The impact of tailoring criteria on agile practices adoption: A survey with novice agile practitioners in Brazil

The software development industry adopts agile methods in different ways by considering contextual requirements. To fulfill organizational needs, adoption strategies consider agile methods tailoring. However, tailoring according to the context of the organization remains a problem to be solved. Literature on criteria for adopting software development methods exists, but not specifically for agile methods. Given this scenario, the following research question arises: what is the impact of software method tailoring criteria on the adoption of agile practices? To answer this question, we conducted a survey among agile practitioners in Brazil to gather data about importance of the tailoring criteria and agile practices adopted. A model for agile practices adoption based on the tailoring criteria is proposed using the results of the survey with a majority of novice agile practitioners. The proposed model was validated using PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation modeling) and the survey data. Results show that adoption of agile practices was influenced by criteria such as external environment, previous knowledge and internal environment. Results also indicate that organizations tend to use hybrid/custom software methods and select agile practices according to their needs.