IT Product Development Research Articles

A multi-objective model for multi-project scheduling and multi-skilled staff assignment for IT product development considering competency evolution

We address a multi-skill project scheduling problem for IT product development in this article. The goal is for product development managers to be able to generate an initial schedule at an early stage of development activities. Due to the complexity of the product structure and functionality, an IT product development effort is divided into multiple projects. Each project includes several tasks, and each task must be completed by an employee who has mastered a certain skill to complete it. A pool of multi-skilled employees is available, and the employees’ skill efficiencies are influenced by both learning and forgetting phenomena. Based on the real-world demands of product development managers, three objectives are simultaneously considered: skill efficiency gain, product development cycle time and costs. To solve this problem, we propose a multi-objective non-linear mixed integer programming model. The Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II)is designed to generate an approximation to the optimal Pareto front of this NP-hard multi-objective optimisation problem. The algorithm produces feasible schedules for all the development projects using the serial schedule generation scheme. We adopt penalty values and individual employee adjustments to address resource conflicts and constraint violations. A weighted ideal point method is used to select the final solution from the approximate Pareto solution set. An application case of a new electrical energy saving product implementation in a leading electrical device company in China is used to illustrate the proposed model and algorithm.

Agile–Stage-Gate Hybrids

OVERVIEW:Leading firms are now beginning to integrate elements of the Agile IT product development method into their traditional gating processes to develop physical products. The trend began first in the IT industry, where Agile and Stage-Gate methods were found to complement each other, and only recently has been seen in manufacturing firms. The benefits of the hybrid model include much faster product releases, better response to changing customer requirements, and improved team communication and morale. But some modifications to the Agile model are required for physical products. Two large-company best-practice examples are provided to illustrate how to run a hybrid model.

Comparative Evaluation Bias in Escalation of Commitment to an IT Product Development Project

Despite its potential returns, IT product development is not without risk. One significant risk is that decision makers can become overly committed to a troubled product development project (i.e., ...

Individual and Corporate Users in IT Product Development Process

The rise of the Internet has increased the business transformation. On one hand, companies want to communicate with customers and partners in realtime. On the other hand, Internet users demand speedy, well-fitted access to actual information as well as to business applications. The paper focuses on user participation in the development of business information system (BIS). The paper covers review of different approaches on user involvement in the system development process. The second part of the paper includes the analysis of the empirical research results on user support software preferences.

IT investments and product development effectiveness: Iranian SBs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine if, and how, investments in IT at different levels can create new product development (NPD) capabilities in terms of IT leveraging competence in NPD and NPD effectiveness. The paper also investigates how Iranian small businesses (SBs) can achieve desired marketing performance through developing these capabilities.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is consistent with the perspective on IT‐enabled organizational capabilities. A questionnaire‐based survey was conducted to collect data from 218 businesses or NPD managers of SBs in Iran.FindingsIT leveraging competence in NPD and NPD effectiveness are valuable key capabilities that transform the value of IT resources to a firm's performance for Iranian SBs. Investments in both technical and human IT resources have positive effects on the development of NPD capabilities, and thus performance in the surveyed SBs.Research limitations/implicationsAmong other limitations, relying on a small sample size and cross‐sectional data of this research, and lack of generalizability of findings tend to have certain limitations.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that the investments in both technical and human IT resources increase firms' ability to develop effectiveness in NPD. However, IT investments strategy should be aligned with effective use of IT functionalities, as the effect of IT leveraging competence in development of NPD effectiveness is more pronounced. Second, IT leveraging competence in NPD and NPD effectiveness are important intermediate organizational capabilities through which the benefits of both technical and human IT resources are converted into performance effects at the firm level for Iranian SBs.Originality/valueThis case study explores how Iranian SBs can develop NPD capabilities, and subsequently, marketing performance, a topic that has received little attention to date.

Understanding the Process of Backsourcing: Two Cases of Process and Product Backsourcing in Europe

Backsourcing, defined generally as bringing services outsourced to a third party back in-house, is now a growing phenomenon. The decision to backsource has several significant implications for an organization, as it requires the organization to manage organizational change, reintegrate knowledge, and develop new capabilities and competences. Taking into account there is very limited empirical evidence of how to successfully accomplish the backsourcing process, two case studies included in this teaching case offer additional insight into the process of backsourcing. To prepare students for case analysis, this teaching case starts by describing the backsourcing phenomenon, followed by an overview of the backsourcing trend, and includes a brief review of the relevant literature that mainly focuses on backsourcing decisions and touches on critical success factors for implementing a backsourcing initiative. This is followed by two case studies that describe two essentially different examples of backsourcing. The first case study (MediaCorp) deals with the example of backsourcing IT hosting services, which is considered a business process, whereas the second case study (ITServCorp) talks about bringing an IT product development back in-house. However, regardless of the nature of the backsourced activity, analysis of these two cases allows deeper understanding of the process through which the backsourcing initiative has been implemented. Therefore, while each case can be used separately to analyze different aspects of backsourcing, they also can be analyzed in a comparative manner to better understand the process of backsourcing.

The Design of Capability Maturity Model of IT Project Management Based on ERP

With the rapid development of information technology, IT industries and IT products has become a new vitality industry type of economic field. The management capability maturity Model (CMM) is an important to evaluation the management ability of a enterprise, and at present has been widely used. Using the theory of fuzzy mathematics to design a management capability maturity model of IT project, and make the comparative analysis according to the ERP system development process of the different IT enterprise.

Integrating Creativity in IT Product and Service Development Into Ergonomic Design Practices

It is creativity that ultimately triggers innovations and their commercial success in information technology products and services. Previous research in ergonomic design considers only issues regarding functionality, safety, usability, and affectivity. We first propose a conceptual framework for ergonomic design that highlights the central role of creativity in achieving synergy of the four preceding design dimensions. Then, a conceptual model of the creative design process for IT products and services is proposed based on the literature in creative cognition and engineering design. The discussion provides insights into how to increase creativity and profitability of IT products and services.

Integrating Creativity in IT Product and Service Development into Ergonomic Design Practices

It is creativity that ultimately triggers innovations and their commercial success in information technology products and services. Previous research in ergonomic design considers only issues regarding functionality, safety, usability, and affectivity. We first propose a conceptual framework for ergonomic design that highlights the central role of creativity in achieving synergy of the four preceding design dimensions. Then, a conceptual model of the creative design process for IT products and services is proposed based on the literature in creative cognition and engineering design. The discussion provides insights into how to increase creativity and profitability of IT products and services.

Chips off the old block [global teamworking

Global teamwork is key to the new era of IT product development. This article explains how sharing product development between collaborative workgroups thousands of miles apart is the future of semiconductor invention. This model can be emulated across multiple industry segments, just with different domain expertise.

Changing product development process through information technology: a Brazilian case

PurposeAims to discuss the linking of enhanced performance of the new product development process with the increasing use of IT applications, resulting in a competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approachUtilises a case study methodology in a manufacturing company in the Brazilian building materials industry.FindingsSome evidence of enhancement of new product development could be found, such as a reduction in both development cycle time and development costs. As regards customer satisfaction, the executive perception of improvement in final product quality could be identified, and finally no relationship could be observed between the effects and the number of new products launched.Originality/valueIT applications are more successful when links with business strategy are stronger. The benefits of IT strategic alignment occurred after the critical success factor method was adopted in both IT and new product development processes.