Combining agile software projects and large‐scale organizational agility

Adopting key lessons from agile manufacturing to agile software product development—A comparative study

To successfully develop a complex product, a firm must answer two critical questions: how to “develop the right product” and how to “develop the product right.” Motivated by the real practice of Xiaomi’s new product development (NPD) projects, this article responds to these calls in the following ways. To design the right product, using an enhanced PageRank algorithm to investigate customer needs, NPD managers can select appropriate function modules of the new product to meet customers’ demand. To develop the new product in the right way, NPD managers should optimize the NPD organization. This article applies the multi-domain matrix (MDM) to identify the technical coordination dependency strength among different teams and then to measure the NPD organization’s complexity according to its entropy. By proposing the External Entropy of Cluster (EEC) and Internal Entropy of Cluster (IEC), we develop an entropy-based two-stage clustering criterion of design structure matrix ( DSM) to optimize the NPD organization. The first-stage clustering criterion maximizes the added average dependency strength of DSM, and the second-stage clustering criterion minimizes the Weighted Total Entropy, including the IEC and EEC. An industrial example is provided to illustrate the proposed model. The results indicate that the clustered DSM can reduce the organization’s complexity.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate, in detail, an unsuccessful food development project that took place in 2008-2010. The case is studied from the viewpoint of an interpretive paradigm. This article concentrates on constructing the critical elements that led to a food development project failure. The plan was to have a traditional Finnish dish updated and introduced as a mass produced high-end convenience food. The project included new convenience food development, packaging design, consumer market research and a sensory study to back up the food product development on behalf of a newly established company. Theoretical grounds for the case are based on the new product development (NPD) research process in the food sector. Design/methodology/approach – The method applied is an explorative single within-case study. The research data were mainly obtained from qualitative materials that ranged from marketing plans to case study field notes compiled by the researchers. Quantitative data were also obtained from various types of materials but to a lesser extent. Findings – The results of the study show that the failure of new product development was connected to the factors identified in classic NPD research. In addition, five phenomena that contributed to product development failure were constructed: path-dependency; “information condensations”; the illusion of mutual knowledge and understanding; practices of problem definition; and window-of-opportunity effects. The results are presented in a form of analytical generalisation that can be applied, with certain restrictions, to other contexts for new food product development. Originality/value – Failure rates of NPD have remained the same for the last 30 years in the food sector. Failed NPD projects can be valuable assets for the food industry when properly analysed. Examination of successful NPD projects has provided valuable lists of success factors, but knowledge on phenomena having an effect on NPD failure is needed.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conduct an empirical investigation on the new product development (NPD) practices in Indian manufacturing industries. The NPD best practices constructs are identified from the literature and then an effort have been made to statistically establish the underlying principal components of NPD practices by checking their reliability and validity for the case of Indian manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach – In all, 96 NPD best practices constructs are identified from literature articles published between 1998 and 2009. Principal component analysis (PCA) is conducted to establish the seven components of NPD practices. Cronbach's α values are computed to measure internal consistency or reliability of the established components of NPD practices. Further, confirmatory factor analysis is conducted on the established measurement model to test a hypothesized factor structure through construct validity, convergent validity and divergent validity. Findings – The PCA of NPD best practices identified the seven underlying components (latent variables) namely “NPD strategy,” “NPD support system,” “product portfolio management,” “NPD team,” “NPD tools,” “product launch” and “concept generation.” In NPD strategy, Indian manufacturing companies are highly inclined toward cost reduction, cycle time reduction, competitive advantage and fast follower strategies. All NPD support system constructs are information technology dependent tools which require hardware, software and databases to support it. Indian manufacturing organizations are fundamentally concentrating on right balance of portfolio through improvements in the current products, cost reduction and additions to existing lines by using modular architectures and the reliable and valid NPD tools are FMEA, six sigma/quality management, DFMA/DF’X and QFD. Originality/value – To the best of the author's knowledge, this research represents the first attempt to investigate empirically the NPD practices in Indian manufacturing industry.

It is widely acknowledged that new product and new service development are critical to the survival and performance of firms today. New Product Development (NPD) research emphasises the importance of employing models that aim to reduce new product risk and increase the likelihood of success. The bulk of this theory comes from traditional manufacturing enterprises, however, more recently researchers have begun to investigate whether these well established models and NPD practices are applicable to services (Johne and Storey 1998). While there has been a great deal of research into the manufacturing industry, little is known about product development processes within firms that are characterised by high pressure, dynamic markets and intense competition. This research investigates new product development processes within the software industry. This industry has, at face value, very different characteristics from traditional manufacturing firms. Through in-depth interviews with a range of stakeholders in the software industry, this research found that common, linear NPD models are not appropriate in the development of new software. The development of new products was identified as requiring a more iterative and, at the same time, organic or unstructured procedure than that commonly presented in NPD models.

