Agile Software Development Teams (ASDTs) employ agile methodologies to navigate the dynamic landscape of the software industry, responding effectively to constant change and innovation. The success of ASDTs relies significantly on the individuals’ mindset, referred to as the agile mindset (AM). Yet, a clear conceptualization of the AM remains elusive, as existing approaches do not meet scientific standards and fail to produce consistent results. This paper addresses this gap by systematically conceptualizing the AM within the context of ASDTs. Through a systematic review and evaluation of existing definitions and initial conceptualizations, we identified dimensions and consolidated insights, resulting in a comprehensive conceptualization of the AM. Our work represents a crucial step towards understanding the AM’s role in ASDTs and lays the foundation for our planned future work: the empirical validation and development of a standardized measurement instrument for the AM.

Agile software development has been shaped by the interplay between academic research and industrial practice for over two decades, yet notable gaps persist between both domains. This paper focuses on three research-practice gaps: the theory gap, the time gap, and the transfer gap. To address these, the 2nd Agile Practice Research Workshop was held at the International Conference on Agile Software Development (XP) 2026 in São Paulo, Brazil, bringing researchers and practitioners together to identify root causes and develop joint solutions. Building on two preceding sessions in which contributions of participants had been presented, participants engaged in a structured collaborative session, working in small groups on one of the three gaps and reflecting on possible causes and remedies. The organizers synthesized the results into four propositions for improving the research-practice intersection: (1) improving scientific communication, (2) aligning research more closely with emerging industrial needs, (3) creating stronger incentives for sustained collaboration, and (4) integrating educational approaches into research practice. From these, three calls for research were formulated: (a) broader adoption of open science practices for transparency, reproducibility, and cumulative evidence; (b) higher empirical quality standards through stronger theoretical grounding and rigorous design; and (c) more explicit, value-oriented contributions that clearly articulate their practical and scientific relevance. The paper offers both a summary of the workshop and a call to strengthen research-practice collaboration.

To cope with ongoing change, an increasing number of companies view agile approaches as fundamental for remaining competitive in dynamic environments. However, realizing the outcomes associated with agility requires not only the implementation of agile practices but also employees who possess an agile mindset. Although scholarly understanding of the agile mindset has increased in recent years, a validated measurement instrument for individuals is still lacking. This paper addresses this research gap by following the validation procedure proposed by MacKenzie, Podsakoff, Podsakoff [1]. Based on a systematic review of existing conceptualizations of the agile mindset, we empirically developed a scale and specified a corresponding measurement model. To quantitatively evaluate and validate the model, we analyzed data from four independent samples (content validity: n = 184; pretest: n = 500; validation: n = 202; cross-validation: n = 218). As a result, we validate a four-dimensional conceptualization of the agile mindset comprising the attitude toward learning, collaborative exchange, empowered self-guidance, and customer co-creation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the agile mindset is correlated with key individual outcomes: job satisfaction, goal orientation, and reduced resistance to change and thereby reinforcing its relevance. In addition to its theoretical contribution, this study provides practical value by offering an economically efficient instrument for measuring the agile mindset.

The success of agile work heavily depends on people and their approach to challenges, with the agile mindset emerging as a pivotal driver. Despite its importance, Information Systems (IS) research lacks a systematic overview of the contexts where the agile mindset is relevant and the research gaps that remain. This study addresses this gap by systematically examining the factors influencing and resulting from the agile mindset in IS contexts and, for the first time, demonstrating its broad relevance across diverse IS domains. We conducted a systematic literature review, analyzing 62 relevant papers from IS research. Our findings show that the agile mindset plays a central role in four key areas: (1) implementing agile methods or scaled agile frameworks during agile transformations, (2) applying digital tools and driving digital transformation, (3) supporting coaching, training, and education, and (4) leadership and management. This study's originality lies in highlighting the agile mindset's wide-ranging applicability, offering practitioners actionable insights for designing processes and mechanisms to enhance the success of agile work in IS. Additionally, researchers are provided with a roadmap of open questions and future research opportunities to deepen our understanding of this critical concept in IS contexts.

Agile leadership (AL) is essential for leading agile transformations. So far, a conceptualization of AL is still lacking. To investigate its core characteristics, we conduct an exploratory single case study. Our study examines a senior executive training program within a young European automotive software company, with the objective of establishing AL throughout the organization. Our study's primary findings reveal that AL can be categorized into five perspectives: person-based, purpose-based, result-based, position-based, and process-based. Agile leaders are humble, adaptable, visionary, and engaged. AL focuses on aligning employees with a clear vision, fostering a learning organization, increasing transparency, and establishing decision-making in teams. It is practiced by executives, agile accountabilities, and team members. Agile leaders operate as experimenters, collaborators, facilitators, enablers, and resilient leaders. Our findings provide a foundational basis for organizations to implement AL, thereby enhancing their adaptability and overall success.

Agile approaches originated in software development. Due to their various advantages, they are being applied to many different industries and functions. Meanwhile, organizations face extreme challenges and obstacles in their Agile transformations and implementations. One of the major factors causing these challenges and obstacles relies on people related factors. As one of the critical human factors in Agile, Agile Mindset impacts all facets of behaviors and activities. Nevertheless, Agile Mindset-related matters are disregarded by several organizations and literature that focus on concrete and industrialized products of Agile. Motivated by this gap, we aimed to provide a thorough investigation of the research on Agile Mindset-related literature and modeled the obtained results by using Glaser’s Six C’s Grounded Theory coding family. Therefore, we aimed to provide a comprehensive insight into the Agile Mindset construct, which is new yet essential, required but hard to acquire, challenging to observe but important to notice, and cheap to disregard but at an excessive cost.

