Viktoria Stray

• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2020). Understanding coordination in global software engineering: A mixed-methods study on the use of meetings and Slack. Journal of Systems and Software.  ISSN 0164-1212. . doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2020.110717 Show summary

  Given the relevance of coordination in the field of global software engineering, this work was carried out to further understand coordination mechanisms. Specifically, we investigated meetings and the collaboration tool Slack. We conducted a longitudinal case study using a mixed-methods approach with surveys, observations, interviews, and chat logs. Our quantitative results show that employees in global projects spend 7 hours 45 minutes per week on average in scheduled meetings and 8 hours 54 minutes in unscheduled meetings. Furthermore, distributed teams were significantly larger than co-located teams, and people working in distributed teams spent somewhat more time in meetings per day. We found that low availability of key people, absence of organizational support for unscheduled meetings and unbalanced activity from team members in meetings and on Slack were barriers for effective coordination across sites. The positive aspects of using collaboration tools in distributed teams were increased team awareness and informal communication and reduced the need for e-mail. Our study emphasizes the importance of reflecting on how global software engineering teams use meetings and collaboration tools to coordinate. We provide practical advice for conducting better meetings and give suggestions for more efficient use of collaboration tools in global projects.

• Stray, Viktoria; Moe, Nils Brede & Sjøberg, Dag (2020). Daily Stand-Up Meetings: Start Breaking the Rules!. IEEE Software.  ISSN 0740-7459.  37(3), s 70- 77 . doi: 10.1109/MS.2018.2875988
• Bai, Aleksander; Stray, Inga Viktoria Ågesdatter Gulli & Mork, Heidi Camilla (2019). What methods software teams prefer when testing web accessibility. Advances in Human-Computer Interaction.  ISSN 1687-5893.  2019:3271475, s 1- 14 . doi: 10.1155/2019/3271475 Full text in Research Archive. Show summary

  Accessibility has become an important focus in software development; the goal is to allow as many people as possible, regardless of their capabilities, to use software. We have investigated the methods that software teams prefer when testing the accessibility of their software. We conducted a large-scale study to evaluate six methods, using a sample of 53 people who work on various software teams. We present a detailed breakdown of the results for each testing method and analyze the differences between the methods. Our findings show that there are statistically significant differences in team members’ preferences, particularly for those with different roles. This implies that a software team should not choose a single method for all team members.

• Berntzen, Marthe; Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2019). The product owner in large-scale agile: An empirical study through the lens of relational coordination theory. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing.  ISSN 1865-1348.  355, s 121- 136 . doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-19034-7_8 Full text in Research Archive.
• Florea, Raluca-Madalina & Stray, Viktoria (2019). A Global View on the Hard Skills and Testing Tools in Software Testing, In Fabio Calefato; Paolo Tell & Alpana Dubey (ed.),  2019 ACM/IEEE 14th International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE).  IEEE.  ISBN 9781538692127.  Full paper.  s 143 - 151
• Florea, Raluca-Madalina & Stray, Viktoria (2019). The skills that employers look for in software testers. Software quality journal.  ISSN 0963-9314.  27, s 1449- 1479 . doi: 10.1007/s11219-019-09462-5
• Martini, Antonio; Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2019). Technical-, social- and process debt in large-scale agile: An exploratory case-study. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing.  ISSN 1865-1348.  364, s 112- 119 . doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2_14 Show summary

  Large-scale agile projects bring inter-teams interaction challenges. Teams need to be autonomous, but often crosscutting concerns affect many teams. If the teams fail to collaborate on these concerns, the negative effects might hinder agility in the medium and long term. In other words, the organization and the system accumulate debt, on which the teams pay a high interest. Such debt must therefore be prioritized and “repaid” timely. We conducted a case study with interviews, observations and document analysis. Via both team- and large-scale retrospectives we investigated how teams coordinate and discuss Technical-, Social- and Process Debts.

• Moe, Nils Brede; Dahl, Bjørn Haug; Stray, Viktoria; Karlsen, Lina Sund & Schjødt-Osmo, Stine (2019). Team Autonomy in Large-Scale Agile, In Tung X. Bui (ed.),  Proceeding of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2019).  AIS Electronic Library.  ISBN 978-0-9981331-2-6.  Agile and Lean: Organizations, Products and Development.  s 6997 - 7006 Full text in Research Archive. Show summary

  Large-scale software development is increasingly making use of agile practices. In large-scale projects, a team needs to align with other teams and the rest of the organization. This has been shown to threaten team autonomy, which, in turn, reduces responsiveness and flexibility. Hence, agile teams face challenges in adapting to larger-scale development. We conduct a multiple case study of three large-scale projects to investigate barriers to team autonomy in large-scale agile. Two barriers are identified: overall direction and external dependencies. We found that goals are often set by management without involving the teams, that they are often equal to deliverables and deadlines, and that team members often do not know what the goals are. Consequently, teams struggle with setting and communicating goals as well as establishing a shared direction. Organizational dependencies lead to teams having to deal with additional tasks, resulting in specific members shielding the teams from external noise.

• Moe, Nils Brede; Stray, Viktoria & Hoda, Rashina (2019). Trends and Updated Research Agenda for Autonomous Agile Teams: A Summary of the Second International Workshop at XP2019. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing.  ISSN 1865-1348.  364, s 13- 19 . doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-30126-2_2 Show summary

  To succeed in complex environments and handle the innovation, development and support, organizations have to find ways to support and regulate the autonomy of teams according to the environmental demands and limitations. Furthermore, there is no one-size-fits-all autonomy approach. The process of forming and implementing autonomous teams, as well as the effective functioning of such teams, is not yet adequately addressed and understood in the context of complex knowledge-intensive organizations. The second international workshop on autonomous teams investigated barriers for team autonomy: “What are the real-world problems to be solved for autonomous teams?” and “What concepts from the literature can be used to solve the problems?”

