Agile Product Development Research Articles

Recent trends in agile new product development: a systematic review and agenda for future research

PurposeThe market's intense competition, the unpredictability of customer demands and technological advancements are compelling organizations to adopt new approaches, such as agile new product development (ANPD), which enables the introduction of new products to the market in a short span. The existing ANPD literature review articles are lacking in portraying recent developments, potential fields of adoption and the significance of ANPD in organizational development. The primary goal of this article is to investigate emerging aspects, current trends and conduct a meta-analysis using a systematic review of 177 ANPD articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 1998 and 2020.Design/methodology/approachThe articles were categorized based on their year of publication, publishers, journals, authors, countries, universities, most cited articles, etc. The authors attempted to identify top journals, authors, most cited articles, enablers, barriers, performance metrics, etc. in the ANPD domain through the presented study.FindingsThe major themes of research articles, gaps and future trends are identified to assist academicians and ANPD practitioners. This study will benefit ANPD professionals by providing them with information on available literature and current ANPD trends.Originality/valueThrough meta-analysis, this study is one of the unique attempt to categorize ANPD articles to identify research gaps and highlight future research trends. A distinguishing feature of the presented study is the identification of active journals, publishers and authors, as well as enablers, barriers and performance metrics.

The Design of Interactive Training for Digital Transformation: A Practice-Oriented Case Study

Hybrid approaches to new product development are blurring the boundaries between established models, such as Lean, Stage-Gate and Agile. The actual implementation of the principles of these archetypical approaches seems to be contingent to the features of the product to innovate and the organisation in which the product development effort is made. This paper investigates how Lean, Agile, and Stage-Gate product development principles can foster the design, development and delivery of a training program for digital transformation in a knowledge intensive business service that delivers training by relying on a simulated, highly-realistic, digitalised business environment. The conception and execution of a new training program requires a new product development effort since it significantly departs from the current offering of the training provider and involves the coordination of multiple stakeholders. Through a practice-oriented case study methodology, this investigation examines whether a hybrid organisational method is a viable approach for new product development and assesses its practical feasibility and effectiveness.

Dealing with Uncertainty and Adaptivity: Agile Procurement Process for Agile New Product Development

In the development of new products that are characterized by high uncertainty and high adaptivity, an agile new product development process is often used. The benefits of an agile new product development process are often reduced when applying a traditional procurement process (e.g., Van Weele (2001)). Drawing on contingency theory, we predict that procurement processes must fit with their contingencies, task uncertainty and task interdependence (product uncertainty and adaptivity), to maximize performance. Furthermore, procurement processes need to be aligned to related processes such as the new product development process. We apply a design science approach to design an agile procurement process that is aligned with the agile new product development process and is capable of attaining the important new product development goals such as low costs, short time-to-market, and high quality. We develop the initial solution based on semi-structured interviews, implement the initial solution at a case company to refine the solution, and refine and validate it with further interviews. We contribute to the literature by developing an agile procurement process with its explanatory mechanisms and application domain, and by showcasing that the procurement process has to match its contingencies and related processes to maximize performance.

A systematic approach towards mastering complexity through hybrid assembly planning

In the face of increasingly agile product development, new challenges arise for assembly planning due to growing complexity. Within this paper, we show that the complexity-dependent combination of agile methods and traditionally plan-driven assembly planning procedures holds great potential for mastering planning complexity. Thus, a methodology towards hybrid assembly planning is elucidated with a focus on selecting dominant planning methods for specific planning scopes within this paper. Based on a detailed model of assembly planning as a system, the complexity requirements of different planning modules are determined. Therefore, an integrative complexity measure is developed to quantitatively operationalise complexity in a quasistatic-structural and a dynamic-functional complexity dimension. In order to identify dominant planning methods, the complexity potentials of agile and plan-driven methods are examined in an Analytic Hierarchy Process expert study with 22 participants. Within a decision model, dominant planning methods are selected for specific planning modules by matching the quantified complexity requirements with the complexity potentials of agile and plan-driven methods. Based on the systematic method selection, dominant planning methods for specific planning scopes can be tailored into a project-specific hybrid process framework. The approach to hybrid assembly planning enables optimised planning results through the improved mastery of complexity.

