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Agile Development for Non Software Industries

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Operation Suppy Chain & Management David Imboden, Livia Artuso, Clariss Chow, Youssef Hautier, Topic: Are Agile development / Scrum approaches applicable to other product domain than the software development? 1. Introduction The development of a new product is key for a company. The products can be very simple (a new fork in the Ikea assortment) to extremely complex (let’s think about a new airplane for Airbus), their development still requires a multidisciplinary approach, implies a lot of risks, a lot of uncertainties and usually involves a large amount of resources and cash. But what is exactly product development? We define it as the set of processes that will bring a concept or an idea to product that is used by the final…show more content…
○ ○ ● Method applied ○ Multidisciplinary team work together (extensive interaction among team members + suppliers) from the start of development right to the end. ○ It involves iterative and dynamic process of trial and error ○ Variety is amplified (differentiation) and reduced (integration) takes place throughout the overlapping phases of development cycle ○ Operational decisions are made but strategic decisions are delayed as much as possible to allow more flexible response to last-minute feedback from marketplace ● Key benefits ○ Hard Merits - Greater speed & Increased flexibility ○ Soft Merits - Human Resource management (Shared responsibility and cooperation, involvement & commitment, problem-solving, initiative taking, diversified skills, sensitivity toward market conditions) ● Limitations ○ Requires extraordinary effort on all members ○ May not apply to breakthrough project (biotechnology or chemistry) that requires revolutionary innovation, mammoth projects (aerospace) where face-to-face discussions are limited or organization where product development is masterminded by one person who makes the invention and determining all specifications ● Managerial Implications ○ Adopt a management style that promotes the process and is highly adaptive ○ Non experts who have accumulate knowledge of different levels of organization and functions to undertake product development instead of highly competent group of specialists as they are more willing
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