Starting from software development, Agile approaches are spreading across a broad range of industries and functions, with many great challenges.Mindset, as one of the crucial human factors of individuals in Agile, influences people's decision-making and affects every aspect of behavior and action.However, many organizations and teams face big challenges in achieving an Agile Mindset of their individuals.In addition to an often-unclear understanding of the Agile Mindset, various aspects of it such as success factors and indications are largely unknown, which makes it extremely difficult to establish an Agile Mindset.Motivated by this, our study aims to conduct a literature review by answering comprehensive research questions related to the Agile Mindset regarding publication demographics, importance, definitions, characteristics, elements, critical success factors, indicators, activities for development of Agile Mindset, and future directions of research.

Recently, businesses are introducing low-code development platforms (LCDP) that enable employees with little to no development expertise to develop their own systems to improve their work. These so-called business unit developers (BUDs) possess necessary domain knowledge to understand how to use LCDPs to create useful (self-) services. Using job resource demand theory and the job crafting model, we conceptualize that BUDs use of LCDPs can be framed using the theoretical lens of job crafting. Job crafting stems from vocational psychology and provides well-researched positive consequences, such as wellbeing and meaningfulness. Thus, our research objective is to understand how BUDs can use LCDPs to job craft to gain access to positive job crafting consequences. We interviewed 17 experts across three organizations that employ an LDCP for chatbots. Our results suggest that job crafting is a suitable framework for understanding the effects of LCDP use.

Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) are drivers in today's business world. To perform amid this accelerated change and the digitalization progress, organizations are implementing agility. However, such an implementation does not happen without stumbling blocks and some fail. One reason for this is actors' agile mindset (AM), which is necessary to deal succefully within a VUCA environment. Knowledge of the AM is in its infancy and conceptualization and measuring tools for it are lacking. Furthermore, the relation of the AM in terms of strategic agility and performance is still unclear. Our study aims to close these gaps. We examine AM through 15 interviews and a survey (N = 449) to predict strategic agility and performance. As a result, we conceptualize AM as an attitude that comprises four dimensions: attitude towards 1) learning spirit, 2) collaborative exchange, 3) empowered self-guidance, and 4) customer co-creation. Furthermore, we describe how actors with an AM deal with new technologies. We found that AM affects organizational performance mediated by strategic agility. These findings contribute to the agility and management research by providing a conceptualization and measuring instrument for AM. Furthermore, its relevance for strategic agility is explained and its relationship with organizational performance outlined.

The potentials of artificial intelligence (AI) are manifold, and their discussion has gained momentum in research and practice. At the same time, AI also raises fears among employees of being replaced by AI technologies, therefore shying away from using them. Generally, employees want to be empowered to do their job and seek both more responsibility and the ability to make their own decisions. In this paper, we conduct a systematic literature review that investigates the current state of the literature on the potential empowering effects of AI-based human–machine behavior. We thus sorted the literature into three behavioral categories: humans shape machine behavior, machines shape human behavior, and human–machine co-behavior. We crossed them with psychological empowerment dimensions of significance, competence, self-determination, and influence. Our results show corresponding literature streams and provide future research directions in a field that is likely to disrupt the way we work in the future.

What are the attributes of successful organizations? This is the question addressed by the Future Organization Report 2021. It focuses on the idea of “Organizational Excellence” and what organizations can do to achieve this goal.

Companies show a growing demand in corporate agility. The effects of so-called doing and being agile are the key for positive outcomes in agile work. Scrum is used by companies to make them more agile. The present study examines the interaction of doing agile (leadership, work design) and being agile (individual characteristics, empowerment) in relation to satisfaction and commitment based on an online survey of 129 Scrum development team members. The results show that work design and leadership impact empowerment and that the latter leads to both job satisfaction and commitment. Team orientation has no effect. Openness for new actions moderates the relationship between work design and the outcome variables. The results can be used in practice to increase the satisfaction and commitment within Scrum. They provide an insight into the impact structure within Scrum and are thus also the basis for future research.

ZusammenfassungInterne Crowd Work gewinnt im Hinblick auf eine agilitätsfördernde Arbeitsorganisation immer mehr an Bedeutung. Das Empowerment der Mitarbeitenden kann dabei als ein zentraler Erfolgsfaktor angesehen werden. Um das Empowerment in interner Crowd Work zielgerichtet zu untersuchen und die Wahrnehmung aus Sicht der Mitarbeitenden sowie die Effekte auf Ebene der Gesamtorganisation zu verstehen und beschreiben zu können, analysieren wir die interne Crowd Work mit Hilfe einer literaturbasierten erweiterten Wirtschaftlichkeitsbetrachtung sowie empirisch anhand von sechs Fallstudien. Auf organisationaler Ebene stehen im Ergebnis dabei insbesondere die Themen Organisationskultur, abteilungsübergreifende Zusammenarbeit und die Gestaltung von Aufgaben und Projekten im Fokus. Auf individueller Ebene können vornehmlich die selbstbestimmte Wahl von Arbeitsaufgaben inkl. selbstorganisierter Arbeitsprozesse sowie neue Führungsansätze als wesentliche Stellschrauben identifiziert werden.