Towards understanding technical responses to requirements changes in agile teams

As a part of an extensive study focusing on how agile teams respond to requirements changes, we carried out a pilot study to understand the technical responses shown by agile practitioners to requirements changes. To the best of our knowledge, how agile teams respond technically to such changes has not yet been studied. We used a qualitative approach using Grounded Theory. Analysis of the interview data collected from ten agile practitioners in New Zealand and Australia resulted in identifying three stages where agile teams respond to requirements changes technically - while receiving, developing, and delivering changes. We found that even though agile practices do not recommend comprehensive documentation, in practice, the product owner defining a requirements change in detail was stated by the participants as the most common technical response. Developers conducting a technical feasibility study and negotiations among product owner and team when receiving a requirements change were the other most common technical responses. These show a tendancy to deviate from some agile practices in some specific situations.