How to stop new hires from drowning in complex software projects
A study of Swedish tech companies reveals that poor onboarding in large-scale agile environments causes new employees to become overwhelmed, struggle with cross-team coordination, and leave faster. The research provides concrete fixes that can reduce turnover and prevent costly cultural breakdowns in organizations managing complex software development.
Originaltitel: Onboarding newcomers in Large-scale Agile projects
<p>Large-scale agile (LSA) is inherently characterised by socio-technical complexities, including system dependencies, extensive cross-team coordination, and distributed organizational structures. Onboarding of newcomers is a critical challenge in such LSA environments. Prior research reported onboarding practices in agile projects; however, onboarding in LSA projects remain underexplored. We conducted 41 semi-structured interviews across four different companies in Sweden. Our results align with Bauer's model as applicable to LSA projects. We identified that poor onboarding in LSA projects results in cognitive overload, cross-team collaboration challenges and cultural sensitivity concerns, contributing to socio-technical debt. We provide actionable recommendations for practitioners to improve their onboarding processes.</p>