| 2026 | |
| [1] | , "Onboarding Newcomers in Large-Scale Agile Projects: A Multiple Case Study", In e-Informatica Software Engineering Journal, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 260110, 2026.
DOI: 10.37190/e-Inf260110. Download article (PDF)Get article BibTeX file |
Authors
Pavithra Herath, Muhammad Ovais Ahmad, Tomas Gustavsson
Abstract
Context: Large-scale agile (LSA) is inherently characterized by socio-technical complexities (e.g., system dependencies, extensive cross-team coordination, and distributed organizational structures). Onboarding of newcomers is a critical challenge in LSA environments and it remains underexplored compared to small-scale agile settings.
Objective: Our study aims to investigate the onboarding processes and challenges within LSA projects.
Method: In this exploratory qualitative study, we conducted 41 semi-structured interviews across four Swedish software companies.
Results: We identified onboarding issues that result in negative outcomes, such as cognitive overload, psychological safety constraints, and cross-team collaboration hurdles. These factors create steep learning curves and knowledge deficiencies that contribute to long-term socio-technical debt.
Conclusions: We provide actionable recommendations for practitioners to improve their onboarding processes. In particular, we recommend designing competency-based rather than time-based onboarding plans, expanding social integration through structured cross-team exposure, and addressing the gap between textbook agile and real-world LSA practices through explicit expectation setting.
Keywords
onboarding, agile, large-scale agile, social debt, process debt, people debt, knowledge debt, organizational debt
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