The influence of the participation in Trello on teamwork quality, team performance and team members success of bachelor students completing a project in agile teams

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Introduction

The agile approach could be defined as a set of project management practices that emphasize adaptability to changes and frequent communications and collaboration between the team members within the project (Љpundak, 2014). The agile approach relies on the creativity of the team members (Dybе&Dingsшyr, 2008), who also have greater control over and responsibility for the project outcome (Sweeney & Cifuentes, 2010). Agile teams are flat and flexible that enables them to continuously adjust to the changing circumstances and make improvements to the project (Serrador& Pinto, 2015). During the last decade, the approach has been actively implemented in various spheres, from software engineering, where the concept of agile development originated, to higher education (Gonзalves, Duarte, dos Reis, &Baranauskas, 2017; Masood, Hoda, &Blincoe, 2018). The annual state of agile report (2019) states that only a quarter of companies that have adopted agile practices operate in the technology industry. The remaining 75% of companies implementing agile principles work in financial services (19%), professional services (10%), insurance (8%), government (6%), healthcare and pharmaceuticals (6%), telecommunications (4%), and many other industries all over the world. Thus, the agile approach has been becoming increasingly widespread among companies of various size, specialization, and geographical location (“Annual state of agile report”, 2019).

The agile approach has come to be highly effective and convenient in managing projects. For example, agile teams have been found to increase efficiency within the team and stakeholder satisfaction with the final result (Serrador& Pinto, 2015), teamwork quality, and project results of agile teams (Lindsjшrn, Sjшberg, Dingsшyr, Bergersen, &Dybе, 2016). The agile approach also provides necessary support if there is a need to accelerate the delivery of the final product. It helps in guiding a team in a dynamic environment with constantly changing business priorities (Ciric et al., 2019). What is more, the agile approach also facilitates a collaboration opportunity between business and its customers, through knowledge sharing and motivation to achieve the goals they both are invested in. This humanistic approach contributes to an increase in the effectiveness of product development (Law & Charron, 2005). Additionally, as there is an increasing pressure from the society and government on organizations to become more sustainable, responding quickly to the needs of the external environment and quick communication and coordination in adopting flexible approaches is vital for companies to mediate the effects of its business on the environment. Consequently, the agile approach and proven to be effective in managing the environmental impact of products or services of an organization (Bouguerra, Gцlgeci, Gligor, &Tatoglu, 2019).

Given the widespread of the agile approach, researchers attempt to identify factors that can potentially influence an agile team's productivity and collaboration capacity (Serrador& Pinto, 2015). Coordination, cohesion, and communication within the agile team have been identified as crucial effectiveness factors (e.g., (Acuсa, Gуmez, & Jurist, 2009; de O. Melo, Cruzes, Kon, &Conradi, 2013; Strode, Huff, Hope, & Link (2012). Many online tools have been created to enable the workflow within agile teams (Calefato& Ebert, 2019) including several software applications like Agilean, JIRA, Trello, Pivotal Tracker, and VersionOne (Paul & Holt, 2019). Most of the existing agile software tools (64%) are based on Scrum principles; 14% of the agile tools are built on other hybrid approaches; 8% of them are developed from the so-called Scrumban approach, a mixture between the Scrum and Kanban. Other agile methodologies which are the basis of agile programs include Kanban (5%), iterative development (3%), Lean Startup (2%), Extreme Programming (1%), and other methods. All mentioned above agile software applications have different types of agile methods in their roots. However, in their core, they have the same principles that make the tools compatible, comparable and usable for similar purposes (e.g. daily and weekly briefings, short- and long-term planning, review, etc.) (“Annual state of agile report”, 2019). Empirical studies examining applications of these tools in agile teams are limited. For example, only one empirical study could be found for Pivotal Tracker (Guerrero et al., 2019), VersionOne (Uy& Rosendahl, 2008), and Visual Studio Team Services (Kochhar, Swierc, Carnahan, Sajnani, & Nagappan,2018). Most of these studies are descriptive accounts on the use of these software and their perceived benefits. How these software programs impact the bottom-line or performance and effectiveness of agile teams remains unknown. This gap in knowledge is regretful. Understanding if and how these software applications impact agile team performance and effectiveness could help managers and organizations make informed decisions about the use of these software applications.

