The Impact of National Crises on Globally Distributed Scrum Teams: A Case Study in the Automotive Industry

Abstract: This thesis investigates the impact of national crises on globally distributed scrum teams in the automotive industry. The study involves several scrum team members from different nations with their day-to-day challenges, and additional obstacles arise when there is a crisis in any of the countries, for example, war or natural disasters. The study focuses on the impact of the war in Ukraine on a globally distributed team in an automotive industry. Therefore, the research question is, “How does a national crisis affect the productivity of a globally distributed scrum team?” To answer this question, we employed a case study strategy, the data was collected by interviewing the senior managers, project managers, and team members of the company using semi-structured but predetermined specific questions, some of which was sent via emails while the analysis was done through qualitative thematic analysis method. Our findings suggest that the impact of such national crisis on the overall performance or productivity of these scrum teams is insignificant but comes with a high cost on the company’s part. This cost came from relocation for affected team members, recruitment of additional employees and procurement of new technological tools. There was also an initial setback at the beginning of the war. Nevertheless, some of the direct negative impact of the war includes – team members residing in Ukraine being forced to relocate, there was an initial delay in some features delivery, and some team members changing jobs due to the crisis. Surprisingly, the war impacted the scrum team positively as follow - the team became stronger, more persistent, and resilient; decisionmaking and routines processes were shifted more to the scrum team members (which is a strength of agile methodology); and new tool and technology were introduced for ease of communication and collaboration. In conclusion, it can be said that understanding how globally distributed scrum teams are affected by local or national crises may help companies plan for better risk mitigation strategies before investing into certain markets thus increasing chances for successful outcomes when faced with such challenges, leading ultimately towards achieving desired goals set out prior within timeframe and budget.