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

The additional issue to mention is the nature of the relationship between the TWQ and the team member's success concepts. The analysis using SEM revealed a strong significant effect of the former construct on the latter one, which might be explained by the robust positive correlations between the eight underlying investigated variables. This fact makes it practically difficult to distinguish the constructs and treat them as two separate latent constructs, although the theoretical distinction appears reasonable and justified. The other reason for this phenomenon might occur from the model misspecification concerning the structural relations between the concepts. While the direct relations between the introduced concepts still have the theoretical rationale, the mediating roles of the team member's success and the frequency of Trello usage might be beneficial to investigate.

The agile approach to project management has been becoming more popular in recent years. However, its implementation into the academic environment has not been as successful as into the companies in the private sector. Agile practices in universities face certain constraints due to their formalized and standardized structure and a significant number of bureaucratic processes within the organization. Nevertheless, there were some projects, mainly in Software Development field, that used the agile approach, and were successfully implemented in the academic environment (Holvikivi, 2019; Kropp & Meier, 2013; Philbin, 2017). These projects have shown to improve project management and communication skills, ability to work in a team, facilitate both self-managed learning and intense collaboration between team members. Therefore, it would be beneficial to implement agile practices not only in projects created for students studying Information Technology but in other academic fields as well (Chassidim et al., 2018; Gannod et al., 2015). The current study was dedicated to introducing agile practices and a specific application designed for agile project management into the HRM course of first-year Management students. The data analysis has supported hypotheses about the positive influence of Trello on team members' success and team performance. Thus, it is fair to assume that these practices have been proven to increase students' success with the task, and the overall performance of the team (based on the received grade). It could be recommended, therefore, that since these types of projects have potential in the academic environment, they should be further introduced to other courses and subjects within the university.

As to the companies and organizations operating in the private sector, the 13th Annual State of the Agile Report (2019) states that 42% of the companies using agile principles in their business operations seek to improve project visibility, 51% want to improve teams' productivity, and 43% need to improve the quality of the final product. A software application, designed as a structured board for project management in various spheres, e.g. Trello, may be able to aid in achieving a higher level of project visibility. Additionally, as Structural Equation Modelingin the study had shown, usage of Trello had a positive influence on team members' success and team performance, which could be interpreted as an opportunity to increase teams' results by using a software application like Trello. Considering the techniques employed in the companies that adopted agile practices, 80% of businesses state that they practice sprint planning, 57% do release planning, and 45% practice product road mapping(“Annual state of agile report”, 2019). As data analysis of Trello usage in this study has shown, the four most popular actions performed on Trello board by participants during the project: moving a card, making or deleting a comment, marking a checklist, and creating or changing a due dateThey are the tools that were used to work on a project to help in planning and visualizing steps to reach the final goal and could be valuable when introducing them into the most popular practices of the agile teams in the workplace mentioned above.

What is more, there is a highly limited number of empirical studies of the most popular agile-based software in general and Trello in specific. So far, there have been only 16 empirical research papers about the six most widespread agile applications and 5 about Trello (both in English). It could be stated that this paper makes a significant and valuable contribution to the field, taking into consideration this fact. Trello has been proved to be an effective tool to generate an agile environment that increases members' success and team performance of the students during a project. Therefore, the paper could be used as a part of the knowledge base about the agile software in general and further research of Trello specifically.

As to the future improvements and additional research that could be done on the topic, one idea is to eliminate time constraints by prolonging the amount of time given for the project. In that scenario, students would have more time to learn how to use Trello, learn more about agile methodology in general and ways it could be adapted in university. Overall, this would allow for a more conscious approach to the project for first-year students. Second, because there was no correlation found between Trello usage and teamwork quality, another area of future work would be creating a more complex project designed to last for a more extended period, to explore whether the teamwork quality in relation to the usage of project management application would change over time. What is more, it could be investigated, whether experience with project management and academic seniority are able to bring a difference to teamwork quality and Trello usage. It could be achieved, for instance, by implementing a course with agile practices for students doing postgraduate studies.