To address this gap, one of these programs, Trello, was chosen for several reasons. First, it has already been studied by other authors (e.g., do Espirito Santo Saraiva, de Oliveira Rodrigues, Zaidan, &Parreiras, 2018; Gonзalves et al., 2017; Han, Rhee, & Cho, 2018; Horvбth, 2019; Streule, Miserini, Bartlomй, Klippel, & de Soto, 2016), so this prior research could inform this study. Second, the interface and structure of the software are highly flexible and changeable so that it could meet almost any demand of any user. Third, Trello, unlike four other agile software tools, was created for the more inexperienced users who do not have an in-depth understanding of software development and programming. Final, Trello could be applied not only to software development, but also to many other spheres of work and study (Kalizhanova, Ibrayeva, &Ishmuratova, 2018).

The existing research on Trello focuses on its usefulness in managing the workload in certain project-specific situations such as international project support (de Castro, Szegedi, Tуth, &, Cardoso, 2017), the philosophy debates coordination (Gonзalves et al., 2017), electronic resources management (Gould, 2018), legal team workflow management (Minchew, 2015), teacher professional development support (Parsons, Thorn, Inkila, & MacCallum, 2018), and social media management (Paul & Holt, 2019). In other words, Trello has been reported to be useful or convenient for agile teams, but no empirical study has shown its impact on agile team performance.

This research aims to examine how participation in Trello of members of agile teams impacts teamwork quality, team performance, and team members' success.

1. How does participation in Trello influence teamwork quality?

2. How does participation in Trello influence team performance?

3. How does participation in Trello influence team members' success?

4. How does teamwork quality influence the success of team members' and team performance?

Several objectives have to be met to reach the research aim:

1. to examine literature about Trello, agile teams, teamwork quality, team performance, and team members' success;

2. to develop the methodology of the research in detail (questionnaire);

3. to set the usage of Trello as one of the mandatory activities during a project in the chosen context;

4. to analyze received data and construct a model using appropriate variables;

5. to draw conclusions about the effect of the participation in Trello.

The study was situated in an institution of higher education (IHE) in Russia that incorporates agile projects into the curricular. Universities across the globe are searching for ways to enhance their program curricular to provide students with experiences that could foster their transition from school to work (Donald, Ashleigh, & Baruch, 2018; McMurray, Dutton, McQuaid, & Richard, 2016). Work-related knowledge and skills increase student chances to meet expectations of their future employers (Van der Heijde et al., 2019) and to be interviewed, hired and offered a competitive salary (e.g., Carnevale & Hanson, 2015; Liu, Wang, Liao, & Shi, 2014). By incorporating agile projects into program curricular, universities, including Northern Arizona University, Cornell University, and Zurich University, hope to equip students with knowledge and skills needed to successfully transition into the workplace and increase their employability (Holvikivi, 2019; Pimonova, 2020).

The research questions in this study would allow elaboration on the influence of the participation in Trello on teamwork quality, team performance, and team members' success, as well as facilitate further research on this topic. However, the study would not be aimed at studying the effect of Trello on any other concepts, thus limiting the scope of the research. An online questionnaire was distributed among members of agile teams to collect data. Nevertheless, there was a possibility that some respondents choose not to fill out the questionnaire, thus exposing the study to the risk of having insufficient data for the statistical analysis. Additionally, some respondents may misinterpret and, consequently, incorrectly answer the questions regarding their team affiliation, thus making the identification and of their answers nearly impossible.

The novelty of the work is determined by the absence of in-depth research regarding the positive effects of project management software applications on corresponding skills, as well as research devoted to the usage of Trello in the project management environment. The area of software applications for project management can be practically beneficial both in IHE and work context. Detailed research of this issue could increase the number of spheres that use both the agile approach and software applications like Trello. Therefore, this study could contribute to agile management in organizations, software developers, and IHEs that adopt agile projects in teaching.

The structure of the thesis corresponds with the abovementioned research objectives. The first part (the literature review) is theoretical and devoted to the study of existing research on agile principles, teams operating in agile environments, use of the agile approach in higher education and factors contributing to their successful performance. Moreover, there is a detailed review of applications used in an agile approach to project management, including Trello. Also, the concepts that are going to be studied in the paper would be overviewed in this part. The second part is methodological and consists of the description of online questionnaires as a method for conducting data collection as well as analysis of the data using Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The third part is about the results of the analyzed data received from the questionnaires and the Trello usage. Lastly, the last part speculates about theoretical and practical implications and the conclusions of the thesis are drawn.

1. Literature review

For several years, agile practices in managing projects have been highly regarded in many fields (Gonзalves et al., 2017; Masood et al., 2018). Several software applications based on the principles have been developed, one of which is Trello (Paul & Holt, 2019). However, the influence of the participation in the application on teamwork quality, team performance, and team members' success is not sufficiently studied. In this section of the paper, the existing research on the topic will be discussed, and the gap in the literature will be identified.

