Tanja E. Havstorm

About Tanja E. Havstorm

Dr. Tanja E. Havstorm is an Assistant Professor  (Senior lecturer) at the Department of Informatics at Örebro University in Örebro, Sweden. Her expertise is in Agile Methods, Project Management, Requirements Engineering, and AI in software development. She belongs to the research environment Centre for Empirical Research on Information Systems (CERIS), where she is an active member of the Software Development Management research group. 

Research

Her PhD dissertation, “Cargo Cult in Agile Software Development” (2023), investigated how agile methods are sometimes applied superficially in software teams, leading to reduced effectiveness. She continues to explore how agile practices evolve in real-world settings, with a current focus on how AI tools—particularly large language models like GPT—are reshaping workflows, roles, and team dynamics. Her research examines how the integration of AI into agile teams influences power structures, decision-making, and collaboration and how new software development practices emerges.

Havstorm is currently part of the project “Consistency of GPT Models in Classifying Natural Language Requirements,” which studies how GPT models perform in categorizing requirements using zero-shot and few-shot learning. The project contributes to the field of AI-supported requirements engineering by investigating the reliability and usefulness of these models in practical development environments. 

She regularly presents at international conferences (e.g., HICSS, AMCIS, XP, ISD, ICSOB), publishes in journals like IJISPM, and serves as a reviewer and program committee member for venues such as EASE and AMCIS and as a reviewer for IJISPM and IST. 

Teaching

Since 2014, Havstorm has taught a wide range of courses at Örebro University across undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels. Her teaching focuses on systems and software development, agile project management, requirements engineering, and qualitative research methods. 

She has served as course manager for:

IK100G – Introduction to systems development, basic level

IK207G – Software Development Project with Scrum and Extreme Programming, intermediate level

IK205G – Requirements Engineering, intermediate level

IK462A – Setting Requirements in Information Security, advanced level

IK444A – Qualitative Methods in Information Systems Research, advanced level

20IK047 – Literature Review in Informatics, doctoral level

20IK053 – Communication and Impact, doctoral level

Havstorm is also an experienced thesis supervisor, guiding numerous bachelor’s and master’s projects in agile methods, DevOps, innovation in tech teams, information security, and requirements engineering.

Equality and Gender Mainstreaming

In addition to her research and teaching, Havstorm has contributed extensively to gender equality initiatives at Örebro University. As Gender Mainstreaming representative for Informatics (2018–2021) and Project Manager for the Project for Equal Opportunity Within Informatics (2020–2021), she promoted inclusive practices in education and research. She organized workshops, departmental seminars, and industry events in collaboration with networks such as #addher, focusing on gender equality in tech and higher education.