What is Agile, Which Practices are Used, and Which Skills are Necessary according to Brazilian Professionals: Findings of an Initial Survey

According to changes in the concept of quality of software products in recent years and in the profiles of professionals and customers, more and more companies prioritize agility and quality of their deliveries in order to meet their demands. A new way to guide the development of projects, which is adapted to this recent reality, is becoming increasingly popular in the IT market around the world: Agile methods. To maximize the benefits of adopting agile methods, professionals need to well understand their concepts. The goal of this study is to identify the understanding that IT professionals located in some influential IT capital in Brazil have about such methods, how and which agile practices are being used in practice, and, finally, what are the main skills professionals need to work with such methods. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted and results show that: there is a strong evidence that professionals have a good understanding of the fundamental values of agile methods, Scrum and XP are the most popular methods, and behavioral and cultural factors have higher influence over the difficulty of adopting agile than technical factors.