Developing the Agile IS Development Practices in Large-Scale IT Projects: The Trust-Mediated Organizational Controls and IT Project Team Capabilities Perspectives

This paper is based on multiple case studies on the construction of the Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3 in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games that investigated the processes of instilling agile IS development practices in large-scale IT projects. This study develops useful theoretical constructs that will help researchers and practitioners who wish to learn about agile IS development practices as developed in large-scale IT projects. Adopting a contingent view, the authors uncover four factors that are critical in this development processes, namely: project uncertainty profile and project completion urgency; IT project team capabilities; organizational control mechanisms; and trust relationships among the IT project team, the vendors, and the users. They posit that the interplay between the IT project team capabilities and the trust-mediated organizational control mechanisms forms the theoretical basis that defines agile IS development practice in large-scale IT projects. They argue that their findings provide insights to practitioners who are attempting to introduce agile IS development practices into any large-scale IT project.