Revealing the State-of-the-Art in Large-Scale Agile Development: A Systematic Mapping Study

Context: The success of agile methods in small projects has inspired companies to apply them in larger projects and organizations. Although extensive research has been done, there is no comprehensive overview of research in large-scale agile development. Objective: This study aims to survey and analyze existing research on large-scale agile development to scope the phenomenon, provide an overview of the state-of-the-art, and identify areas for future research. Method: A systematic mapping study was conducted to analyze extant research covering 136 publications dated from 2007 to 2019. Results: An in-depth analysis of the selected studies revealed that (i) the extant literature currently reports more than 150 companies of different sizes and from different sectors around the world applying agile methods at large scale, (ii) both industry and academia shows a growing interest in the topic of large-scale agile development, (iii) the research in this field can be divided into ten main research streams, (iv) the topic of large-scale agile development is still maturing and offers promising avenues for future research. Conclusion: This mapping study provides the first systematic exploration of the state-of-the-art on large-scale agile development. It offers researchers and practitioners a reflection of the past thirteen years of research and practice on the large-scale application of agile methods. Overall, although the topic of large-scale agile development is very promising and maturing, it is still in its infancy, thus, giving a plethora of new opportunities for researchers to investigate companies applying agile methods at scale.