Leadership in the Hybrid Era : Navigating Agile Software Development Teams

Abstract: The virtual office has since the pandemic become a part of many workers’ lives and something that many expect a modern organization to provide, especially software developers. The increasing adoption of hybrid work models and agile methodologies poses new challenges to leaders. These in conjunction, with the domain of software development create a complex dimension to leadership. This thesis investigates leadership practices in hybrid agile software development teams, focusing on the impact of the hybrid work model on agile methodologies and the challenges that arise in leadership in the context of these combined dimensions. Utilizing a qualitative research approach, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with teams working in hybrid work environments at an agile software development company. The findings suggest that situational, distributed, adaptive, transformational, servant, and complexity leadership theories can all be applied in the context of hybrid agile software development teams, with a preference for flexibility and individualized support. Communication, creating engagement and collaboration, and fostering knowledge sharing were identified as key challenges for leaders in these teams. Agile processes and software development practices were mostly seen as a good fit for the hybrid work model, with transparency and scrum artifacts becoming increasingly important for effective collaboration. However, collaboration and problem-solving in software development were identified to have been impacted negatively by some, where junior developers potentially suffer the most. The study contributes to the understanding of leadership practices in hybrid agile teams and the implications of the hybrid work model on agile methodologies. These findings can help inform the design of more effective tools, practices, and environments that support the unique challenges and opportunities associated with hybrid agile software development teams. Limitations of the study include limited sample size and a single-case study approach, which may affect the generalizability of the findings. Future research directions include exploring different hybrid models, comparing multiple cases, and investigating the role of team maturity, and technological tools in hybridagile software development teams.