A Guide To Study The Underlying Research Of Columinity
Study the academic research, explore the tool, and learn everything you need to know to start.
Based on the latest scientific research, Columinity (formerly Scrum Team Survey) is a pioneering tool to help teams improve where it matters most. It’s your evidence-based companion for continuous improvement. It highlights performance patterns on multiple levels and illuminates how to move forward.
We defined five steps to get the most out of Columinity:
We strongly recommend all users to follow these steps. They prove to increase the chances of successful usage of the tool drastically.
In this blog post, we describe step #1 — study the underlying research of Columinity. It’s also available as a workshop template via our Columinity interface. If there’s anything you’d like to know more about, always feel free to reach out!
Study The Paper “A Theory Of Agile & Scrum Team Effectiveness”
Opinions are easy, facts are not. This is why our questionnaires and their models are grounded in scientific research.
How can you make Agile teams more effective? While opinions are easy to find, finding evidence-based recommendations is much more challenging. Unfortunately, scientific research in this area is limited. So, we perform this research with academics, statisticians, and psychologists. We publish our results and data through peer-reviewed scientific journals to contribute to robust knowledge.
For seven years, we performed case studies and gathered data from over 5.000 Agile teams to develop a scientific model for Agile Team Effectiveness incrementally. We published a peer-reviewed scientific paper with Prof. Daniel Russo in the academic journal “Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology” (TOSEM).
We found:
- 75% of team effectiveness can be predicted from 5 core factors: responsiveness, stakeholder concern, continuous improvement, team autonomy, and management support. We identified 13 subfactors.
- Teams are more effective when they are responsive and focused on stakeholder needs.
- A climate of continuous improvement, high team autonomy, and clear support from management create a strong foundation for effective Agile teams.
The study was performed with data from Columinity. Read the academic paper here. We also published a non-technical summary.
Our model provides direction on assessing, diagnosing, and supporting Agile teams. It shows which areas are well-developed in teams and which need work. Our model offers a focus in a world where you often have thousands of options, approaches, and methods. We use the data to give you evidence-based suggestions on what to improve.
Other Scientific Publications
Based on Columinity's data, the following scientific publications have been written. Although studying them isn’t necessary for Columinity’s usage, it can help you understand why improving certain areas matters.
How does diversity impact team effectiveness?
This peer-reviewed study was conducted with Prof. Daniel Russo from the University of Aalborg. It will be published in the ACM's high-impact journal “Transactions on Software Engineering” (TSE).
- The effect of diversity on team effectiveness is complex. Age diversity has a small positive effect, and gender diversity slightly increases conflict. Diversity in role and cultural background seems insignificant.
- Diverse teams have more cognitive resources at the cost of (potentially) more conflict along diversity lines.
- The Categorization-Elaboration Model (CEM) is a great way to conceptually understand why diversity can have a positive *and* a negative effect on teams — a double-edged sword. It also helps us understand how to buffer against the negative effects.
- Psychological safety did not moderate the effect of diversity. However, it strongly predicted team effectiveness.
The study was performed with data from Columinity. Read the academic paper here. We also published a non-technical summary.
Research roadmap
- Publication of our peer-reviewed paper “Do Agile Scaling Approaches Make A Difference? An Empirical Comparison of Team Effectiveness Across Popular Scaling Approaches”.
- Publication of results from our study on psychological safety in the Agile community.
- Study on how teaming strategies and stability impact team effectiveness. Data collection is in progress.
- Study to include more outcome-oriented measures to our model for Agile team effectiveness. We also want to include more software-oriented factors, like product lifecycle management.
Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed on our ongoing scientific research efforts. We publish results, academic publications, and new research initiatives.
Explore The Tool Itself
Once you’ve studied the research, a good next step is to check the tool and see how the academic research is integrated.
You can access our demo environments to view a team report and see examples of insights, tips, and actions for one team. Also, check the “read-only” environment of the Teams Dashboard. This allows you to click around a bit and see how things work. We created the Teams Dashboard for organizations that use Columinity for multiple teams.
Finally, check the Coaching Center, which allows you to support multiple organizations or clusters of teams in one organization.
You can find demo environments here.
If you want to read more about the tool's functionality, the article “A Guide On How To Improve Your Team With Columinity” offers a quick tour of the core features and a facilitation guide for making your first experience enjoyable, fun, and productive.
Recommendation: Explore The Research Together
Explore the research simply on your own or together with your team, supporters, and stakeholders. If so, consider using the Liberating Structure “Conversation Cafe.” Conversation Café encourages people to listen and understand each other’s perspectives on a profound, shared topic or challenge instead of trying to convince or persuade others to see it your way.
Potential invitation to reflect on the research:
“When studying the academic paper, what stands out to you personally? What seems important to focus on? How does it relate to your own organization?”
Potential invitation to reflect on the factors:
“When studying the factors that determining Agile & Scrum team effectiveness, what factors seem the most meaningful and impactful based on your experience? Why? What personal experiences can you share about these factors?”
Closing Words: What’s Keeping You?
From experience, we know how hard it can be to drive continuous improvement in your team. There are often a thousand things to improve, but what will be most impactful? We are building Columinity to make this easier for you and your team. It’s free for individual teams. So give it a try and expand from there!