The basic concepts to be defined regarding project management are the project management methodology and project management approach. According to Cockburn (2000), the first one is a set of roles, skills, tools, techniques, processes, standards, quality measures, and team values used to deliver a specific project. The methodology is attributed with certain functions and goals, but more important is that it is defined by the underlying approach, which consists of guiding principles determining how the project is managed and executed (Iivari, Hirschheim& Klein, 2000).

With the spread of software development, a certain fraction of present studies considers and emphasizes the differences between two aggregated project management approaches, the traditional one and the agile project management approach (Љpundak, 2014; Dybе&Dingsшyr, 2008). The traditional approach adopted the principles formulated in the 1950s. It is based on the idea that all projects are easily decomposed and predicted. What is more, they have clear boundaries and thus could be delivered via unified processes, procedures, and extensive planning (Boehm, 2002). Consequently, the primary goal of the traditional project management approach is to follow the initially developed plan and achieve the predetermined goals most efficiently, according to time and budget constraints (Љpundak, 2014). Although the thoroughness and unification are stressed as the major advantages of this approach, simultaneously, they are widely discussed as its main constraints. Among the main reproaches is the inability of the traditional approach to properly account for the rising complexity of the tasks, their interconnections and more complex structure of the projects in the context of a dynamically changing environment. Thus, the traditional approach cannot provide the opportunity to make adjustments to the initial plan in order to adapt to the continually changing project and business environment (Collyer, Warren, Hemsley, & Stevens, 2010; Serrador& Pinto, 2015; Љpundak, 2014).

The mentioned reproaches combined with the growing demand for continuous innovations resulted in the development of new project management approaches, among which the most commonly used today is the agile approach (Љpundak, 2014). As opposed to the traditional approach, agile project management relies not only on upfront planning but rather on individuals and their creativity in order to confront the unpredictable environment (Dybе&Dingsшyr, 2008). The agile approach is designed in a way to facilitate greater flexibility and adaptation to the changing environment, through less initial planning, iterative processes, customer interaction, and flexible scope of the project. However, this does not imply that the agile approach, for instance, neglects the stage of planning as a part of project development. On the contrary, in many cases, the agile approach involves more planning activities overall. However, those activities are distributed throughout the entire development process, rather than taking place in the initial phase of the project (Serrador& Pinto, 2015).

Agile planning is multi-levelled, and various tasks are prioritized as the cycle of the project progresses further. Besides, the agile approach requires a self-managed team of approximately 5-7 people that are able to estimate the effort needed to complete a particular feature of the project. Consequently, this aspect of the agile approach allows for the team to obtain full responsibility of a project's outcome and minimize formal processes within management hierarchy, hence, allowing a more flexible nature for establishing continuous improvement process (Sweeney & Cifuentes, 2010).

The agile approach to project management has been gaining popularity in the software development field for some years now. More recently, companies with no relation to the information technology sphere started introducing it to their work environment, and there is a growing need to assess what can potentially influence an agile team's productivity and collaboration capacity (Serrador& Pinto, 2015).

The subject of introducing agile methods to the work routine has been widely discussed in the scientific community in terms of effectiveness and more natural change introduction in comparison to more traditional approaches to work planning. Moreover, agile practices have been shown to increase efficiency within the team and stakeholder satisfaction with the final result. An agile team is also more likely to reach the goal set at the beginning stage of the project (Serrador& Pinto, 2015).

It is discussed, that in an agile team, the effectiveness is achieved through mutual knowledge-sharing and encouraging each member to participate in tasks and take responsibilities connected to leadership. Wherein in the traditional approach to project management, the role of leadership function is strongly associated with one person (Moe, Dingsшyr&Dybе, 2010). There is also a difference between the way coordination effectiveness is achieved in agile teams compared to traditional ones. In an agile team, coordination effectiveness is achieved through mutual communication within the team with every member involved actively in the process of sharing comprehensive knowledge about the project goal, priorities, and current tasks. In contrast, in a traditional team, the coordination would typically be achieved through one key figure, such as a team leader (Strode, Hope, Huff & Link, 2011).

