Transmisión del módulo GSM

Motivation is one of the important properties that humans need in order to achieve goals with good quality results (McHugh, Conboy, & Lang, 2011). Team motivation included: initiation, direction, intensity and behaviour towards the work. Team motivation comes from the organisational context, the specific job being undertaken and the profession (DeChurch & Mesmer-Magnus, 2010; Salas, Cooke, & Rosen, 2008; Whitworth & Biddle, 2007).

In Agile software development there were different members in a team. Each of these members were motivated by different factors. Respondents for this current study reported that development team members were motivated by different reasons, such as project success, team success and working in a group. Despite the respondents reporting that the teams were motivated to obtain good results, two respondents also reported challenges in keeping team members motivated. This suggested that motivation was important for Agile teams for effective teamwork. However, motivation was still reported to be one of the challenge in Agile software development.

Four respondents in this study reported that team members in Agile teams were motivated with the salary they have been getting in return for the work they were doing. Team members were also motivated by professional pride they get when they receive positive feedback. They were also motivated by the professional opportunities that involvement in the Agile process provided.

One respondent said:

“So as long as they are comfortable with what they are been paid generally then they tend to draw motivation from success in the project that they are doing and I think the Agile approach really helps to constantly reinforce that if they’re succeeding.” Respondent 21

Other one said:

“I take professional pride in what I do. You know, at the end of the day, I quite like it when the customer turns around to us and says good job guys and that’s perfect, or that new form and process you delivered is, you know, the users love it, ‘cos we get pretty good feedback from the customer.” Respondent 20

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“When I joined there, I was like the junior developer and now I become like intermediate and somebody like who are system analyst and after the system analyst they will want to go to the BA you know like after, that’s why and when our when they change their role their money will be also good there, so it is a motivation for money and some increment in their level.” Respondent 2

The response above from the respondent suggested that team members were motivated to work in a group. But by doing a good job a team member can make progress. This will help them to further their career along with the better pay.

In Agile software development, the software was developed with self-motivating teams where success drove motivation.

One respondent reported:

“Team success would definitely be a motivation factor, yeah, with individual success and team success.” Respondent 19

Team members became motivated not only with the teams’ success but also by the opportunity to be part of a successful project. Team success here referred to an effective team and being able to complete the task. When the team delivered the project to the customer, and the customer was satisfied with the project, that created value in the business. This could also motivate the team to work in the projects. There were other motivational factors that the respondents reported.

One respondent said:

“I have a motivation, me personally, I have a motivation to work in the groups that I do because I am motivated to help those people, to help them get their job done.” Respondent 13

And another said:

“What motivates people to work together I guess it’s easier solving problems that way. Ah, we discourage people from, you know, when someone stuck and spends like two days of googling and pulling his hair out trying to figure out the solution.” Respondent 12

Even though the Agile software development process has been given as the platform for team member motivation (Fowler & Highsmith, 2001), not all respondents in this study

126 reported a high level of team motivation. In cases where a team member may report a concern to management, and then get no response about this concern, their motivation can be negatively affected. This suggested that product owners listening to team concerns and be able to be involved with them could motivate teams to do good work during the project development.

“Another thing is the team voice a concern to the top management and then if the management does not listen to that concern the team just carries on you know, they are not motivated, they just continue doing the work, yeah.” Respondent 17

Eleven respondents reported that team members were motivated with the success of the team and the project’s success. Team members were also motivated because they felt they were being sufficiently rewarded by their salary for their involvement in projects. Another important factor that motivated people was the organisations’ social culture. In organisations where there were regular staff events, motivation levels were higher than in organisations that did not have a social culture. Two of the twenty-two participants reported that some of the management activities. such as not listening to team concerns, were impacting on team members’ motivation. Chow & Cao (2008) found that team motivation to be one of the success factors in Agile software development. It was also found from a study by Ceschi et al. (2005) that motivation was the most important quality to being able to work in groups. They also mentioned that continuous training and regular communication improved teamwork ability and motivation (Ceschi et al., 2005). Figure 4-11shows the coding process for the team motivation. This suggested that team motivation was important in Agile teams for effective teamwork. When the teams were motivated to do the work they will be able to deliver a good result.

127 Team motivation I take professional pride in what I do. You know at the end of the day I quite like it when

the customer turns around to us and says good job guys and that’s perfect, or that new form and process you delivered is, you know, the users love it, ‘cos we get pretty good feedback from the customer. Respondent 20

Project success

Team success would definitely be a motivation factor, yeah, with individual success and team success. Respondent 19

What motivates people to work together I guess it’s easier solving problems that way, ah, we discourage people from, you know, when someone stuck and spends like two days of googling and pulling his hair out trying to figure out the solution. Respondent 12

Working in a group I have a motivation, me personally, I have a motivation to work in the groups that I do

because I am motivated to help those people, to help them get their job done. Respondent 13

Another thing is the team voice are not a concern to the top management and then if the management does not listen to that concern the team just carries on you know, they are not motivated, they just continue doing the work yeah.” Respondent 17

So as long as they are comfortable with what they are been paid generally then they tend to draw motivation from success in the project that they are doing and I think the agile approach really helps to constantly reinforce that if they’re succeeding.”

Team success

Difficulties In team motivation So, I think they’re motivated by seeing the end product by delivering something and also

within the team. Respondent 14

128 4.9 Summary

The respondents who took part in this study reported about projects they were involved as developers, testers or business analysts. From the beginning, the majority of the respondents reported that the team members were mainly involved in Agile process activities, such as stand-ups and retrospectives. This involvement of the team members during project development was different in some projects. For example, in some projects the team members were not involved in setting the priorities.

During project development, there were exchanges of information between the development team and the product owner. Communication was mostly reported to be good in most of the projects. Despite this, there were some cases where there were challenges in communication because of language and time zone differences. Team members collaborated to perform tasks. Team members were found to be given feedback from the product owner. There was only one case where team members received feedback directly from the customer.

Team members were found to be motivated by different factors, such as social interactions, seeing value delivered to the customer and working in a group to complete the task.

Most organizations were following the Agile culture. However, some respondents reported that they worked on their own. Five respondents mentioned that their organizations had implemented the Agile software development approach recently and expects that they are better in following the Agile approach as they kept had previously develop projects using this approach.

The aim of this research was to understand the relationship between the software

development and the product owner. Information from the software development team is presented in this chapter. In the next chapter, the results and discussion from the product owner’s study are presented.

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