Determinants of agile team performance: a systematic literature review
Christine Joyce Amulen, Ernest MnkandlaPurpose
This study aims to synthesize existing research on agile team performance in software development environments to identify key factors influencing team effectiveness. The review develops an integrative model in which organizational and structural conditions shape performance indirectly, through team processes, rather than as independent predictors.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review was conducted following established review procedures. Relevant studies were identified through searches of major academic databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore and ACM Digital Library. After applying predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria and screening procedures, 35 studies were retained for analysis. The selected studies were analyzed using thematic synthesis to identify recurring constructs and relationships in the literature.
Findings
The review identifies three major categories of factors influencing agile team performance: team processes, team structure and composition and organizational conditions. Team processes such as communication, coordination, psychological safety and team reflexivity play a central role in enabling collaboration and learning. Structural characteristics including team autonomy, shared leadership and skill diversity influence how teams organize work and make decisions. Organizational conditions such as management support and collaborative culture further shape the effectiveness of agile teams.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that organizations seeking to improve agile team performance should emphasize effective communication practices, support team autonomy and ensure that teams are composed of members with complementary skills. In addition, management support and supportive organizational cultures are important for enabling agile teams to operate effectively.
Originality/value
This review synthesizes fragmented research on agile team performance into an integrative process model, showing that organizational and structural conditions shape performance indirectly, through team processes and emergent states. Grounded primarily in software engineering and information systems research and informed by established teamwork theory, the review offers a mechanism-based account of agile team effectiveness rather than a list of isolated factors, and surfaces two further gaps in the literature: the predominantly co-located origin of the underlying evidence base and inconsistency in how agile team performance is operationalized across studies.