• Šmite, Darja; Moe, Nils Brede; Krekling, Thomas & Stray, Viktoria (2019). Offshore outsourcing costs: known or still hidden?, In Fabio Calefato; Paolo Tell & Alpana Dubey (ed.),  2019 ACM/IEEE 14th International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE).  IEEE.  ISBN 9781538692127.  Full Paper.  s 40 - 47 Show summary

  Offshore outsourcing of software development has been both famous for the promises of great cost reductions, and infamous for the hidden costs associated with the challenges of organizing software work over distance. Experience shows that many of these costs do not receive the deserved attention and are often excluded when making offshoring decisions. As a result, there is often a significant deviation between the expected and the realized costs of offshoring. In this paper, we investigate the awareness of the extra costs when making an offshoring decision, and the significance of the actual cost deviations. We conducted a single case study of a company that carried out an offshore outsourcing pilot project. We collected qualitative data from interviews, observations and a retrospective, and quantitative data on the costs and effort associated with the project. We conclude that the company was aware of the hidden cost factors, but largely underestimated their significance. The costs that surfaced in the studied project accounted for a total deviation of 181% and several individual cost categories with more than 400% overrun. The two main cost drivers in our study were the distance and poor process fit, which escalated the investments needed to make the collaboration work. Our results suggest that pilots are useful to understand the key problem areas in an offshoring collaboration, but too limited to shed light on all potential problems (e.g. turnover) due to the short timeframe. We also conclude that results of pilot projects shall not be the only data source when calculating the true costs of offshoring, since the start-up phase of an offshoring relationship carries large investments. Finally, we provide recommendations for companies in a similar situation on how to run and learn from offshore outsourcing pilot projects.

• Stray, Viktoria; Bai, Aleksander; Sverdrup, Nikolai Johan Sand & Mork, Heidi Camilla (2019). Empowering Agile Project Members with Accessibility Testing Tools: A Case Study. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing.  ISSN 1865-1348.  355, s 86- 101 . doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-19034-7_6 Show summary

  There is a growing interest in making software more accessible for everyone, which is emphasized by the numerous suggestions passed into law in many countries. However, many software organizations that use agile methods postpone or neglect accessibility testing. We aimed to understand how accessibility testing can be better integrated into the daily routine of agile projects by conducting a case study in a Norwegian software company. We investigated three accessibility testing tools: automatic checker, simulation glasses, and a dyslexia simulator. We hosted sessions at which agile project members used the tools while thinking out loud, responded to questionnaires, and were interviewed at the end. Additionally, we observed the project members for 18 workdays. Our results show that all three tools are suitable for agile projects. Especially the automatic checker and simulation glasses worked well in finding accessibility issues and were described as easy to use by the project members. Software organizations should empower their agile project members with low-cost and efficient accessibility testing tools to make their products more accessible for all. Doing this early and often in the development cycle may save the project from potential high costs at a later stage.

• Stray, Viktoria; Moe, Nils Brede & Aasheim, Andreas (2019). Dependency Management in Large-Scale Agile: A Case Study of DevOps Teams, In Tung X. Bui (ed.),  Proceeding of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2019).  AIS Electronic Library.  ISBN 978-0-9981331-2-6.  Agile and Lean: Organizations, Products and Development.  s 7007 - 7016 Show summary

  Managing dependencies between teams and within teams is critical when running large-scale agile projects. In large-scale software development, work is carried out simultaneously by many developers and development teams. Results are delivered frequently and iteratively, which requires management of dependencies on both the project and team level. This study explores coordination mechanisms in agile DevOps teams in a large-scale project and how the mechanisms address different types of dependencies. We conducted a case study where we observed 38 scheduled meetings and interviewed members of five DevOps teams and two teams supporting the DevOps teams. By using a dependency taxonomy, we identified 20 coordination mechanisms (eleven synchronization activities and nine synchronization artifacts). Eight of these mechanisms seem essential for coordination in large-scale projects because they addressed more than four types of dependencies. The main implication is that project management needs to combine many practices handling all the dependencies in large-scale projects.

• Stray, Viktoria; Moe, Nils Brede & Noroozi, Mehdi (2019). Slack Me If You Can! Using Enterprise Social Networking Tools in Virtual Agile Teams, In Fabio Calefato; Paolo Tell & Alpana Dubey (ed.),  2019 ACM/IEEE 14th International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE).  IEEE.  ISBN 9781538692127.  Full paper.  s 111 - 121 Show summary

  Virtual teams rely on enterprise social networking tools such as Slack to collaborate efficiently. While such tools contribute to making the communication more synchronous and support distributed agile development, there are several challenges such as how to interact with each other and how to balance the communication with other types of communication mechanisms such as meetings, e-mail, and phone. In this paper, we describe and discuss how a distributed global project used Slack. Some of the challenges we identified were related to language problems, using too much direct messaging when communicating, and unbalanced activity (33% of the users accounted for 86% of the messages). The positive aspects of using the tool were increased transparency, team awareness, and informal communication. Further, Slack facilitates problem-focused communication which is essential for agile teams. Our study stresses the importance of reflecting on how virtual teams use communication tools, and we suggest that teams decide on guidelines on how to use the tools to improve their coordination.

• Bai, Aleksander; Mork, Heidi Camilla & Stray, Viktoria (2018). How Agile Teams Regard and Practice Universal Design During Software Development. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics.  ISSN 0926-9630.  256, s 171- 184 . doi: 10.3233/978-1-61499-923-2-171 Full text in Research Archive. Show summary

  It is essential to focus on universal design in agile software development to ensure that the software developed is usable by as many people as possible. This work studies how members of agile teams regard universal design, how the team is organized to focus on universal design, and how the team practices universal design. We have questioned 89 members of agile software projects including developers, tester, designers and project leaders. We present a detailed breakdown of the results based on roles, domains, experience and other factors that explain the differences and similarities among teams. Our findings show that there is a significant difference between what members think, what management think and what members actually do to ensure universal design.

