Agile Project Management and ambidexterity – A reconciliation of contextual exploration and exploitation

Purpose of the paper: Besides a traditional contingent perspective that frames change projects within the opposite planned-exploitation oriented and emergent-exploration oriented forms, we aim at exploring a connected perspective, through the contextual ambidextrous lens on the Agile project management context. Methodology: We adopt a multiple case study, based on interviews to different agile oriented companies, by using a grounded approach for discovering the modalities through which agile adoption shows both emergent (exploration-oriented) and planned (exploitation-oriented) tensions, in a perspective that connects, more than separates, them. Main Findings: We discover different main categories that capture the tensions between planned- exploitation oriented and emergent exploration-oriented issues of agile projects: direction, objectives, boundaries and leadership. Each category highlights the connection among exploitation and exploration aspect of agile projects. Practical implications: Exploring the tensions on Agile projects provide with a more complete understanding about how such opposite forces are connected and how such paradoxical forces are managed within a real project context. Originality/value: Differently from previous research, we highlight the agile nested tensions, from a real-world project context, by describing how Agile project management connects both explorative and exploitative aspect of change and the main variables that enable such connections.