Exploring Customer Influence on the Agile Transformation of Service Providers

Transitioning to agile software development (ASD) practices is a long and difficult journey. Most existing literature assumes that agile transformation is solely the service provider's task, attributing only a passive role to the customer. This study explores customer influence on the agile transformation of service providers, based on an exploratory qualitative field study at a multinational Danish software firm. Our preliminary results show that a customer's risk tolerance and collaborative routines influence their service provider's transition to agile teamwork practices, planning routines, and customer involvement practices. We outline a conceptual model of customer-mediated agile transformation.