Impacts of Generative AI on Agile Teams' Productivity: A Multi-Case Longitudinal Study

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Tomaz, Rafael, Guenes, Paloma, Araújo, Allysson Allex, Baldassarre, Maria Teresa, Kalinowski, Marcos
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Tomaz, Rafael
Guenes, Paloma
Araújo, Allysson Allex
Baldassarre, Maria Teresa
Kalinowski, Marcos
author_facet Tomaz, Rafael
Guenes, Paloma
Araújo, Allysson Allex
Baldassarre, Maria Teresa
Kalinowski, Marcos
contents Context: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools, such as GitHub Copilot and GPT tools, represent a paradigm shift in software engineering. While their impact is clear, most studies are short-term, focused on individual experiments. The sustained, team-level effects on productivity within industrial agile environments remain largely uncharacterized. Goal: This study aims to provide a longitudinal evaluation of GenAI's impact on agile software teams. We characterize its effect on developers' productivity by applying the multi-dimensional SPACE framework. Method: We conducted a multi-case longitudinal study involving 3 agile teams at a large technology consulting firm for around 13 months. We collected and compared quantitative telemetry (Jira, SonarQube, Git) and qualitative survey data from historical (pre-adoption) and research (post-adoption) sprints. Conclusion: GenAI tools can significantly improve team performance and well-being. Our key finding is a sharp increase in Performance and perceived Efficiency concurrent with flat developer Activity. This suggests GenAI increases the value density of development work, not its volume. This finding validates the necessity of multi-dimensional frameworks like SPACE to capture the true, nuanced impact of GenAI in situ, which would be invisible to studies measuring Activity alone.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_13766
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Impacts of Generative AI on Agile Teams' Productivity: A Multi-Case Longitudinal Study
Tomaz, Rafael
Guenes, Paloma
Araújo, Allysson Allex
Baldassarre, Maria Teresa
Kalinowski, Marcos
Software Engineering
Context: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools, such as GitHub Copilot and GPT tools, represent a paradigm shift in software engineering. While their impact is clear, most studies are short-term, focused on individual experiments. The sustained, team-level effects on productivity within industrial agile environments remain largely uncharacterized. Goal: This study aims to provide a longitudinal evaluation of GenAI's impact on agile software teams. We characterize its effect on developers' productivity by applying the multi-dimensional SPACE framework. Method: We conducted a multi-case longitudinal study involving 3 agile teams at a large technology consulting firm for around 13 months. We collected and compared quantitative telemetry (Jira, SonarQube, Git) and qualitative survey data from historical (pre-adoption) and research (post-adoption) sprints. Conclusion: GenAI tools can significantly improve team performance and well-being. Our key finding is a sharp increase in Performance and perceived Efficiency concurrent with flat developer Activity. This suggests GenAI increases the value density of development work, not its volume. This finding validates the necessity of multi-dimensional frameworks like SPACE to capture the true, nuanced impact of GenAI in situ, which would be invisible to studies measuring Activity alone.
title Impacts of Generative AI on Agile Teams' Productivity: A Multi-Case Longitudinal Study
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.13766