Additionally, it could be advisable to investigate the influence of Trello usage in the academic environment on other concepts which have not already been studied in the other very few empirical papers. For instance, team efficiency, project initiator satisfaction, speed of the final product's delivery, etc. during an agile project in Trello could be measured. Besides, it could be beneficial to study the influence of other agile applications on the teamwork quality, team performance and members' success in a similar environment to establish whether the usage of one or another agile tool impacts the research results. Finally, it could also be beneficial to look at the project from different perspectives. As the agile approach is utilized in project management of various organizations, a study could be conducted into an implementation of a collaborative project between a company and university, where students would receive a grade and feedback not only from a professor but also from a professional from an organization facilitating the project.

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Appendix 1

Official project description

Name: HR Solution

Goal: The goal of the project is for students to gain experience of working in agile teams to explore a key HR process using Trello.

Focus: One of the following HR processes:

Recruitment and Selection (R&S) or Training & Development (T&D).

Time frame: 3,5 weeks from the project introduction to the project results presentation. (The week of April 6 -the week of April 27, 2020). Students are expected to start working on the project on the first day of the module. In some groups presentations of this project might be in May; however, the project has to be complete and all PPT presentations have to be uploaded by April30.

Short Description: Working in groups, students will identify a problem related to S&R or T&D in an organization of 200+ employees, research this problem using primary and secondary data, and provide a possible solution to address the problem in the organization. Students will use Trello as their primary online platform for teamcollaboration.

Resources/Materials:

Trello;

Microsoft PowerPoint;

HSE electronic library sources;

Publically available Internet sources;

Instructional materials provided in LMS and Trello;

Course textbook.

Roles and Responsibilities: Students are put into teams of 5-6 people. The team consists of:

A team leader - a person who is selected by the team and is responsiblefor:

Providing leadership for the team;

Facilitating the project flow;

Facilitating the usage of Trello by the team;

Contacting project assistant/teaching assistant/professor if there are questions;

Facilitating the completion of the questionnaires by all team members;

Performing other responsibilities assigned by the team.

Team members are responsible for:

Selecting the team leader;

Contributing to the project by sharing knowledge, expertise, ideas, and information;

Performing the assigned tasks;

Exhibiting professionalism and diligence and providing support and respect to team members;

Completing the questionnaires.

Process:

Using the link below, students identify their team and follow instructions to assess their Trello board:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VGFNeNZqUZZz9OM3qlgO JrWkbdeHld0dBsLPrxeTeOs/edit?usp=sharing

Students asses their Trello board;

Students study the materials in list “About this”, specifically, card “Documents” and explore Trello. These materials will help students understand why this project was chosen for them and how Trello works.

Teams select the team leader, explore the project assignment, and establish their team goals and processes as they complete the project:

Select a company to study. The company has to have an HR department of at least 2 people. Companies that outsource most HR processes are not suitable for this project. This company could be in any industry and in any geographic location. Students are recommended to select a large company (200+employees) to study. If students cannot find a large company, they could study smaller companies. Smaller companies might not have an HR department; instead, they might have an HR generalist (one HR person) or the company director/general manager/owner is responsible for employee-related processes. Students should use their networking skills to identify potential company insiders. Students should start with their relatives, friends, friends of their relatives and relatives of their friends. It is important to inform these company insiders that their company name will not be used for project reporting. Instead, a pseudonym could be used to protect confidentiality of the company and its insiders;

Select one of the processes (R&S or T&D) of a company to study;

Study all available materials about the company (company's website, annual reports, investor presentations, articles, interviews with executives, etc.) to learn as much as possible about the company in general and its people and HR processes.

Prepare questions about the company's HR department (its structure, size, and main functions) or processes and activities (if a small company is chosen) and the potential problems in R&S or T&D you identified;

Get in contact and conduct an interview with an employee of the company's HR department or with a person responsible for or engaged in R&S or T&D. The number of people to question and the number of interactions with them is not limited. More than one person could be interviewed. The goal of this interview(s) is to gain information about the company, HR department, main problems in R&S or T&D. Students could use any online tool to interview and communicate with the organization. Important: Most companies experience challenges due to COVID-19 right now; however, you cannot not include COVID-19-related problems for this project.

Choose one of the problems the company has in R&S or T&D.

Study academic literature (articles, books, reports, etc.), cases, documents of other companies to research the chosen problem.

Based on your interview(s) and literature, synthesize your knowledge to:

define and describe the problem in HRM terms;

identify its common causes;

identify effect(s) it may have on the company;

present main existing solutions to the problem in general;

identify, describe and justify the best solution or a set of solutions for this particular company.

