Effect of Inadequate Self-Organized Teams in Agile Project Management: A Case Study From the Oil and Gas Industry

Building self-organizing teams in agile projects is considered an important job for project leaders. However, the reality is that building self-organized teams lacks focus as many go back to managing tasks because it is more concrete and tangible. While there are an excessive number of studies proving that developing self-organized teams has a positive contribution to project success, there is a lack of knowledge about the consequences of not doing it. This study, therefore, explores the impact inadequate self-organizing teams has on agile project success. Results have identified five failure areas in a self-organizing team that have a negative impact on three success factors in agile projects. Due to a weak direct link between success factors and success criteria, conclusions are limited to a universally applicable impact on success factors. Further research is recommended to generate a universal checklist for success criteria in agile projects that can have a direct link to the identified success factors.