Enhancing IoT Project Success through Agile Best Practices

Worldwide spending on Internet of Things (IoT) applications is forecasted to surpass $1 trillion by 2022. To stay competitive in this growing technological industry segment, lowering costs while increasing productivity and shortening time-to-market will become increasingly important. Adopting Agile Software Development practices for IoT projects may provide this competitive advantage, as it enables organizations to respond to change, while being dynamic and innovative. Applying a mixed-methods approach, agile IoT practitioners around the world and from diverse industries were surveyed and interviewed. Our study recommends that Agile Software Development team makeup, practices, and methods should be tailored to the specific industry, culture, people, and IT application of an organization. People play an important role in the success of agile projects; therefore, our research focuses on identifying the critical attributes of agile teams to maximize success. Our study identified the five critical agile practices: Collective Code Ownership, Continuous Integration, Single Team, Dedicated Customer, and Sprint Planning and found that both technical and soft skills are essential for successful IoT development.