Outcomes: There are twooutcomes:

A report to the employee(s) of the company's HR department. It should include:

Introduction: Name of the problem you identified and a definition based on literature;

Methodology: Description of the data sources (how many, source types) and interview used to study the problem and possible solutions;

Problem Analysis: Description of the chosen problem, its common causes, effects on the company, and existing solutions;

Solutions: description of the best possible solution(s) and their justifications

References in APA style (available via https://www.mendeley.com/guides/apa- citation-guide).

The document should be made in a form of a report, not a research paper.

The report should be 2-page long (excluding references), double spaced, Time New Roman, 12, first line indentation 1.25.

Students should use tables, graphs and other visual aids to illustrate their arguments and provide information.

Students send this report to their HR contact and make a screenshot of the email to prove that it was sent. They include it in the PPT as an Appendix. If they receive a response from the company, students should also attach it to the PPT.

A PPT presentation to the class which should include:

Company description (e.g., size, industries, product);

HR department description (its functions, size and structure);

Overview of the problems;

Methodology (information about the interview and secondary data sources);

Problem description, its cause(s) and effect;

Existing solutions (examples);

The solution(s) that are most fitting for the company and their justifications;

Screenshot of the email with the attached report sent to the HR contact, the report, and the company's response to it (if the company reacted) as Appendix;

References.

Presentations will be presented during the fourth week of the module.

Upload the presentation to the project in LMS.

Time: 7-10 minutes.

Presentations will be synchronous using one of the class online platforms.

Evaluation: The presentation is graded by the professor on a 10-point scale. The report is not graded.

The maximum sum of preliminary points equals to 20. After the presentation the points received by the team are summed up and divided to 2 to calculate the final mark. The final mark will be rounded. Curve (rounding) is arithmetical (3.49 equals a 3; 3,501 equals a 4.

Team leader gets 1 point to the final mark for the project if Trello is used for all steps in the project completion during the 3,5 weeks.

Policies:

The students are distributed randomly in groups of 4-6;

Students stay in their assigned groups. They cannot switch groups;

A team leader is selected by the team members' vote;

The usage of Trello to complete a project is mandatory;

Only the team leader should contact project assistant/teaching assistant/professor if there are questions.

Appendix 2

The explanation of the Trello usage

Figure 11



Figure 12



Figure 13

Appendix 3

Justification of the usage of the agile approach and Trello

Figure 14



Figure 15



Figure 16



Figure 17

Appendix 4

Table 7. The evaluation criteria of the project

Criteria	Preliminarypoint(s)
Contents
Companydescription	1
HR departmentdescription
HR departmentstructuredescription	1
HR department main functions description	1
Methodologydescription
Secondarydatasourcesdescription	1
Interviewdescription	1
Problemdescription	1
Itscause(s) description	1
Itseffect(s) description	1
Existingsolution(s) description	2
The most fitting solution(s) description	2
Reasons why the solution(s) is/are the most fitting one	2
Screenshot of the email with the attached report sent to the company	2
Delivery
The slides are clear, readable, without mistakes	1
Thepresentationislogical	1
The presenter(s) is/are knowledgeable and engaging	1
Thepresentationlasts 7-10 minutes	1

Appendix 5

Questionnaire about the respondents' demographic data and experience with Trello

Hello, dear respondent!

We are 4th-year students of the bachelor's programme `International Business and Management Studies' of the National Research University Higher School of Economics working on a thesis. We kindly ask you to answer 4 questions below. It will take no more than 2 minutes.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine the influence of using Trello on teamwork quality, team performance, and team members' success of bachelor students completing a project in agile teams.

Your responses will be confidential, and all efforts will be made so that no individual participant will be identifiable by answers. Thank you in advance!

1. What is your age?

(Please, put a round number without any text or gaps)

_______

2. What is your gender?

· Female

· Male

3. What is your country of origin?

· Russian Federation

· _______ (Other)

4. Do you have any previous experience of working with Trello?

· Yes

· No

Your answer has been recorded. Thank you for your time and efforts!

Appendix 6

Questionnaire about the respondents' teamwork quality and team members' success during the project

Hello, dear respondent!