• Florea, Raluca-Madalina & Stray, Viktoria (2018). Software tester, we want to hire you! an analysis of the demand for soft skills. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing.  ISSN 1865-1348.  314, s 54- 67 . doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-91602-6_4
• Mikalsen, Marius; Moe, Nils Brede; Stray, Viktoria & Nyrud, Helga (2018). Agile Digital Transformation: A Case Study of Interdependencies, In Richard Baskerville & Robert Nickerson (ed.),  Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS).  Association for Information Systems.  ISBN 9780996683173.  Artikkel. Show summary

  Current digital transformation moves information systems development into larger transformation programs with higher strategic significance and increased complexity in organization. Agile and BizDev are among the practical methods used to practice digital transformation. These methods are characterized by autonomous and diverse teams, and experimental development with the aim of achieving faster time-to-market and customer centric digital offerings. While empirical evidence points to positive effects of such methods in smaller projects, we know less about how key aspects of agile work with increasing interdependencies resulting from larger, more complex organization. Driven by our research question - how are interdependencies addressed in agile digital transformation – we contribute by presenting findings from an empirical case study of a bank practicing agile digital transformation. Applying a theoretical lens of dynamic interactions, our findings sensitize us to the necessity of negotiations, and suggest the need for more research on of the role of divergent evaluative principles in agile digital transformation.

• Bai, Aleksander; Mork, Heidi Camilla & Stray, Viktoria (2017). A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Accessibility Testing in Agile Software Development: Results from a Multiple Case Study. International Journal On Advances in Software.  ISSN 1942-2628.  10(1&2), s 96- 107 Full text in Research Archive. Show summary

  It is important to include accessibility testing in software development to ensure that the software developed is usable by as many people as possible, independent of their capabilities. Few guidelines exist on how to include accessibility testing in an agile process, and how to select testing methods from a cost-benefit point of view. The end result is that many development teams do not include accessibility testing, since they do not know how to prioritize the different testing methods within a tight budget. In this paper, we present an evaluation of nine accessibility testing methods that fits in an agile software development process. We discuss the cost of each method with regards to resources and knowledge requirements, and based on a cost-benefit analysis, we present an optimal combination of these methods in terms of cost and issues discovered. Finally, we describe how accessibility testing methods can be incorporated into an agile process by using the agile accessibility spiral.

• Nyrud, Helga & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Inter-Team Coordination Mechanisms in Large-Scale Agile, In Roberto Tonelli (ed.),  XP '17 Proceedings of the XP2017 Scientific Workshops, Cologne, Germany — May 22 - 26, 2017.  Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).  ISBN 9781450352642.  Large-scale. Show summary

  Coordination is an important but challenging success factor in large-scale software development. Large-scale is particularly demanding because it involves several teams, and therefore we chose to study coordination between teams. Our aim of this case study was to investigate inter-team coordination mechanisms. By using an established framework from the field of sociology, we found eleven different coordination mechanisms that we mapped into the five different categories. We interviewed four project members and observed 26 meetings in three different teams as part of a larger digitization project. Our results show that even though there are many impersonal mechanisms in the form of various guidelines and rules, the most important mechanism seem to be ad-hoc conversations between two or more project members. The large-scale project had many regularly scheduled meetings. However, the majority of these meetings tended to be, to a greater extent, about reporting status and not about coordinating work. The scheduled meeting that was the most time-consuming, and also involved little coordination, was the daily stand-up meeting with two teams. Future work should investigate how to increase the value of daily stand-up meetings in large-scale programs, and whether the meetings can be organized in a way that enables more inter-team coordination.

• Stray, Viktoria; Moe, Nils Brede & Bergersen, Gunnar R. (2017). Are Daily Stand-up Meetings Valuable? A Survey of Developers in Software Teams, In Hubert Baumeister; Horst Lichter & Matthias Riebisch (ed.),  Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming, 18th International Conference, XP 2017, Cologne, Germany, May 22-26, 2017, Proceedings.  Springer.  ISBN 978-3-319-57633-6.  kapittel 19.  s 274 - 281 Full text in Research Archive. Show summary

  The daily stand-up meeting is a widely used practice. However, what is more uncertain is how valuable the practice is to team members. We invited professional developers of a programming forum to a survey and obtained 221 responses. Results show that the daily stand-up meeting was used by 87% of those who employ agile methods. We found that even though the respondents on average were neutral towards the practice, the majority were either positive or negative. Junior developers were most positive and senior developers and members of large teams most negative. We argue that the value of the practice should be evaluated according to the team needs. Further, more work is needed to understand why senior developers do not perceive the meetings as valuable and how to apply the practice successfully in large teams.

• Bai, Aleksander; Mork, Heidi Camilla & Stray, Viktoria (2016). A Cost-benefit Evaluation of Accessibility Testing in Agile Software Development, In  ICSEA 2016, The Eleventh International Conference on Software Engineering Advances.  International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA).  ISBN 978-1-61208-498-5.  Conference article.  s 62 - 67 Show summary

  Accessibility testing in software development is testing the software to ensure that it is usable by as many people as possible, independent of their capabilities. Few guidelines exist on how to include accessibility testing in an agile process, and how to select testing methods from a cost-benefit point of view. The end result is that many development teams do not include accessibility testing, since they do not know how to prioritize the different testing methods within a tight budget. In this paper, we present an evaluation of four accessibility testing methods that fits in an agile software development process. We discuss the cost of each method with regards to resources and knowledge requirements, and based on a cost-benefit analysis, we present the optimal combinations of these methods in terms of cost and issues discovered. Finally, we describe how accessibility testing methods can be incorporated into an agile process by using the agile accessibility spiral.

