The Effects of Modularity on Effective Communication and Collaboration

In this article we explore the consequences associated with a lack of coordination between the requirements engineering process and the development process. We conduct a detailed case study of an ICT department of a large European bank that develops software using the agile software development method. Our current study reveals that the application of a modular organizational design in a dynamic agile environment has a negative effect on the communication and coordination between members of different modules. More specifically, the modular design creates both a semantic and a pragmatic boundary among members of different modules, which is primarily caused by the fact that modules have differentiated tasks and often misaligned interests.