Research showed that factors related to the organization of the team (e.g. a turnover rate and team design) have an impact on the productivity and overall result of the agile. What is more, the importance of the team coordination and absence of delays between project stages, as well as the use of proper interfaces needed to be highlighted (de O. Melo et al., 2013). According to Acuсa et al. (2009), a high level of social interaction between members of an agile team is also essential for the early stages of project development. The authors also discuss the interdependency and cohesion between the members of a project group. Besides, the importance of team members' satisfaction during the interactions on the overall quality of the final product is considered.Strode et al. (2012) had developed a theoretical model of coordination between the team members in the software development sphere. The research shows that effective coordination can help accommodate constant project change which is one of the requirements when working in an agile environment. Supporting the coordination and collaboration of an agile team, various tools in the online environment are used. Calefato and Ebert (2019) group them into three categories that include tools for communication, workspace, and life cycle of a project. Communication tools include conferencing systems and platforms that allow collaboration in the forms of screen sharing, instant messaging and others. Workspace tools are intrinsically complex knowledge management systems, while the last category has tools providing support for the product's lifecycle management. Another method for agile team organization utilizes self-organized roles and is discussed in the article by Hoda, Noble, and Marshall (2013). Roles included are mentor, coordinator, translator, etc., which are vital in guiding the group members, implement various organizing techniques and ensuring team coordination. Authors claim that understanding of these roles enables group members to incorporate agile methods in their work process fully.

Additionally, the study by Lindsjшrn et al. (2016) showed that teamwork quality that includes team's coordination, cohesion and communication ability, as well as a balance of each member contribution effects team's satisfaction with the work process and the overall success of the project. However, no correlation between teamwork quality and project success was found when surveying product owners' perception of agile team performance. All in all, several factors can potentially influence the agile team's productivity and performance, including the ability to coordinate and communicate efficiently to avoid delays between project stages. Notably, an appropriate approach to the team's organization can raise each member's satisfaction and improve the final result.

Due to the turbulence in the global economy and rapid technological advances, work-related projects have become significantly more complex and fast-paced, leading to work exhaustion and lowered job satisfaction (Venkatesh, Thong, Chan, Hoehle, &Spohrer, 2020). Additionally, employees and their teams experience a high workload, a constant pressure to deliver an outstanding result, and the need to deliver goods and services of consistent quality. In agile teams, however, the workload is more evenly distributed among its members and over the project timeline, which helps to reduce the work strain of each group member (Tuomivaara, Lindholm, &Kдnsдlд, 2017). Consequently, the well-being of individuals, who maintain awareness of the agility within their team and use high perceived agile work principles, is higher than that of a team using low agile principles. This difference is due to the loose planning practices and the absence of a structured approach to progress checking in teams using low agile principles. Besides, professionals working in agile teams have been reported to have a significantly lower role conflict and role ambiguity within the team. It allows for more control on an individual level. It contributes to the development of project management skills, which, in turn, increases employee job satisfaction (Tripp, Riemenschneider, & Thatcher, 2016).

There is, however, a concern that the agile approach in virtual teams can serve as a disruptive element in team communication and collective decision-making practices due to the increased flexibility and versatility of its planning methods. Team members could experience feelings of stress and difficulty in knowledge sharing when using an agile approach to the work routine because of the sense of heightened uncertainty and a more unstructured approach, compared to the traditional project management (Ghobadi &Mathiassen, 2016). Therefore, there is a need to understand and address the concerns of each individual involved in the project. Furthermore, it is necessary to assess the level of team members' social communication skills, their willingness to comply with their role in the project, and their experience in self-organization and quick adaptation to continually changing environment (Venkatesh et al., 2020).

As it was discussed previously, there is a growing need to adopt agile practices in companies that are operating in an increasingly volatile environment for instance, the software development industry. A similar trend can be traced in the field of education and, especially, in IHE (Macheridis, 2018). Higher education is also influenced by turbulent environmental and political changes, such as the increasing competition at the international level and the growing need to provide practical skills later applicable to students' professional activities. Therefore, IHEs seek ways to adjust their organizational processes to dynamically changing realities (Philbin, 2017). IHE differ from private sector companies due to their overly formalized and standardized structure and numerous institutional policies and regulations, that is a risk factor for the agile approach implementation (Macheridis, 2018). Also, the general rigidity of academic standards poses a threat to some of the possible aims of the agile approach, for instance, the reduction in the amount of documentation and bureaucratic procedures present at the various stages of the project (Philbin, 2017).

The agile approach can be beneficial for administrative or operational activities of a university and in projects such as complex research projects initiatives, admissions and tuitions procedures, and various scientific events, and competitions (Holvikivi, 2019). There is no universal and well-established way of introducing the agile approach into the university settings, and it is possible to choose from an array of possible solutions to its introduction into academia (Philbin, 2017). Consequently, when adopting the agile practices, IHEs should consider solutions where flexibility, usually inherent in agile techniques, is combined with a properly defined structural approach, so as not to disrupt the already established core operational processes. Therefore, it is recommended to use an approach that in itself encapsulates both flexibility and structure, creating a dynamic complexity (Riol&Thuillier, 2015).