• Fægri, Tor Erlend; Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2016). Shared Knowledge in Virtual Software Teams: A Preliminary Framework, In  2016 IEEE 11th International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE), 2-5 August, 2016.  IEEE.  ISBN 9781509026807.  artikkel.  s 174 - 178 Show summary

  Shared knowledge allows virtual teams to collaborate more effectively. Shared knowledge in teams, hereafter called team knowledge, must be established and maintained. This is a key enabler for agile development in a distributed context. Hence, organizations may benefit from efforts to ensure sufficient levels of team knowledge. Such efforts may include different measures, such as project kick-offs, frequent visits across locations, knowledge sharing tools and practices. However, team knowledge includes many types of knowledge, with different impacts on the team's work. This paper outlines a framework for conceptualizing the breadth of team knowledge relevant for virtual software teams. With the help of this framework, organizations can think more strategically about how to improve team knowledge -- for example the planning of kick-offs, what to focus on in face-to-face meetings and how the team members work together on a day-to-day basis. The framework may also be used to assist in planning team composition, for example based on individuals' knowledge and the overlap with other team members' knowledge. The framework uses four broad categories of team knowledge: task-related, team-related, process-related and goal-related. Beneath these four categories the framework details and describes more concrete knowledge types. We also provide examples from software practice for each knowledge type.

• Stray, Viktoria; Fægri, Tor Erlend & Moe, Nils Brede (2016). Exploring Norms in Agile Software Teams. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS).  ISSN 0302-9743.  10027, s 458- 467 . doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-49094-6_31 Show summary

  The majority of software developers work in teams and are thus influenced by team norms. Norms are shared expectations of how to behave and regulate the interaction between team members. Our aim of this study is to gain more knowledge about team norms in software teams and to increase the understanding of how norms influence teamwork in agile software development projects. We conducted a study of norms in four agile teams located in Norway and Malaysia. The analysis of 22 interviews revealed that we could extract a varied set of both injunctive and descriptive norms. Our results suggest that team norms have an important role in enabling team performance.

• Stray, Viktoria; Sjøberg, Dag & Dybå, Tore (2016). The Daily Stand-up Meeting: A Grounded Theory Study. Journal of Systems and Software.  ISSN 0164-1212.  114, s 101- 124 . doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2016.01.004 Full text in Research Archive. Show summary

  The daily stand-up meeting is one of the most used agile practices but has rarely been the subject of empirical research. The present study aims to identify how daily stand-up meetings are conducted and what the attitudes towards them are. A grounded theory study with 12 software teams in three companies in Malaysia, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom was conducted. We interviewed 60 people, observed 79 daily stand-up meetings and collected supplementary data. The factors that contributed the most to a positive attitude towards the daily stand-up meeting were information sharing with the team and the opportunity to discuss and solve problems. The factors that contributed the most to a negative attitude were status reporting to the manager and that the frequency of the meeting was perceived to be too high and the duration too long. Based on our results, we developed a grounded theory of daily stand-up meetings and proposed empirically based recommendations and guidelines on how to organize them. Organizations should be aware of the factors that may affect the attitude towards daily stand-up meetings and should consider our recommendations and guidelines to make this agile practice as valuable as possible.

• Stray, Viktoria Gulliksen; Lindsjørn, Yngve & Sjøberg, Dag (2013). Obstacles to Efficient Daily Meetings in Agile Development Projects: A Case Study, In Davide Falessi (ed.),  ACM / IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement. Baltimore, 10-11 Oct. 2013.  IEEE.  ISBN 978-0-7695-5056-5.  Artikkel 10.  s 95 - 102 Show summary

  Context: Most of the software organizations that use agile methods organize daily team meetings. Aim: Our aim was to understand how daily meetings are conducted and identify obstacles that reduce their efficiency. Method: We observed 56 daily meetings and conducted 21 interviews in three different teams in two countries. We used the repertory grid technique in the interviews and to analyze the results. Results: We identified thirteen obstacles. The four most prominent ones were: (1) The daily meetings lasted too long (on average, 22 minutes instead of the scheduled 15 minutes). (2) In the meetings that were not self-organized, team members reported to the Scrum Master instead of sharing information among all team members. (3) The interruption caused by daily meetings required substantially more time than the actual meeting time due to overhead before and after the meetings. (4) Several team members had negative attitudes towards the daily meetings. Conclusion: Organizers of daily meetings should evaluate whether the obstacles we have identified are present in their organization and consider our suggestions to remove or reduce these obstacles.

• Stray, Viktoria Gulliksen; Moe, Nils Brede & Aurum, Aybüke (2012). Investigating Daily Team Meetings in Agile Software Projects. Proceedings of the EUROMICRO Conference.  ISSN 1089-6503.  s 274- 281 . doi: 10.1109/SEAA.2012.16 Show summary

  An increasing amount of time is being spent at organizational meetings. One common type of meeting in software projects is the daily team meeting, which is the most important forum for coordinating and planning daily work. To better understand how software teams make decisions, communicate, and coordinate their work, we must uncover the micro-level interaction processes among the team members at these meetings. We analyzed transcriptions of eight daily meetings from two software development teams. The agile literature states that the daily meeting should focus on answering questions such as "What have I done? What will be done? What obstacles are in my way?" However, on average, only 24% of each of the meetings that we studied focused on this task. We found that 35% of the meeting was spent on elaborating problem issues and discussing possible solutions. Very little time was used for coordinating tasks. Our results indicate that many project decisions are made in daily team meetings and that this quick decision making requires team members to be experts. These experts need to have a shared understanding of who is responsible for what and of the information and requirements needed to solve the tasks.

