A framework for generating agile methods for product development
Jonas Heimicke, Katharina Dühr, Madita Krüger, Gha-Leng Ng, Albert Albers
Abstract
Increasingly, companies are integrating agile approaches in the processes of physical product development, although they may have different reasons for doing so (e.g. shorter production times, better product quality, etc.). The number of different agile approaches has also increased over time. Despite the various agile approaches, it has been shown that companies in product development have difficulties in integrating these approaches and a change process is extremely complex. This results in the need for suitable methodological support that generates situation-dependent and company-specific process solutions and thus addresses and achieves different and individual goals. For this, the complex and company-specific adaptation of an organizational unit needs to be tailored to the needs and situation of the affected organization. This is made possible by an individual agile-structuring process solution, which is generated on the basis of a methodical support in the form of a framework, which is developed in this article on basis of current research. Based on this framework, process authors are enabled to generate an agile structuring process solution for the organizational unit concerned, which enables a suitable, company-specific combination of agile and plan-driven approaches and elements. By applying the framework, a specific organizational unit is given the ability to implement an appropriate degree of agility in its development process through the generated process solution. This reduces the expected difficulties of agile approaches in product development and enables the organization to react more flexibly and adaptively to unpredictable and changing situations.