The agile approach has also been introduced into teaching activities and student projects, becoming an emerging trend, especially in Information Technology and Software Engineering fields. The demand for more flexible and practically oriented teaching activities is emerging in other fields as well, and respected IHE, such as Northern Arizona University and Cornell University, are beginning to introduce them into their curriculum (Pimonova, 2020). As task complexity in the industry continue to grow, and young professionals need to understand the whole process of developing a finished product, the agile approach to project management proves to be useful in the education process (Holvikivi, 2019). Additionally, there is a need to educate students not only by providing theoretical knowledge, but also by deepening their experience in interpersonal communication, team collaboration, and soft skills (Chassidim, Almog, & Mark, 2018). Introducing project-based learning with agile principles included, where students can use collaborative problem-solving techniques, into the curriculum, is a useful tool to prepare students for the start of their professional careers (Holvikivi, 2019). project management teamwork

Empirical evidence on the impact of student participation in agile projects on their learning has been mixed. For instance, a course on software engineering at Zurich University incorporated a project based on the agile approach. After the completion of the course, students reported that their understanding of project management practices in a dynamically changing environment has improved (Kropp & Meier, 2013). The agile approach has been shown to promote continuous improvement, intensive collaboration, improvement in team dynamics, and a chance to reflect on the work done in previous stages of a project. The approach also facilitates self-managed teams as well as self-managed learning, which is a valuable tool in the professional environment (Gannod, Troy, Luczaj, & Rover, 2015). However, in some cases, the use of the agile approach in the classroom has not been successful. According to Noguera, Guerrero-Roldбn, and Masу (2018), agile planning and regulation of group work in a university environment did not indicate any improvements in student learning or communication skills. There was, however, a slight improvement in the participants' online collaboration technique. In order to improve the application of agile approaches to university settings, it is vital to establish a way of minimizing inconvenient factors related to the academic environment. These factors are not in compliance with the agile principles and include difficulty in planning teams' working process that is caused by either conflicting timetables or multiple assignment deadlines (Masood et al., 2018). Before introducing agile principles into the educational project, students should receive a solid theoretical background not only in the subject itself but in agile techniques in project management. It would allow students to gain the most experience during the continuation of the actual project (Ochoa, Rodney, Towhidnejad, &Salamah, 2018).

Moderate-sized teams and the concept of teamwork are a crucial part of the agile approach to project management. Salas, Sims, and Klein (2004) refer to teamwork as “a set of interrelated thoughts, actions, and feelings that combine to facilitate coordinated, adaptive performance and the completion of taskwork objectives” (p. 497). When there is a transition from traditional to an agile approach in management, there is a need to recognize the difference in the agile teamwork processes compared to traditional ones, to evaluate further ways of improving efficiency and project success (Strode et al., 2012).

Multiple researchers have questioned the measurement and interpretation of the teamwork factor in an agile project management setting, as well as the effect of the team internal processes on team productivity and overall success of the projects (de O. Melo et al., 2013; Moe et al., 2010; Wood, Michaelides& Thomson, 2013). There are various models developed to explore the teamwork components and their contribution to the performance and effectiveness of the team. Moe et al. (2010) applied Dickinson and McIntyre's teamwork model to understand better how self-managed teams are organized and what barriers could be faced when introducing them. The model consists of seven elements: communication, coordination, team orientation, team leadership, monitoring, backup, and feedback. Issues in team coordination, orientation, and leadership led to a decrease in team effectiveness.

de O. Melo et al. (2013) also highlighted the importance of the group processes for teamwork effectiveness. The interactions of its members directly influence team performance. At the same time, the group processes overall act as a mediator between the team's fundamental characteristics and its productivity outcomes. Among the group processes that may affect the team productivity is the communication between the team members, coordination and allocation of the tasks, team cohesion and the processes of resolving the conflicts on one side, as well as the adherence to the people and teamwork-driven agile practices on the other. Wood et al. (2013) investigated the effect of team cohesion, cooperation, social support, and potency on the success of software teams. Only cooperation had a significant effect on the team's performance. The frameworks share similar components concerning teamwork concept. Communication, coordination, and team cohesion are used in virtually all the frameworks described above.