• Stray, Viktoria Gulliksen; Moe, Nils Brede & Dybå, Tore (2012). Escalation of Commitment: A Longitudinal Case Study of Daily Meetings. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing.  ISSN 1865-1348.  111, s 153- 167 . doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-30350-0_11 Show summary

  Escalating commitment is a common and costly phenomenon in software projects in which decision-makers continue to invest resources to a failing course of action. We conducted a longitudinal case study exploring the effect of daily meetings on escalating commitment. This was done in an agile project building software for the oil and gas industry. By analyzing data collected over a period of four years, and drawing on concepts from self-justification theory we found that daily meetings contributed to maintain a situation of escalating commitment. This especially occurs if the meeting becomes a place for reporting and defending decisions with team members feeling that they have to justify their choices towards the project management or fellow team members. Early signs of escalation such as rationalizing continuation of a chosen course of action must therefore be taken seriously.

• Stray, Viktoria Gulliksen; Moe, Nils Brede & Dingsøyr, Torgeir (2011). Challenges to Teamwork: A Multiple Case Study of Two Agile Teams. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing.  ISSN 1865-1348.  77, s 146- 161 Show summary

  Agile software development has become the standard in many companies. While there are reports of major improvements with agile development over traditional development, many teams still strive to work effectively as a team. A multiple case study in two companies discovered challenges related to communication, learning and selecting the tasks according to the priority list. For example, the fact that the developers were not actively involved in the planning process, resulted in weak team orientation; even though the teams had identified and discussed recurring problems, they found it difficult to improve their teamwork practices; and because customers and support communicated tasks directly to the developers and developers chose tasks according to interest and expertise, following the priority list became difficult. We provide practical suggestions for teamwork in agile software development that intend to overcome these problems and strengthen team orientation and team learning in order to achieve effective agile teams.

• Stray, Viktoria Gulliksen (2010). A Multiple Case Study of Teamwork in Norwegian Software Development Organizations. Lecture notes in control and information sciences.  ISSN 0170-8643.  48, s 401- 402
• Gulliksen, Inga Viktoria Ågesdatter; Hegle, Marit & Krogstie, John (2007). Innføring av elektronisk handel i offentlig sektor: Erfaringer fra Sør-Trøndelag Fylkeskommune, I: Laurence Habib (red.),  Proceedings NOKOBIT 2007.  Tapir Akademisk Forlag.  ISBN 978-82-519-2261-6.  Kapittel.  s 237 - 250

View all works in Cristin

• Løvold, Henrik Hillestad; Lindsjørn, Yngve & Stray, Viktoria (2020). Forming and assessing student teams in Software Engineering courses.
• Paruch, Lucas & Stray, Viktoria (2020). The Human Factors and the Hard Skills Shaping the Role of the Software Tester in Agile Teams: A Grounded Theory Study.
• Film & TV, Applaus & Stray, Viktoria (2019, 22. januar). Algoritmer – Opplæringsvideo produsert for Nasjonal Digital Læringsarena (NDLA). [TV].  Nasjonal Digital Læringsarena.
• Goplen, Marcus R.; Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2019). Onboarding av distribuerte team. Show summary

  I denne oppgaven studerte jeg en bedrift som hadde gjennomført et innføringsprogram (onboarding) der portugisiske utviklere skulle innlemmes i to eksisterende norske team. Det blir bare vanligere og vanligere innenfor IT-bransjen ˚a delegere arbeid til utlandet (outsourcing) og det er derfor viktig ˚a finne gode modeller for onboarding av denne typen ansatte. M˚alet for oppgaven var derfor ˚a se om Bauers generelle onboardingsmodell er en god praksis for onboarding av distribuerte team og prøve ˚a avdekke eventuelle utfordringer for denne typen case. For dette case-studiet ble det brukt en kombinasjon av kvantitative og kvalitative metoder. Det ble i all hovedsak brukt kvantitativ metode i oppgaven da forskningen handlet om ˚a forst˚a og beskrive mennesker, men fordi jeg valgte ˚a bruke grafer for og underbygge p˚astander s˚a jeg det hensiktsmessig ˚a inkludere kvalitativ metode. Studiet fant sted hos IT-avdelingen til en norsk bank hvor ledere for avdelingen og to utviklerteam ble intervjuet. Forskningen viste at Bauers onboardingsmodell ogs˚a fungerer for onboarding av distribuerte team, men at det er flere utfordringer ved outsourcing. Oppgaven tok utgangspunkt i, og fant det hensiktsmessig ˚a bruke, en modell laget for ˚a planlegge og gjennomføre onboarding. Jeg vil ogs˚a presentere et forslag til ny modell som potensielt ville fungert bedre for en onboarding tilsvarende mitt case. Den største utfordringen for min casebedrift var˚a komme raskt i gang grunnet vanskelighetsgraden til domenet i banken.

• Grimstad, Bjørn & Stray, Viktoria (2019, 24. januar). Ikke gå i møtefellene: Her er ti tips til gode møter. [Fagblad].  Fagbladet.
• Kristensen, Sondre & Stray, Viktoria (2019). Teamwork Behaviours in Autonomous Cross-functional Teams. Show summary

  Background: Software development is a collaborative process where people from multiple different practices are involved. It has become more and more common to structure people as teams focusing on producing a specific parts of a system as one fully functional whole. Having those teams work as effectively and sustainable as possible should be a goal for any business owner, and as such new information regarding how to facilitate better teamwork is needed. Aim: The aim of this thesis is to investigate how teamwork behaviours appear in an autonomous cross-functional team, and how these behaviours can be considered important to such teams. Specifically the different ways teamwork behaviours is shown by team-members, and if there is a difference between behaviours shown in meetings compared to the workspace will be investigated. Potential benefits of teamwork behaviours will also be investigated. Method: A qualitative case study was conducted in a single product development team. Data was collected by observing 15 workdays and 14 meetings, as well as conducting 6 interviews and observing the teams online chat. Results: The results showed that 11 teamwork behaviours could be identified in the team. Differences in how behaviours were displayed in meetings compared to the workspace was found in eight of the teamwork behaviours. Five of the teamwork behaviours were found to be important for autonomous teams, each facilitating different aspects of teamwork. Conclusion: Teamwork behaviours seem to provide a great indication of teamwork in a team, and as such seem to be worthy of attention in the field of evaluating and improving the level of teamwork.

