Exploring agile practice adoption: A survey in the Norwegian public sector

The uptake of practices labeled as “agile” is widely discussed in both research and practitioner communities, yet the scope, prevalence, and implementation of such practices remain unclear. A field-level hypothesis suggests that agility manifests in three distinct but related disciplines: software development, product orientation, and continuous delivery. This study tested that proposition through surveys of IT executives in the Norwegian public sector, which represents a substantial share of the country’s national digitalization efforts. Surveys were conducted in 2021 (136 invited, 78 responses) and 2024 (146 invited, 58 responses). The results suggest that agile practices are prevalent and perceived as growing, but systematic adoption patterns are not apparent. No stable factor structures emerged for the hypothesized disciplines, suggesting that agility manifests instead as a multifaceted, emergent phenomenon. Adoption appears to be enabled by team-level commitment and individual initiative, while constraints related to budgeting and governance inhibit it. These findings contribute to theory by questioning assumptions that agile practices are organized into stable domains, method by demonstrating the limitations of current indicators and survey approaches, and practice by underscoring that successful adoption requires enabling organizational conditions rather than prescriptive frameworks. Future research should focus on clarifying what constitutes an agile practice, developing robust indicators of adoption, and comparing implementation patterns across various sectors and countries.