Lessons Learned on Communication Channels and Practices in Agile Software Development

Communication plays an important role in Agile Software Development (ASD). In each ASD practice (e.g., stand-up or retrospective meetings), different communication practices and channels are adopted by different companies. Several works have analyzed the impact of communication channels and practices. However, there are no secondary studies summarizing their impact on ASD. This study presents a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) that aggregates, summarizes, and discusses the results of 25 relevant primary studies concerning the impact of communication channels and practices in ASD. We followed the well-known systematic mapping methodology in software engineering and analyzed empirical studies published before the end of June 2018. The results of our study have yielded several strategies that can be adopted by practitioners. Communication practices are context dependent. In the case of a distributed team, blended usage of rich-media communication tools, such as shared mind-map tools, videoconferencing, and promoting the exchange of team members between teams, is beneficial. In conclusion, communication can be expensive if teams do not apply the right strategies. Future research direction is to understand how to maximize product quality while reducing communication cost and how to identify the most beneficial communication strategy for the different stages of ASD.