The teamwork quality model utilized in this study had been developed by Hoegl andGemuenden (2001) and consist of six subconstructs, including “communication, coordination, the balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort, and cohesion” (p. 440). The model was initially used for the evaluation of teamwork in traditional teams. The teamwork quality model was further adapted to account for the differences between traditional and agile development. Namely, subconstructs for the agile team take a different form described by Lindsjшrn et al. (2016). The change connected with transferring to the agile approach is consistent with all six subconstructs. It includes less formal communication, intensive mutual support and collaboration, absence of strong leadership, and regular meetings to support cohesion and balance each member's contribution to the project.

The traditional approach, in contrast, demands strong leadership and requires a hierarchy in management, as well as reports within that system that are formal. Consequently, the tools and task-setting are more valued in the traditional approach, wherein agile environment individuals, interrelations between them, and team experience are more important (Lindsjшrn et al., 2016). That is the reason why studying ways to enrich this experience, and better communication between team members could be significant for the productivity and success of the project. Nowadays, mobile applications play a significant role in maintaining connections of both professional and personal nature between individuals and there a vast number of applications for project management available, including Trello (Silvius & Silvius, 2015).

As teamwork had become an essential part of the modern workplace, a growing need to incorporate it into the higher education activities emerged (Lau, Kwong, Chong, & Wong, 2014). A typical pattern of project management throughout many organizations had, therefore, become to compose a project team by combining employees from different professional backgrounds. In order to help students to quickly adapt to a variety of possible workplace scenarios involving cooperation with workers of diversified backgrounds, some universities had integrated several teamwork activities into the students' curriculum (Chiriac, 2008). However, students may need extensive guidance to improve their teamwork skills along the process of introduction of such projects in university settings. A study by Lau et al. (2014), performed on groups of students in Hong Kong using the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (Loughry, Ohland, & Moore, 2007), had found that students generally recognized the need for effective communication and the acceptance of feedback concerning the performance of each group member in cooperative activities. However, they still held an untruthful opinion that a leader should be authoritative and rarely provided needed help to other team members.

Due to the growing need to implement projects requiring teamwork into the academic context, there had been some research done on the underlying team dynamics and team effectiveness, and how they relate to each other (Bravo, Catalбn, & Pina, 2019). A possible way to measure students' team effectiveness, in some research studies, is to measure satisfaction with the teamwork in a group because it is thought to be connected to the quality of the final project outcome, and improvement of skills needed in the workplace (Napier & Johnson, 2007). For instance, the study by Napier and Johnson (2007) explored factors that could improve team members' satisfaction with the teamwork. It was found that the three key factors that enhanced students' satisfaction with teamwork and, therefore, student learning outcomes, were work ethic, an equal contribution from all members, and the presence of team spirit. Another essential element that plays a part in effective teamwork is cohesiveness (Mьceldili&Erdil, 2015). In the study by Bravo et al. (2019), the presence of cohesiveness in a group of students played a crucial role during the process of teamwork in student groups. It had been found that individuals are prone to form a more cohesive team if they strive for cooperation and collaboration to be present during the working process. In turn, team cohesiveness had a positive influence on the group's satisfaction with its teamwork, and, on the overall team's effectiveness (Bravo et al., 2019).

Team-based learning concept is also used in postgraduate studies when there is an evident need to effectively transfer students' knowledge from theoretical concepts to developing practical skills in the workplace (Currey, Eustace, Oldland, Glanville, & Story, 2015). Students that participated in the study by Currey et al. (2015) reported that after the learning process which occurred in teams, their professional growth and acquisition of concepts critical to their profession accelerated due to the presence of critical thinking, engagement, and learning effectiveness that were components of teamwork activities.

In addition to Trello, there are a few agile-based software applications available online that serve a similar purpose. Several popular agile project management tools used by the companies and individuals include Agilean, JIRA, Pivotal Tracker, Trello, VersionOne, and Visual Studio Team Services (Цzkan& Mishra, 2019).

Agilean is an online cloud-based software for project and workflow management with the capacity to automate the process. The build-in boards allow users to set up, monitor and reflect on tasks, attach documents and compose analytical reports. Small and medium companies primarily use the software. While popular among users, it is not explored significantly by the researchers (Цzkan& Mishra, 2019).

JIRA is a web-based and cloud-based software that uses flexible boards to support all stages of project management (Marques, da Silva, & Ferreira, 2018). The tool allows users to visualize information about the project in the form of graphs, tables, and charts (Barriocanal, Sicilia, Sбnchez-Alonso, &Cuadrado, 2018). It is also possible to set deadlines and milestones using it (Цzkan& Mishra, 2019). The software has a widespread user community: it is primarily used by large companies all over the globe. (Fellhofer, Harzl, &Slany, 2015). It is free for non-profit organizations, charities, and open source projects only; governmental, religious, and academic institutions have to pay for access to the software (do Espirito Santo Saraiva et al., 2018).