Insights into the Individual Innovation Process in the 2020s: Updating Prevalent Understanding

This paper examines individuals' experiences of their innovation process. The aim is to gain deeper insight into the features of individual innovation and thereby update the prevailing theoretical understanding of the concept of individual innovation process. To achieve this, the paper uses a qualitative single case study approach. A systematic data-driven analysis of 34 semi-structured interviews - conducted in an agile product development environment - showed that at the team member level, the individual innovation process consists of six activities: identifying needs, managing constraints, developing solutions, testing, evaluating, and implementing. The paper extends previous understanding by zooming in on the individual experience and highlights the previously unidentified role of individual agency in the innovation process. The study contributes to innovation and management literatures by challenging the current understanding of how individuals innovate, and how this process can be managed.

Agile Insight ‐ Gating Alternatives for Agile Projects

AbstractCurrent technical oversight approaches (e.g., Stage‐Gate reviews) are not agile – their expectations are not aligned with agile development cadences, and they are not adequately responsive to continuous unpredictable change. These mismatches lead to the (incorrect) assertion that agile projects don't need technical oversight, and to more accurate concerns that current gate reviews do not effectively provide insight into gaps and risk on agile projects. Large complex agile efforts need a light weight, interactive approach to technical oversight that provides insight in the form of good predictive feedback to agile projects with minimal burden of labor on the project and the reviewers. Fixed expectations of how oversight is done, and non‐agile oversight approaches written into contracts and processes impede the evolution of gating for agile projects. This paper explores ways to provide insight and responsive forward looking actionable guidance for agile projects in the context of government and defense programs. It proposes a general oversight approach that produces minimal drag and disruption and keeps pace with agile product development.

Method for direct end customer integration into the agile product development

Agile product development methods help to reduce the product development time. The resulting shorter time-to-market ensures a company’s competitiveness. For a time-reduced development process and product lifecycle, the response time to end customer requirements must be decreased as product complexity increases. This requires special methods and tools for customer integration into the agile product development process. Existing approaches do not meet these requirements and an analysis of tools and methods for customer integration and a new method for customer integration is needed.The core of the work is developing a new method for customer integration into the agile product development process through customer surveys. The method includes two separate use cases for this purpose. Use case one considers customer integration regarding the overall product structure, whereas use case two considers customer integration in selecting specific development concepts. Both use cases include physical and virtual products. The connection of the method to agile product development identifies the results as new tasks. It is possible to run the 28-hour method several times within a sprint. In an exemplary case, the method is implemented in a software tool, tested with 130 end customers and verified by the requirements.

Linking Testing Activities with Success in Agile Development of Physical Products

Agile development methods are becoming increasingly important for mechanical engineering and the development of physical products. A key element of agile development and an integral part of the product development process is testing. This paper investigates the link between testing activities and success in agile product development. An observational study was conducted with 355 students grouped into 72 teams. Each team developed a physical product in a 12-week project. The project structure incorporated several aspects of the agile method Scrum. At the end of the project, the performance of each team’s product was evaluated with a performance score. During the project, the participants documented their invested time in development activities. To validate the result of the self-assessment, the usage of the mechatronic equipment of the individual teams was logged electronically for methodological triangulation. Statistical analysis was carried out using multiple regression models. The results show that time invested early in the project and testing activities throughout the project were statistically significant predictors of success. Furthermore, the results highlight the variety of performed testing activities and show that testing beyond the activities within Verification and Validation were performed until the very end of the project. The study results underline the importance of testing and support essential concepts discussed in the literature with quantitative empirical evidence.

Uncertainty and Changeability in Manufacturing Equipment Planning

Increasing time and cost pressure are forcing companies to plan and design their manufacturing systems with fuzzy product data in order to keep pace with shorter and agile product development cycles. This development is accompanied by a multitude of requirements for the planning of the respective manufacturing equipment. Many of these requirements are associated with a high degree of uncertainty and can thus only be specified vaguely in early planning phases, eventually leading to costly, originally unforeseen changes to the specified type of equipment. This consequently underlines the need for a predictive evaluation of uncertainty, or changeability in this context, to enable a more efficient planning approach based on quantified levels of uncertainty. In this paper, the authors therefore present the results of a systematic literature review on the evaluation of changeability in manufacturing systems design with special focus on uncertainty. Most importantly, standardized methods are not available yet; hence, product development as well as project management approaches are frequently adapted to manufacturing systems design. Furthermore, FMEA and fuzzy-logic-based methods are promising techniques for the assessment of uncertainty as a key element of changeability. Concluding, the paper discusses how the findings could support the development of a holistic approach to identify and predictively evaluate uncertainty in order to use it as a decision-making factor for the application of agile planning methods, thus contributing to better decision-making and higher achievement levels of project targets in industrial practice.

