  Context: User involvement is generally considered to contributing to user
satisfaction and project success and is central to Agile software development.
In theory, the expectations about user involvement, such as the PO's, are quite
demanding in this Agile way of working. But what are the expectations seen in
practice, and are the expectations of user involvement aligned among the
development team and users? Any misalignment could contribute to conflict and
miscommunication among stakeholders that may result in ineffective user
involvement. Objective: Our aim is to compare and contrast the expectations of
two stakeholder groups (software development team, and software users) about
user involvement in order to understand the expectations and assess their
alignment. Method: We have conducted an exploratory case study of expectations
about user involvement in an Agile software development. Qualitative data was
collected through interviews to design a novel method for the assessing the
alignment of expectations about user involvement by applying Repertory Grids
(RG). Results: By aggregating the results from the interviews and RGs, varying
degrees of expectation alignments were observed between the development team
and user representatives. Conclusion: Alignment of expectations can be assessed
in practice using the proposed RG instrument and can reveal misalignment
between user roles and activities they participate in Agile software
development projects. Although we used RG instrument retrospectively in this
study, we posit that it could also be applied from the start of a project, or
proactively as a diagnostic tool throughout a project to assess and ensure that
expectations are aligned.
