A particular strength of agile approaches is that they move away from
'introverted' development and intimately involve the customer in all areas of
development, supposedly leading to the development of a more innovative and
hence more valuable information system. However, we argue that a single
customer representative is too narrow a focus to adopt and that involvement of
stakeholders beyond the software development itself is still often quite weak and
in some cases non-existent. In response, we argue that current thinking regarding
innovation in agile development needs to be extended to include multiple
stakeholders outside the business unit. This paper explores the intra-organisational
applicability and implications of open innovation in agile systems development.
Additionally, it argues for a different perspective of project management that
includes collaboration and knowledge-sharing with other business units, customers,
partners, and other relevant stakeholders pertinent to the business success
of an organisation, thus embracing open innovation principles.
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