ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Comput. Sci.
Sec. Software
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomp.2025.1626456
Measuring Agility in Software Development Teams: Development and Initial Validation ofthe Agile Team Practice Inventory for Software Development (ATPI-SD)
Provisionally accepted
- Triagon Academy, Marsa, Malta
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Agile methodologies are ubiquitous in software development, yet their measurement remains challenging due to a lack of validated instruments. This paper details the development and initial validation of the Agile Team Practice Inventory for Software Development (ATPI-SD), a new questionnaire measuring team-level agility based on core agile values and practices. Starting from a comprehensive literature review (258 items) and expert consultations (n=7), five dimensions were initially identified, leading to 67 generated items. Expert feedback refined this to 37 items across 4 dimensions, which were tested in study 1 (n=199). Further analysis resulted in a final 20-item scale with four dimensions: Customer Involvement (CI), Team Collaboration (TC), Iterative and Incremental Development Processes (IIDP), and Continuous Development Process Improvement (CDPI). Data from our study (n=237) showed good internal consistency for the total scale (α = .892) and subscales (ranging from .690 to .840). Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicated a moderate-to-acceptable model fit (e.g., CFI=.878, TLI=.858). Moderate convergent validity was supported by a significant correlation with a single-item self-rating of team agility (ρ = .404, p < .001). While suggesting potential for refinement, the ATPI-SD provides a systematically developed and initially validated instrument for researchers and practitioners assessing agility in software development teams.
Keywords: Agile software development, measuring agility, scale development, questionnaire, Agility assessment, Team agility, instrument validation, software engineering
Received: 10 May 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Retzlaff. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Niklas Retzlaff, niklas_retzlaff@outlook.de
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