3D Knitted Preforms Using Large Circular Weft Knitting Machines

3D-knits are typically produced on flat knitting or special circular knitting machines in a time-consuming process. The utilisation of a sewing-like pattern opens up the potential of a 10–50 times faster production on common large circular knitting machines as compared to conventional flat knitting machines. Since common large circular knitting machines are not designed for this technology, the limitations and the stability of process conditions have been rarely studied. To further proof the feasibility and increase technological maturity, agile product development is conducted. As a concept product, a sports bra with customised cups is developed and demonstrated, which is knitted in a single step in approx. 5 min using the sewing-like pattern on a large circular knitting machine. The agile process is utilised to build process knowledge, develop a methodology for product design and to defined a descriptive process terminology. In order to further accelerate and digitize the production process, an algorithm is developed and implemented to convert CAD-data into machine readable knitting structures. The paper presents the basics of the 3D-Knit one large circular knitting machines and a defined terminology. Furthermore, process knowledge is built up and from this a sequence of development steps is derived. The development of a 3D-knitted sports bra is presented as a proof of concept of the technology. Further, the first steps for digitalising the product development process are given. The results open up application possibilities in sportswear, upholstery and aerospace with increased productivity and hence cost reduction.

ORGANIZATION DESIGN IN MOTION: DESIGNING AN ORGANIZATION FOR AGILITY

AbstractIncreasingly competitive and multifaceted business landscapes and the accelerating pace of innovation require organizations to build in-house capability to evaluate the effectiveness of their design and redesign their organizational structure to drive agile product development. The purpose of this research is to examine how the ability of an organization to implement agile is affected by the organization design. A case study based on 35 semi-structured interviews and field observations at a leading, large-size, Danish software development company was carried out. Adopting the contingency perspective, this paper presents the relevant organizational elements that can increase organizational agility and how the companies can leverage the advantages of the design. Accordingly, it provides a framework that compromises eighteen core organizational practices grouped into four categories (organizational structure and governance, culture and people, IT tools and data infrastructure, and processes) to understand the effect of organization design on agile product development.

Unsupervised Learning for Product Use Activity Recognition: An Exploratory Study of a "Chatty Device".

To create products that are better fit for purpose, manufacturers require new methods for gaining insights into product experience in the wild at scale. “Chatty Factories” is a concept that explores the transformative potential of placing IoT-enabled data-driven systems at the core of design and manufacturing processes, aligned to the Industry 4.0 paradigm. In this paper, we propose a model that enables new forms of agile engineering product development via “chatty” products. Products relay their “experiences” from the consumer world back to designers and product engineers through the mediation provided by embedded sensors, IoT, and data-driven design tools. Our model aims to identify product “experiences” to support the insights into product use. To this end, we create an experiment to: (i) collect sensor data at 100 Hz sampling rate from a “Chatty device” (device with sensors) for six common everyday activities that drive produce experience: standing, walking, sitting, dropping and picking up of the device, placing the device stationary on a side table, and a vibrating surface; (ii) pre-process and manually label the product use activity data; (iii) compare a total of four Unsupervised Machine Learning models (three classic and the fuzzy C-means algorithm) for product use activity recognition for each unique sensor; and (iv) present and discuss our findings. The empirical results demonstrate the feasibility of applying unsupervised machine learning algorithms for clustering product use activity. The highest obtained F-measure is 0.87, and MCC of 0.84, when the Fuzzy C-means algorithm is applied for clustering, outperforming the other three algorithms applied.