• Leveraas, Paal & Stray, Viktoria (2019, 10. april). Dr. Smidigs standup-diagnose endret Norge. [Internett].  Dataforeningen.
• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2019). Digitalisering i Oslo kommune gjennom Autonome team: Krav til kompetanse og opplæring.
• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2019). Software engineering processes and practices for team leads in agile projects.
• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2019). The Second International Workshop on Autonomous Agile Teams, XP2019.
• Standal, Andreas Hauge & Stray, Viktoria (2019). Characteristics for Efficient Autonomous Cross-Functional Teams. Show summary

  In this master thesis I aim to arrive at a theory which can answer the question of how software engineering teams can become more efficient, and how they can use crossfunctionality and team autonomy to arrive at this goal. There has not been done enough research on this subject, as most research on software engineering teams tend to focus on a single part of software engineering such as frameworks like Scrum or mindsets like Lean. Therefore the scope of this thesis is quite broad, and envelops software engineering teams in practice as a whole. The research method applied was Grounded Theory, which was useful due to the broad scope of the thesis. Grounded Theory was used to its full extent, using iterations of data collection and data analysis to arrive at an emerging theory. The research was conducted at a large Norwegian bank, in the spring of 2019. Two development teams were followed, observed, and interviewed - extensively. The emerged theory has the main category Team Efficiency, together with six related central categories: Flexibility, Autonomy, Cross-Functionality, Mindset, Morale, and Coaching. These central categories’ underlying topics, and relationships, are presented and detailed in depth, and aims to answer how to implement cross-functionality and flexibility to achieve team autonomy.

• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Møter på en smidig arbeidsplass. Show summary

  Hva kan vi gjøre for å få det beste ut av møtene i prosjektene våre? Alle er i møter og alle har en mening om møter, men hva sier forskning om møter? Gjennom å studere bedrifter som gjennomfører digitaliseringsprosjekter, har Viktoria fått innsikt i møtene til alt fra finansfolk til byråkrater. Et godt møte bør være nyttig for bedriften, gjøre de ansatte bedre rustet til å jobbe sammen og oppleves som meningsfylt for møtedeltagerne der og da Du får Viktorias beste tips, og inspirasjon til å holde produktive og gode møter.

• Stray, Viktoria (2019). A Global View on the Hard Skills and Testing Tools in Software Testing.
• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Agile Practices.
• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Dependency Management in Large-Scale Agile.
• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Digital transformasjon – angår det meg?.
• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Dr. Smidigs møtemedisin.
• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Effektive møter og en god møtekultur.
• Stray, Viktoria (2019). En mer produktiv arbeidsdag med bedre møter!. Show summary

  Keynote: Viktoria Stray fra SINTEF, kjent i Norge som “Dr. Smidig”, gir oss innblikk i smidig forskning og tips for en bedre møtehverdag. Hva kan vi gjøre for å få det beste ut av møtene i prosjektene våre? Alle er i møter og har en mening om møter, men hva sier forskning om møter? Gjennom å studere bedrifter som gjennomfører digitaliseringsprosjekter, har Viktoria fått innsikt i møtene til alt fra finansfolk til byråkrater. Et godt møte bør være nyttig for bedriften, gjøre de ansatte bedre rustet til å jobbe sammen og oppleves som meningsfylt for møtedeltagerne der og da. Du får Viktorias beste tips, og inspirasjon til å holde produktive og gode møter. Dr. Smidig: https://www.dataforeningen.no/dr-smidigs-standup-diagnose-endret-norge/

• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Hvordan skape gode autonome og smidige team?.
• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Hvordan tilrettelegge for bedre møtevirksomhet hos Discovery Networks Norway?.
• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Tilgjengelighetstesting i en smidig utviklingsprosess.
• Stray, Viktoria (2019). Use of Accessibility Testing Tools in Agile Software Projects.
• Stray, Viktoria & Helgesen, Linda (2019). Produktivitet på en smidig arbeidsplass. Show summary

  Vi tar steget videre fra foredraget om møter og trekker problemstillingen nærmere den praktiske virkeligheten til konferansedeltagerne. I denne workshopen ser vi nærmere på arbeidshverdagen til deltagerne og vurderer hvordan vi kan bruke enkle tilnærminger til å forbedre og effektivisere dagen.

• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2019). Retrospective for the Insurance team.
• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2019). Software engineering processes and practices for tech leads in agile projects.
• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2019). Use of Enterprise Social Networking Tools in Virtual Agile Teams.
• Telle, Ingvild & Stray, Viktoria (2019, 13. desember). Hvorfor så mange møter?. [Fagblad].  Finansforbundet.
• Aasheim, Andreas; Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2018). Process Tailoring in Large-Scale Agile Programs. Show summary