We are 4th-year students of the bachelor's programme `International Business and Management Studies' of the National Research University Higher School of Economics working on a thesis. We kindly ask you to answer 10 questions below. It will take no more than 15 minutes.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine the influence of using Trello on teamwork quality, team performance, and team members' success of bachelor students completing a project in agile teams.

Your responses will be confidential, and all efforts will be made so that no individual participant will be identifiable by answers. Thank you in advance!

1. What is your team number?

(Please, put a round number without any text or gaps)

_______

2. Are you the team leader?

· Yes

· No

Teamwork quality during the project

3. There are 10 statements which describe communication during the project. Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with them. 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree.

· There is frequent communication within the team.

· The team members communicate often in spontaneous meetings, phone conversations, etc.

· The team members communicate mostly directly and personally with each other.

· There are mediators through whom much communication is conducted.

· Relevant ideas and information relating to the teamwork is shared openly by all team members.

· Important information is kept away from other team members in certain situations.

· In the team there are conflicts regarding the openness of the information flow.

· The team members are happy with the timeliness in which they receive information from other team members.

· The team members are happy with the precision of the information they receive from other team members.

· The team members are happy with the usefulness of the information they receive from other team members.

4. There are 4 statements which describe coordination during the project. Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with them. 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree.

· The work done on subtasks within the team is closely harmonized.

· There are clear and fully comprehended goals for subtasks within our team.

· The goals for subtasks are accepted by all team members.

· There are conflicting interests in our team regarding subtasks/subgoals.

5. There are 7 statements which describe mutual support during the project. Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with them. 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree.

· The team members help and support each other as best they can.

· If conflicts come up, they are easily and quickly resolved.

· Discussions and controversies are conducted constructively.

· Suggestions and contributions of team members are respected.

· Suggestions and contributions of team members are discussed and further developed.

· The team is able to reach consensus regarding important issues.

· The team cooperates well.

6. There are 4 statements which describe effort during the project. Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with them. 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree.

· Every team member fully pushes the teamwork.

· Every team member makes the teamwork their highest priority.

· The team puts much effort into the teamwork.

· There are conflicts regarding the effort that team members put into the teamwork.

7. There are 10 statements which describe cohesion during the project. Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with them. 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree.

· The teamwork is important to the team.

· It is important to team members to be part of the team.

· The team does not see anything special in this teamwork.

· The team members are strongly attached to the team.

· All team members are fully integrated in the team.

· There were many personal conflicts in the team.

· There is mutual sympathy between the members of the team.

· The team sticks together.

· The members of the team feel proud to be part of the team.

· Every team member feels responsible for maintaining and protecting the team.

8. There are 3 statements which describe balance of member contribution during the project. Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with them. 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree.

· The team recognizes the specific characteristics (strengths and weaknesses) of the individual team members.

· The team members contribute to the achievement of the team's goals in accordance with their specific potential.

· Imbalance of member contributions cause conflicts in our team.

Team members' success during the project

9. There are 4 statements which describe work satisfaction during the project. Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with them. 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree.

· So far, the team can be pleased with its work.

· The team members gain from the collaborative teamwork.

· The team members will like to do this type of collaborative work again.

· We are able to acquire important know-how through this teamwork.

10. There are 4 statements which describe learning during the project. Indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with them. 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree.

· We consider this teamwork as a technical success.

· The team learnt important lessons from this teamwork.

· Teamwork promotes one personally.

· Teamwork promotes one professionally.

Your answer has been recorded. Thank you for your time and efforts!

Appendix 7

Table 8. The structure of teamwork quality, team performance, and team members' success concepts

Construct	Subconstruct	Definition
Teamwork quality	Communication	The degree of openness and frequency while exchanging information.
	Coordination	Proper management when working on parallel tasks including common understanding and agreement on the structure of work, schedules, and outcomes.
	Balance of member contribution	Understanding and exploitation of team members' potential depending on their fields of expertise and abilities
	Mutual support	The team members' ability to support each other while fulfilling the tasks
	Effort	The team members' willingness to take on the part of the workload and the ability to make the team's task a high priority.
	Cohesion	The extent to which team members are motivated to act as a team and prioritize team goals over individual ones.
Team members' success	Work satisfaction	The team members willingness to participate in future team projects.
	Learning	Team members' learning outcomes regarding the project management, social and profession-related skills.

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