Integration of Agile Approaches in SME’s Product Development: Demand Analysis and Concept Development

In times of a complex, uncertain and dynamic world with increasingly faster product life cycles agile approaches in the early phase of product development are demanded in small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s). Despite the high demand, there is still no generally valid and need-specific solution concept for the integration of agile approaches due to different company specific requirements such as the level of maturity, experience and application purposes. Within this research, the question about the actual needs as well as the corresponding design of a concept for integrating agile approaches in product development for SME requirements is tackled. In order to identify existing challenges in the field of agile product development an empirical study with eleven mechanical engineering companies is conducted and analyzed. By using agglomerative-hierarchical clustering, three distinct types of SME’s with similar needs are structured. As a result, this research proposes a systematic procedure, enabling SME’s to be clustered by their needs and enable the integration of agile approaches through a problem-oriented roadmap with specified recommendation of actions. Enhancing the integration and application of agile approaches effectively in product development projects, the level of agility appropriate to the situation and needs must be identified and introduced. Therefore, the potential that arises from the process-oriented support of the product development teams in the early phase of innovation projects will be outlined. Keywords: agile approaches, needs analysis, small and medium sized enterprises, clustering, product development, mechanical engineering

Methodology for iterative system modeling in agile product development

Nowadays, manufacturing companies are challenged by dynamic market environments caused by increasing globalization, digitization and climate change. Therefore, the ability to act with speed, flexibility and efficiency in product development becomes inevitable for success. Moreover, various stakeholder requirements have to be considered and time to market has to be reduced. The development of complex mechatronic systems also requires an interdisciplinary cooperation of various engineering domains, i.e. mechanics, electrical engineering and computer science.Agile product development addresses these challenges with its focus on the iterative development of functional system increments. As a result, it enables to reduce time to market and improves handling of changing customer requirements. The model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach with its centralized system model serves as a single source of truth and data repository. Thereby, it enhances efficiency and transparency along the product development process. The integration of MBSE into agile product development offers numerous opportunities, such as virtual prototypes and the build-up of a product’s digital twin. As the design of a complete system model at the beginning of a development process requires high temporary resources, an iterative approach should be applied to incrementally build the system model along the product development process.In this paper a methodology for the iterative system modeling in agile product development is presented. In each agile sprint, design parameters based on a development question are elaborated. The information that supports answering the development questions is provided by the system model. Since the system model itself can only provide but not process information it is necessary to select the best toolset to process the necessary information. By transferring the information back to the system model, the elements of the system model itself are iteratively developed and updated.

Agile product development: an analysis of acceptance and added value in practice

Manufacturing companies are increasingly integrating agile approaches into their development processes. This is expected to improve customer integration, enhance responsiveness to changes in the development context and ultimately lead to improved process and product quality. However, since agile approaches mostly originate from the culture of software development and have been formulated on the basis of observations of successful software projects, new challenges arise in the application of these approaches in physical systems development. Often the approaches fail due to false expectations or lack of acceptance, which causes agility not to be deeply integrated into the processes. For this reason, this contribution presents an understanding of the current state of acceptance of agile working and the expected and perceived added value of using agile approaches in practice. Based on this understanding, future research will develop a systematic by means of which agile elements can be introduced into development processes in a way that is appropriate to the situation and needs, thereby increasing acceptance and perceived added value. Since it is empirical research, which analyses real-world processes, a survey was chosen as a suitable research method. 235 participants from different branches in the area of physical product development in Germany participated. The results were analyzed using usual statistical methods. An assumption that there are discrepancies between strategic and operational views on agile working could not be confirmed. However, optimization criteria in the area of acceptance of agile approaches were identified. The research contributed to the understanding of the current performance level in the field of agile development of physical systems. The identified potentials in the area of acceptance and perceived added value in agile work can now be measured specifically for each individual application and realized with suitable methods, what contributes to a sustainable integration of agile methods into the development processes.

Digital Product Perception and User Satisfaction Relationship: Can They Create Feedback Intention?

