BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE AGILE IMPLEMENTATION IN INDIAN IT COMPANIES

Abstract

Agile development methodologies have gained huge popularity in the Indian IT sector as a way to facilitate flexibility, customer satisfaction, and overall effectiveness of software development. In spite of the popularity of frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP), most Indian IT companies still fail to gain the maximum benefit from Agile. The study identifies and discusses the most significant impediments to successful Agile implementation in Indian IT firms on the basis of primary and secondary data. The findings reveal that while Agile has unambiguous benefits like reduced delivery time, enhanced quality, and enhanced stakeholder collaboration, a number of in-house and external barriers deprive it of success. Primary barriers are: ● Organizational resistance to change, especially from the management unwilling to deviate from conventional models. ● Inadequate Agile awareness and training causing superficial adoption of Agile practices without embracing the mindset behind. ● Poor collaboration and communication across cross-functional teams due to hierarchical organizations and departmental silos. ● Minimal customer engagement throughout development cycles weakening the effectiveness of iterative feedback loops. ● Inadequate infrastructure and tooling support affecting the smooth implementation of Agile processes. The report asserts that if Agile must succeed in Indian IT firms, the companies must escape compliance with tools and ceremonies. They must invest in cultural transformation, leadership training, and ongoing learning. Suggestions range from building in-house Agile coach teams to making project objectives be aligned with customer value delivery and attaining bottom-up experimentation and flexibility cultures. This study serves as a valuable resource for Agile practitioners, managers, and policymakers aiming to enhance Agile maturity in India’s rapidly evolving IT landscape.