JIRA is a relatively well-researched agile tool; several empirical and non-empirical studies of it has been done. For instance, it has been noted that the more software developers working in JIRA are polite, the more willing they are to keep working on a project and the less time correcting the issues takes (Destefanis et al., 2016; Ortu et al., 2015). Additionally, Friedman and Flaounas (2018) found out that the usability of the end product developed in JIRO would increase if there are frequent interactions between the designers and the client. The more time and efforts they spend on clarifying their inputs, the more effective the work and the higher is the usability. In the case of JIRA usage during the problem-based learning process, it was identified that due to the software various aspects of the activities, tasks and overall progress could be visible to both students and tutor. Thus, the understanding of the course progress in general and materials studied specifically was deeper (Barriocanal et al., 2018). What is more, the awareness support, providing the necessary and relevant information to the users, in JIRA is rather high (do Espirito Santo Saraiva et al., 2018).

Pivotal Tracker is an online software project management tool that is most commonly used in software development (Guerrero et al., 2019). The tool allows users to divide the project into smaller parts, arrange and prioritize these parts, and keep track of the project history with the help of boards. Additionally, it is possible to post, share, and distribute files and set up deadlines using the software. Free and paid versions of the tool are available to any user (Цzkan& Mishra, 2019). Unfortunately, there is a small number of research papers studying the tool. According to the findings from Guerrero et al. (2019), Pivotal Tracker along with the appropriately modified system for service level agreement could increase the users' commitment to the team and improve their self-evaluations about their team, making them more positive.

Trello is a popular online cloud-based software application designed to assist with project management. The application is used to visualize projects and tasks via customizable boards with movable lists and cards to which a user can add a checklist or a file (Streule et al., 2016). The tool could be integrated with other software like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. (Цzkan& Mishra, 2019). Trello is relatively well-research software, with a number of empirical and non-empirical papers analyzing the tool in different projects and environments.

Version One is an online project management application primarily applicable in a distributed environment. The flexible and changeable boards of the tool help users to integrate and visualize tasks, keep track of time, and add files if necessary. Free and paid versions with different pricing strategies are assessable for an individual or an organization (Цzkan& Mishra, 2019). There are few research papers about the application, and even fewer are empirical ones. For instance, Uy and Rosendahl (2008) completed a comprehensive comparative analysis of VersionOne and SharePoint, concluding that the former to be more time saving, reliable, functional, manageable, convenient and structuring alternative.

Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) is an online collaborative tool created by Microsoft Corporation that has modifiable boards (Kochhar et al., 2018). With the help of the software application, it is possible to trace the changes, handle code and text documents, and detect bugs in code. The basic version of the tool is free, but there are pricing options for users who are willing to pay for more functions and features (Цzkan& Mishra, 2019). VSTS is a barely researched agile software as well, with the minimal number of papers studying its usage. For example, Kochhar et al. (2018) in their paper presented the numerous reasons and patterns, difficulties and results of using the tool in a particular case and the general recommendations for those who would want to apply the VSTS in a different sphere.

In Table 1 below, the studies about the abovementioned software tools are listed and classified. The classification divides the research papers into two categories: the empirical and non-empirical ones. The only studies included are those that are written in English and accessible via the university e-library.

Table 1. The number of available empirical and non-empirical studies about selected agile project management tools in English

According to Table 1, up to date, there is a highly limited number of papers devoted to the usage of agile-based software applications despite their widespread use by various institutions and organizations. Additionally, most of the papers are non-empirical ones, those that are based on previous studies or not data-driven at all. Thus, there is a need to carry out more empirical studies about the agile applications and the ways they could influence the project, team or individual team members.

Trello is a cloud-based software application designed to assist with project management in various spheres and organizations (Minchew, 2015; Ostergaard, 2016; Paul & Holt, 2019). Trello, being a collaborative tool, allows users to organize and visualize information in a hierarchically structured board (de Castro et al., 2017; Gonзalves et al., 2017; Parsons et al., 2018). It is possible to add to the board one free power-up: an additional function like calendar, voting, etc. or other software like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. The board consists of several movable lists, each of which could have a title specifying the content of the list (Gould, 2018; Paul & Holt, 2019). The lists are completed with multiple movable cards which could include a wide range of data: textual information, attached files, assigned users, colour-coded labels, checklists, time-stamped comments, and deadlines (Gonзalves et al., 2017; Minchew, 2015; Ostergaard, 2016).