Agile product development principles emphasize user collaboration and continuous improvement. It sometimes bothers users if they have less time, commitment and knowledge to become involved in the lengthy process of product development. Giving online feedback could be another way of contributing to product improvement. However, not all users are willing to leave reviews on online platforms. This study attempts to uncover the factors behind user feedback intention and the relationship between user roles in an agile approach. The questionnaire was completed by 113 respondents from all over Indonesia who have knowledge and experience in using digital products. The data was processed further by applying the PLS-SEM technique using the SmartPLS 3 application. The proposed model supported the positive influence of product perception on user satisfaction, and user satisfaction’s positive impact on feedback intention. Product perception is the first-order construct of attitude and perceived usefulness; meanwhile, perceived quality is influenced by product perception. This study's theoretical contribution sheds light on the relationship between user satisfaction, perception and feedback intention. Moreover, it provides practitioners practical implications towards understanding how to gather user feedback to support the initial idea in product improvement using an agile approach. Keywords: Agile product development, digital start-ups, feedback intention, product perception, user satisfaction

Framework for an agile, databased development

In today’s VUCA world, machinery and plant engineering companies face the major challenges of an advancing globalization and rapid technology changes. This forces them to react to changing requirements during product development and to shorten the time-to-market continuously due to competitive pressure. Especially companies from the wind turbine sector have to individualize their products for a variety of markets and customers, while at the same time taking into account complex dependencies between the various systems components. To address the stated challenges, this paper presents a framework for an agile and databased product development process that enables these companies to derive a development process that is best suited for their individual situation. The framework consists of a process model as well as an information model. The process model records the current development process with regard to the development network, the business process landscape and the actual development activities. The information model consists of an analysis of the currently used information systems, the description of the development’s information need and the identification of information carrier objects. The implementation of an agile, databased development process is the integrated application of both, process and information model. The recurring process modules, which are allocated to specific physical product modules, and the information and data model, which assures the information supply during product development, characterize the reconfigurable development process of this framework. The validation of this framework is carried out in cooperation with a company from the field of wind turbine development.

Situation- and need-based method recommendation for coaching agile development teams

Interdisciplinary product development teams are responsible for the solution of complex problems and the creation of innovative ideas. Innovation Coaching within the approach of ASD-Agile Systems Design fosters agile product development processes by realizing agility in the work of development teams. With the aim to implement ASD-Innovation Coaching in practice, a support is needed to enable coaches to select and apply coaching methods based on the team´s situation and need. Within a systematic literature review, 217 proven coaching methods were identified and evaluated regarding their applicability and success in product development projects. Based on specific quality criteria a total of 51 methods are selected and presented in a systematic and intuitive process model.

Technical Note—Waterfall and Agile Product Development Approaches: Disjunctive Stochastic Programming Formulations

When engaging in the development of new products, the primary objective of start-up companies is to generate a specified return level quickly and with high confidence. Achieving this goal is complicated because of uncertainties in projects’ returns and durations. In the study titled, “Waterfall and Agile Product Development Approaches: Disjunctive Stochastic Programming Formulations,” Kettunen and Lejeune develop new disjunctive chance-constrained programming models that capture this goal. The first static model reflects the traditional waterfall product development process, whereas the second one is dynamic and depicts the agile product development process. Kettunen and Lejeune design a novel reformulation method and a decomposition algorithm and use them on a new product development problem encountered by a U.S.-based software start-up company. The results reveal that high confidence in reaching a certain return can be achieved by investing in projects with a longer development time and higher risk. Additionally, overlooking the capability to make dynamic decisions, as allowed by the agile approach, leads to overestimating the time needed to obtain the targeted return.

Agile product development process transformation to support advanced one-of-a-kind manufacturing

ABSTRACT Increased competition in the global market has forced companies to diversify their product ranges to meet the customers’ changing needs and adopt product development strategies for mass customization or even one-of-a-kind production, which inevitably requires designing modular products. Product modularity is achieved via platform-based systems, in which various combinations of different modules are assembled within a common platform. The smart factories that are already beginning to appear to employ a completely new approach to product creation. In smart industry, dynamic business and engineering processes enable last-minute changes to design and production, delivering the ability to respond flexibly to disruptions and failures on behalf of suppliers. This paper presents a case study of product development and design process renovation according to agile and lean principles in one-of-a-kind industrial environments. It defines how changeability integrates with robust, concurrent and smart design strategies. Introduction of agility to highly individualized production environments is mostly about enhancing the robustness of new product development processes. Product development and manufacturing processes are interconnected therefore they need to be re-engineered together. The presented work aims to deliver a generalized conceptual framework that demonstrates how companies in such specific environments can improve smartness and profitability through the utilization of agility concepts.