Abstract: Scrum, a form of agile project management methodology, comes with many benefits derived from the iterative form of software development. Various organisations within South Africa have implemented Scrum within their development teams and are fast receiving positive benefits from it. While Scrum, in many aspects of the methodology, is highly effective and successful within different organisations, there are always going to be pitfalls and negative attributes associated with the adoption and use of a new methodology. The purpose of this research is to determine the factors leading to interruptions in the middle of a sprint while using Scrum. Case studies were conducted which included 3 companies in Johannesburg and Cape Town that have implemented S crum. In particular, data was collected through the following methods: 12 face‑to‑face, one‑on‑one interviews with participating Scrum team members; and 1 group discussion with 8 participating Scrum team members. After analysis, five theoretical statemen ts were formulated pertaining to: poorly understood and defined objectives from clients, managements lack of understanding of Scrum processes, high workload, ad‑hoc requests mid‑sprint, and low interdepartmental communication. Results from this study rev eal the need to conduct possible future research on: ways to prevent these forms of sprint interruption from having negative effects on the Scrum team and the project; and the effect that these interruptions have on the relevant stakeholders involved. The results of the study thus provide managers with the opportunity to take a deeper look into the sources of their Scrum problems and provide them with an understanding as to how they may prevent these interruptions from causing long term, negative effects on the project and the team.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical model describing what makes Scrum team members successful at transferring knowledge. Twelve semi‑structured interviews were conducted at two Scrum companies in Cape Town, South Africa. Partic ipants interviewed ranged from project managers and Scrum masters to software developers, business analyst and testers. The interviews were all transcribed, then analysed using thematic analysis. Past studies have already identified factors (i.e. charact eristics that enable people to transfer knowledge) that are known to impact knowledge transfer. This study further extends the body of knowledge by revealing how these existing factors are interrelated while impacting knowledge transfer. In addition, new factors (i.e. empathy and articulation skills of the source) are proposed, which were found to further impact knowledge transfer in Scrum teams. The results have shown that recipients perceive team members who are able to successfully transfer knowledg e as having the following characteristics: motivation, capability, credibility, empathy, articulate and ability to communicate enough. The contribution of this study to practice is a list of team member characteristics, that HR managers could foster throu gh appropriate training, to help improve the knowledge transfer within Scrum teams. This paper offers new contributions and a theoretical model to the under researched area of knowledge transfer within Scrum teams.