  Background: Teams in large-scale agile programs need to achieve collaborative software development. A proposed guide to collaboration is effective coordination. Large-scale agile software development is well accepted in the software industry, but there is little understanding of such projects and programs achieve effective coordination in autonomous cross-functional teams. Therefore, I conducted a case study of a large-scale software program consisting of seven autonomous teams in an organization. Five of them was DevOps teams, where DevOps is merely a team composed of developers who are working on the development and operational tasks. Aim: The thesis aims to investigate what dependencies and their related agile practices that act as coordination mechanisms to facilitate the large-scale agile development. Additionally, the aim is also to recommend a starter set for providing coordination in the large-scale by using a dependency taxonomy, which mapping agile practices. Method: A qualitative case study was conducted for the research design. The data was collected by conduction 40 observed meetings, as well as 18 entire working days in the organization's open work area to observe them in their everyday work. A dependency taxonomy was used to map and categorize the coordination mechanisms. Results: The results revealed that there were 34 coordination mechanisms and 77 pairs of dependencies presented in the program. The coordination mechanisms could be mapped into three categories, with subcategories each: knowledge dependency, process dependency, and resource dependency. The knowledge dependency was predominant with the frequency of 73 % of the three categories. These means that focusing on selecting agile practices that address the types of knowledge dependency should be recommended for providing coordination. Furthermore, the results revealed that 12 agile practices would be a good choice for coordinating and tailoring a large-scale program. Conclusion: It is possible to use a dependency taxonomy to map coordination mechanisms in a large-scale agile program. The coordination mechanisms made collaboration between the teams in the program, by implement Scrum of Scrum meetings, daily stand-up meetings, demo meetings, Sprint Planning meetings, and introduce different roles, such as project managers, team leads, Product Owners and DevOps developers. These mechanisms lead to fast Sprint periods, frequent production setting, a common understanding of what is being created, and autonomous decisions in the program.

• Afzal, Zunaira; Lindsjørn, Yngve & Stray, Viktoria (2018). A Case Study on Technical Debt.
• Backer, Idun; Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2018). Fra tverrfaglig team til tverrfaglig samarbeid.
• Bai, Aleksander; Mork, Heidi Camilla; Stray, Viktoria & Sverdrup, Nikolai Johan Sand (2018). Holdninger rundt universell utforming i smidige team. Report at the Norwegian Computing Center. 1036.
• Bai, Aleksander; Mork, Heidi Camilla; Stray, Viktoria; Sverdrup, Nikolai Johan Sand; Halbach, Till & Fuglerud, Kristin Skeide (2018). Evaluering av tilgjengelighetstest-metoder. Report at the Norwegian Computing Center. 1038.
• Holgeid, Knut Kjetil; Krogstie, John; Stray, Viktoria & Thompson, Mark (2018). Strategizing for Successful IT Projects in the Digital Era. Pre-ICIS Research Workshop on IT Project Management, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Show summary

  The objective of this paper is to increase our understanding of how organizations strategize with a view to making their digital investments successful and the impact such digital strategies actually have on business outcomes. We examined 2940 papers related to digital business strategies, of which 31 were included in relevant empirical research. These papers were reviewed and subjected to thematic synthesis. Many organizations appear to initiate scattered digital initiatives without a clear idea of where they are going. Companies can benefit from a deliberate digital strategy that enhances the ability of businesses to quickly adjust to new trends, possibilities, and threats, as well as a constant balancing of new possibilities with the exploitation of current assets.

• Holgeid, Knut Kjetil & Stray, Viktoria (2018). A Review of Factors Promoting IS Project Escalation. Pre-ICIS Research Workshop on IT Project Management, International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Show summary

  The objective of this paper is to investigate the tendency to continue a project even when it is obvious that it will not provide the planned benefits, often referred to as “project escalation” or “escalation of commitment.” The investigation aims to identify factors that empirically have been found to promote IS project escalation. We examined 1163 papers related to the phenomenon of IS project and commitment escalation and found 42 of them to include relevant empirical research. We provide a comprehensive overview of 43 factors that can have important implications for practice, especially for organizations trying to avoid escalation in the first place or uncover already escalated projects.

• Kalveland, Julie & Stray, Viktoria (2018, 11. november). Viktoria er Norges ledende ekspert på møter. Hun anbefaler at alle får lov å «ta en Musk». [Tidsskrift].  Digi.no.
• Lindsjørn, Yngve & Stray, Viktoria (2018). Studentaktiv læring og prosjektarbeid i utvikling av IT-systemer.
• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2018). Guilds: Etablering og suksesskriterier.
• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2018). Produkteiere – bindeleddet mellom forretning og IT. Hvordan hjelpe produkteierne til å videreutvikle og realisere det strategiske målbildet?.
• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2018). Retrospective vs Futurespective – jobbe mer med muligheter enn problemer.
• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2018). Retrospektiv med Produkteiere og styringsforum på Tellus.
• Noroozi, Mehdi & Stray, Viktoria (2018). To Slack or not to Slack; challenges of communication and coordination in distributed software development.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018). Coordination by Feedback in Large-Scale Agile Software Development Projects.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018). Daglige møter truer effektiviteten til norske bedrifter. Aftenposten (morgenutg. : trykt utg.).  ISSN 0804-3116.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018, 18. september). Den store møteplagen. [Radio].  NRK P2.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018). Digitalisering, innovasjon og teamarbeid i store IT-prosjekter.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018). Escalation of Commitment in Information System Projects.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018). Futurespective – hvordan team kan øke produktiviteten og nå sine mål ved å se fremover i en retrospective.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018). Gode møter i en produktiv arbeidsdag.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018, 11. september). Møteforsker: – Daglige møter truer effektiviteten på jobb. [TV].  TV2 Nyhetskanalen.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018). Smart og smidig: Nye retningslinjer for daglige møter.
• Stray, Viktoria (2018). Strategizing for Successful IT Projects.
• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2018). Agile Ways of Working.
• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2018). First International Workshop on Autonomous Agile Teams, XP2018.
• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2018). Møter – Forskning og trender rundt økt effektivitet gjennom mer uplanlagte møter og mer slack i planene.
• Stray, Viktoria & Rolland, Knut-H. (2018). Presentasjon av Geminisenter for Systemutviklingsprosesser og Metoder for Innovasjon og Digitalisering.
• Sverdrup, Nikolai Johan Sand & Stray, Viktoria (2018). Accessibility Testing in Agile Software Development.
• Bai, Aleksander; Mork, Heidi Camilla; Stray, Viktoria & Sverdrup, Nikolai Johan Sand (2017). Universell utforming: verktøy og teknikker for tilgjengelighetstesting i smidige prosjekter.
• Bai, Aleksander & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Universell utforming i smidige prosjekter: Verktøy og teknikker for hyppig tilgjengelighetstesting.
• Brombach, Harald & Stray, Viktoria (2017, 31. juli). Mange har endret standup-møtene på grunn av forskningen til Viktoria. [Tidsskrift].  Digi.no.
• Mikalsen, Marius; Moe, Nils Brede; Stray, Viktoria & Nyrud, Helga (2017). Justification in bottom-up information infrastructures innovation: a case from an incumbent bank turning fintech. Show summary

