinders efficient distributed software development and causes extra effort to capture story artefacts into digital tools to meet traceability and persistence requirements. We conducted two empirical studies in industry to understand the use of existing digital Agile cardwalls and to find out the needs for an ideal digital Agile cardwall. The first study was with eight Agile teams of committed digital cardwall users. The study showed the reasons why some teams use projected digital cardwalls and their detailed experiences with them. The study showed that most digital cardwalls seem not be sufficient for the highly interactive and collaborative Agile workstyle. The second study was with eleven Agile companies. The study comprised of the development of aWall, a software prototype of a large interactive high-resolution multi-touch display that supports varied Agile meetings where cardwalls are used. The results of the study emerged with design considerations for digital Agile cardwalls from the evaluation of aWall in a user workshop. Both studies, which were conducted concurrently, began with an interest in new large interactive surface technologies which might have the potential to provide not only the required interaction possibilities to support intensive collaboration, but also the required large display format necessary for a collaborative space. The results of the studies collectively seem to confirm our assumption, that large interactive surface technologies could bring the support for the collaboration of Agile teams to a new level, potentially making the teams more productive.