Besides, there are different options for the board's visibility selection: public, private, and organization. The former option does not restrict the viewing of the board, it is visible for everyone via the link or the search engines like Google, Bing, etc., but editing is permitted only for the board members. The latter option makes the board visible to all of the employees of the organization; however, only added members of a particular board could change it. The private option allows only added members to see and edit the board (Minchew, 2015).

While all of the features as mentioned earlier, are available for free, there is a possibility to purchase a premium version of the application, Business Class (Paul & Holt, 2019). The upgrade allows users to have an unlimited number of team boards, adds advanced administrative control and tighter security measures, removes the limit on power-ups, and increases the limit on the attachment files from 10 MB to 250 MB per file (Gould, 2018; Minchew, 2015).

Multiple scientific papers investigate the usage of Trello in various projects in different spheres. Trello was used to manage social media (Paul & Holt, 2019), to support teacher professional development (Parsons et al., 2018), to manage electronic resources (Gould, 2018; Ostergaard, 2016), to support Up to University international project (de Castro et al., 2017), to manage the workflow of a legal team (Minchew, 2015), and to coordinate preparations for the philosophy debates (Gonзalves et al., 2017).

The authors managed to highlight several benefits of the application applicable to managing different projects. The flexibility of the access to the software is one of the most prominent advantages: a person could use Trello by downloading the mobile application or by going to the desktop or mobile version of a website (Gonзalves et al., 2017). Another significant benefit of Trello is its ease of use; the simplistic and comprehensive interface of the software requires minimal learning time (Ostergaard, 2016). Many researchers point out that the ability to visualize the progress of each task and the overall workflow of the project using Trello assists tremendously to the process of project management (Paul & Holt, 2019). Detailed planning and monitoring, time management and accountability of the processes and the progress of the project are claimed to be a notable benefit as well (Gould, 2018; Minchew, 2015). Last but not least, Trello provides an opportunity even for agile teammates who would never have an opportunity to meet in person to communicate, coordinate their efforts, and collaborate on a project (Parsons et al., 2018; Paul & Holt, 2019).

Nevertheless, despite seemingly numerous advantages of Trello in various aspects, the degree of reliability of the articles mentioned above conclusions might not be particularly high. First of all, in some articles, the data collection and analysis producers were not specific and detailed enough. Secondly, all of the articles evaluated rather general concepts like the ease of use, coordination, planning, etc. without a deep and thorough investigation of them (like detailed literature review). Finally, the cases of application and analysis of Trello were rather specific, thus making generalization of the results difficult.

The purpose of this research is to study the influence of participation in Trello during a project on teamwork quality, team performance, and team members' success of bachelor students completing a project in agile teams. In order to reach it, the impact of the students' activity in Trello on each of the concepts and the variables they are composed of has to be examined. Additionally, the mutual influence of the concepts is to be studied as well. Those particular concepts were selected for the study as their connections with the agile team setting, and one another could be validated.

Teamwork quality is a complex concept that helps to evaluate the interactions within a team and consists of six other variables. It has been tied especially closely with the team members' success and team performance of both traditional and agile projects. Multiple researchers have studied teamwork quality in traditional projects' settings (Hoegl&Gemuenden, 2001). A fewer number of studies have investigated teamwork quality in regards to the projects of agile teams. It was found that in the project environment where the agile principles are applied teamwork quality is rather high (Freire, Perkusich, Saraiva, Almeida, &Perkusich, 2018; Lindsjшrn et al., 2016). However, it has been noted that the levels of the teamwork quality vary both in agile and traditional teams if the spheres, types or sizes of the projects studied are different. In the case of some projects, teamwork quality is higher in agile teams, while for the other projects, the difference between agile and traditional teams is insignificant (Lindsjшrn et al., 2016). In this research paper, Trello, a software application which creates an agile environment during the project, is studied during the educational project in the sphere of human resources management. Therefore, the following hypothesis is formulated:

H1: Participation in Trello positively influences teamwork quality.

Another concept, team performance, is composed of two variables, effectiveness and efficiency, and reflects how well the team meets the required by the project initiator objectives (time, costs, quality, etc.). As stated above, team performance is positively associated with teamwork quality (Hoegl&Gemuenden, 2001). Team performance has already been researched in many kinds of spheres (psychology, software development, management science, etc.) and both traditional and agile teams (Dingsшyr&Lindsjшrn, 2013). According to the paper by Schmidt, Kude, Heinzl, and Mithas (2014), the agile environment has a positive effect on the team performance of the software development teams. However, it is unclear whether the effect would remain in case of a project in a different sphere. Thus, there is the hypothesis:

H2: Participation in Trello positively influences team performance.