  Our understanding of decisions in bottom-up information infrastructure innovation is justified in incumbent firms is limited. Through a case study of an incumbent bank transforming towards a bottom-up approach to innovation, we find that bottom-up organisation involves several different forms of justification. We discuss how pragmatic justification offers an interesting analytical lens on how of bottom-up infrastructure innovation can be understood.

• Moe, Nils Brede; Cruzes, Daniela Soares & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Strategies for agile software testing in a large global company.
• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Autonome team i storskala systemutviklingsprosjekter. Show summary

  Hvordan organiseres autonome team i store programmer. Hvordan kan Oslo kommune lære av dette.

• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Evaluering og refleksjon med nye retrospektivteknikker.
• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Hvordan lære i autonome team gjennom retrospektive. Show summary

  Hvordan og hvorfor gjennomføre en retroskeptive på store kryssfunksjojelle team. Innsamling av data, analyse av data og identifisering av tiltak.

• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2017). New models for teams - Understanding autonomous BizDev teams Linking business strategy and software development. Show summary

  Motivation for discussing how to organize teams for the future Organizing for speed, flexibility and uncertainty Experience from Storebrand and Ericsson Workshop: How should we organize for the future? What should we change now and what changes are needed in the long run? Are there any barriers for changing?

• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Reflection techniques for agile retrospective meetings in distributed teams. Show summary

  An introduction to reflection techniques and training teams in these techniques

• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Råd om distribuert arbeid og virtuelle team. Show summary

  Presentasjon av råd om hvordan organisere distribuert arbeid og organisere team, og planlegging av hvordan samle inn data fra team involvert i globalt arbeid.

• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Software testing strategy and collaboration practices in global software development projects. Show summary

  Workshop with the test centre in Shanghai on software testing strategy and collaboration practices in global software development projects. The collaboration strategies include daily meetings, chat tools, use of video, travel and documents.

• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2017). Valuable agile retrospectives: Inspect and adapt. Show summary

  Opplæring i retrospektivteknikker og gjennomføring av retrospektiv på team 1 som leverte reiseplanleggeren 2. november 2017.

• Moe, Nils Brede & Stray, Viktoria (2017). What does it mean to be agile in a company with high organizational complexity?.
• Moe, Nils Brede; Stray, Viktoria & Gancheva, Ivana (2017). Collaboration challenges and improvements when working globally distributed.
• Nyrud, Helga; Stray, Viktoria; Lindsjørn, Yngve & Moe, Nils Brede (2017). BizDev Teams in Agile Software Development.
• Stray, Viktoria (2017). Are daily stand-up meetings valuable? A survey of developers in software teams.
• Stray, Viktoria (2017). Collaboration, coordination and team interactions. Show summary

  Presentation of findings from research in daily standups in distributed teams.

• Stray, Viktoria (2017). Kvinner i IT-bransjen.
• Stray, Viktoria; Bai, Aleksander; Mork, Heidi Camilla & Sverdrup, Nikolai Johan Sand (2017). Universell utforming: verktøy og teknikker for tilgjengelighetstesting i smidige prosjekter.
• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2017). Communication and Coordination In Distributed Teams. Show summary

  Presenting Findings from Smiglo at GSD day.

• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2017). Motivating agile teams: Tools and techniques for conducting valuable retrospectives. Show summary

  Opplæring i hvordan evaluere prosjekter og programmer. Gjennomføring av worksop (retrospektive) på reiseplanleggeren som ble levert av 9 team.

• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2017). Mutual adjustment and use of Slack in distributed development projects.
• Stray, Viktoria & Moe, Nils Brede (2017). Smidige retrospektiver: evaluering og innføring i nye teknikker.
• Bekkstrand, Kristian; Stray, Viktoria & Lindsjørn, Yngve (2016). The Hidden Waste of Agile Distributed Development.
• Opdal, Lars-Erik; Maus, Arne & Stray, Viktoria (2016). Parallelle beregninger med MPI i delt og distribuert minne.
• Stray, Viktoria (2016). Daglige møter i samlokaliserte og distribuerte team: Resultater fra empiriske studier.
• Stray, Viktoria (2016). Exploring Norms in Agile Software Teams.
• Stray, Viktoria (2016). Smidig systemutvikling - teknikker og praksiser.
• Kenneth, Christensen & Stray, Viktoria (2014, 14. oktober). Ikke begynn dagen med stand-up.  Computerworld.
• Stray, Viktoria (2014). An Empirical Investigation of the Daily Stand-Up Meeting in Agile Software Development Projects. Series of dissertations submitted to the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo.. 1550.
• Stray, Viktoria (2014). Daglige møter.
• Stray, Viktoria (2014). Daglige stand-up møter.
• Stray, Viktoria (2014). Daglige stand-up møter i smidige prosjekter.
• Stray, Viktoria (2014). Ikke begynn dagen med stand-up.
• Stray, Viktoria (2013). Hindringer for effektive daglige møter i smidige prosjekter.
• Stray, Viktoria (2013). Obstacles to efficient daily meetings in Agile Development Projects.
• Stray, Viktoria (2011). Challenges to Teamwork: A Multiple Case Study of Two Agile Teams.

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