An Evaluation of The Role of Organizational Structure on Facilitating Agility in Software Development Companies: A Case Study of a Software Company

In the current era, organizations are trying to dynamically adapt themselves to rapid environmental changes. Since environmental changes have great influence on organizations, they should utilize appropriate solutions in order to survive in such competitive environment. One of the best methods of dealing with changing environment is forming agile organizations which are capable of being more effective in their work processes and operations. One of the first steps in forming an agile organization is the creation of an appropriate organizational structure.rnThe main objective of this study is to examine the impact of organizational structure on organizational agility. This lead the authors to identify and prioritize structural variables which facilitate organizational agility. By comprehensively studying relevant literature, the authors identified the most significant variables which could be utilized for measuring organizational structure. A group of experts investigated the identified variables in order to determine their priority in facilitating organizational agility. In the final step, the agility of one of the largest Iranian software development companies was assessed in relation to the identified organizational structure variables.rnThe results of the current research provides a set of practical guidelines for firms on becoming agile in the current competitive environment.