AGILITY ACROSS COMPANY BOUNDARIES

Abstract

Companies often rely on the Know-How of external service providers for the development of software and solutions. Modern forms of working and collaboration change the development of products and services at the same time. How do these trends influence the cooperation and collaboration between companies and their external agile service providers? The purpose of this academic work is to figure out which steps companies have to take to implement agile working and collaboration with external service providers. Therefore, a case study, including a qualitative survey, was used to find and point out which measures and actions companies have to take, to accomplish the goal of an effective implementation of an agile collaboration and cooperation. Three core issues were identified, on which basis the research questions regarding the measures will be answered: First, which possibilities companies have, to implement an internal agile setup to collaborate with agile service providers on an equal basis. Second, which contract variants can support and improve the agile cooperation and third, which agile techniques and methods should be used in the agile collaboration. The case study results confirm the assumption, that the three identified core issues are essential for an effective cooperation in the agile environment. While it was verified on the one hand that contract requirements changed concerning their flexibility and adaptability, it was also verified on the other hand, that the internal setup require agile drivers, techniques and methods to enable an effective cooperation with agile service providers. This article gives an overview of the most important content within the three stated core issues and also gives companies advises on how to build a basis for an effective cooperation.