Master's Thesis Marco Psotta

Investigating Leadership in Communities of Practices in the Context of Large-Scale Agile Software Development

Abstract

The adoption of agile methods within large organizations creates new challenges related to knowledge sharing and coordination across multiple teams. Communities of Practice (CoPs) have emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges by facilitating cross-team knowledge exchange, fostering alignment, and enabling continuous learning throughout the organization.

The success of CoPs is closely linked to the overall role of its leadership. In this context, the leadership role within CoPs carries significant responsibility for the community’s functioning and to provide an environment that is both supportive and challenging. However, this role in large-scale agile environments remains underexplored in current research.

This thesis aims to address this gap by examining how leadership in CoPs differs from classical leadership approaches, particularly in terms of leadership styles, characteristics, behaviors, and underlying principles. The study is based on a structured literature review and a quantitative between-subject survey in which participants choose either a classical or a CoP leadership perspective to answer the questionnaire. The results help to better understand the role and importance of CoP leadership in large-scale agile environments.

Research Questions

RQ1: What are the leadership styles, characteristics and behaviors of CoP leadership in large-scale agile environments, and how do they differ from leadership in traditional CoPs and agile organizational settings?

RQ2: What is the impact of leadership on the success of CoPs in large-scale agile settings?