What Remains from Covid-19? Agile Software Development in Hybrid Work Organization: A Single Case Study

Context: The Covid-19 pandemic led to a comprehensive transformation of how organizations operate and people work. Many companies, especially in the software development area, sent their employees to work from home in order to contain the spread of the virus. Nowadays, after two years of the pandemic, the companies introduce new regulations concerning the work organization for their employees. We notice a high variety of work organization types in practice, like work from home, work from anywhere, onsite work or mixed approaches. While some organizations integrated approaches like work from anywhere, others specify rules for part-time organizations onsite and work from home. This situation leads to new challenges for agile software development teams, as the agile practices in use are originally designed for onsite work and focusing on social aspects like collaboration. Also, the adaptions of specific agile practices due to the remote work during Covid-19 by the teams may do not cover the new circumstances of hybrid (distributed) work settings, while some team members work from home, others onsite in the office. Method: We conducted a quantitative survey in two agile software development teams in one company operating in a work from anywhere setting. Results: The results of this study show that the team members prefer to work remotely in future. However, some team members also want to work one or two days per week onsite in the office. This heterogeneous preferences of the workplace will lead to hybrid work organization and thus, to new challenges and advantages for agile software development team members. Conclusion: Based on our results, we discuss the needs of agile software development teams working in hybrid settings concerning equipment in the office, new software tools supporting the agile approach in use and the adaption of agile practices. Furthermore, we provide practical implications related to the need for sustainable flexibility on employee side concerning selecting the workplace.