The role of design and designers in new product development (NPD) has always been problematic and complex in its approach and in the extent of its involvement (Leenders et al., 2007; Murray and O’Driscoll, 1996; Veryzer and Borja de Mozota, 2005). As the industrial design profession seeks to confront the challenges of a recessionary environment, both the designer led ‘intuitive’ approach to NPD, and the marketer led ‘systematic’ approach become outmoded (Cross, 2001; Martin, 2007). There is shortcoming, even ambivalence, in the NPD and design management literature as to how design is involved in NPD (Cooper et al., 2003; Olson et al., 1998). Perks et al. (2005) suggest the designer’s involvement is moving from merely functional expertise to broader leadership activities. The research reported in this paper seeks to contextualise the fledgling position of design as NPD leader, and to understand the nature and level of design and designer involvement in NPD. Using a case study approach, the researchers sought to investigate these issues in Ireland’s largest industrial design consultancy. The firm, established 25 years ago, employs 30 design professionals. It handles projects for a range of well-known, international clients in mature, consumer product categories, for example, Palm, Terraillon and Logitech. The lead researcher spent six weeks embedded in the firm in summer 2009, carrying out quasi-ethnographic observation and semi-structured interviews with designers and management. Further interviews were conducted at the European studio of an international consultancy to enable a broader comparison. The firm was found to be in a period of flux, moving from a situation where the client called the shots, often based on uni-dimensional market research, towards one where the design studio sought to win greater involvement in NPD. A studio in such a predicament has yet to be empirically examined in the literature. Reorientation from a passive, and often late, role in NPD towards one of fuller leadership and greater input is a central feature of this research. A significant amount of conventional design work was gradually gravitating towards business analysis and marketing conceptualisation. Designers engaged in a high level of analysis on product, user and brand, and offered direction to clients through a range of activities. In many regards, they embraced the language and craft of the marketer. The company’s new mantra was to “manifest our clients’ brand through great product design”. This shift marks the division between the designer’s role as a mere service provider versus design authority. The extent to which leadership could be successfully offered depended, in a large part, on the relationship between designer and client. This relationship determined the extent and timing of involvement of designers in NPD. Different types and intensities of relationships were observed. For example, constant dyadic communication facilitated intense relationships where typical design briefs were extremely informal. However, an asymmetry in consultancy-client relationship, provoking vulnerability and internal tension, was uncovered. This revealed the transitional ground that the studio currently inhabits. This study charts in detail a move by a well-established design consultancy to take greater ‘ownership’ of NPD. In shaping this process, the constellation of the designer-client relationship is critical. A model of designer-client involvement in NPD, hinging around project classification and designer input, is developed. This model is predicated on three important insights from the research: (i) a broadened designer remit; (ii) extensive and early NPD involvement on the part of designers; and (iii) increased ownership of the NPD process by the consultancy designers. As the design profession transitions, as designers increasingly sell a greater range of expertise and provide greater value to clients, it is suggested that the model provides relevant insight to both design consultancies and client firms in the NPD process.

Internal stakeholder satisfaction is critical for project success. Adopting agile methodologies in software projects is perceived as a more adaptable approach than traditional project management methods, potentially leading to higher internal stakeholder satisfaction. However, numerous agile projects in the Sri Lankan software industry struggle with poor internal stakeholder satisfaction. Addressing this gap, the study has investigated the drivers of internal stakeholder satisfaction in agile projects within the Sri Lankan software industry. Accordingly, the five most appropriate practices – communication among internal stakeholders, frequent customer feedback, iterative development, collaboration, and flexibility to adopt customers’ late changes and a mediating factor – trust were identified, forming the basis for the conceptual framework. To evaluate it, the researchers analysed data from 137 internal stakeholders using multiple linear regression. The results showed that trustworthy communication, iterative development, and collaboration have a positive impact on internal stakeholder satisfaction, while mere communication among internal stakeholders, frequent customer feedback, and flexibility to adopt customers' late changes do not significantly impact internal stakeholder satisfaction in this context. The research provides valuable insights and practical recommendations to enhance internal stakeholder satisfaction in agile projects. Keywords: Agile Methodology, Agile Projects, Internal Stakeholder Satisfaction, Software Industry

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the felt need for new products in organizations, the nature of the new product development (NPD) discipline, and the usefulness of NPD education, in order to show the importance of the paper's analysis of the dearth of NPD courses in AACSB‐accredited schools. It seeks to offer suggested changes for both academics and practitioners.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis of AACSB‐accredited institutions' online catalogs determined a scarcity of NPD courses. Z‐tests and t‐tests revealed some differences among the types of schools offering NPD courses.FindingsThere is a scarcity of NPD courses, with only 9 percent of schools offering one. Regarding the likelihood of offering a NPD course, no differences were found between public and private schools or between doctoral‐ and non‐doctoral‐granting schools. Comparing schools offering and not offering a NPD course, no difference was discovered in the number of marketing courses available, number of marketing electives available, and number of full‐time marketing faculty.Research limitations/implicationsAnalysis was based on catalog titles and course descriptions; specific course content was not ascertained. Hence, courses including significant NPD content might remain unidentified. This descriptive research only speculates on reasons for the paucity of NPD courses. Additional research should determine influences on educators to offer a NPD course and identify specific actions to increase the adoption of NPD courses. A number of recommendations for overcoming impediments to instituting NPD courses are offered.Originality/valueThis is the first study to empirically verify the low availability of NPD courses and to recommend rectifying courses of action for both academics and NPD practitioners.

The increasing adoption of agile software development methodologies is amplifying the message that people are a first-order success factor of software projects. In this paper we describe a means to make certain people characteristics a first-class concern in software development projects. In particular, we present a systematic way of capturing, making explicit and effectively communicating human attitudes, beliefs and ways of thinking that influence individual and team work in software projects. Moreover, we provide an organised way to supplement and enhance software development methods, processes and project practice in order to explicitly take into account such human factors.

The article summarizes the trends in the development of the health care sector formed under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, namely: rising costs under the influence of inflation and supply chain problems, increasing the amount of investment in scientific research, growing demand for receiving care outside hospitals, deepening inequalities in access to medical services, shortage and exhaustion of medical workers, deterioration of mental health, increasing role of trusting personal relationship between patient and doctor, growing demand for affordable and safe treatment, remote monitoring and interaction between health care institutions, growing use of mobile applications (telemedicine, digital prescriptions and medical records, remote patient monitoring using wearables, personalized medicine and genomics, gaming applications, retail healthcare, clinical and fitness solutions, FinTech, mental health care. One notes that the sector health care as a component of the world economy is being transformed and improved under the influence of globalization and informatization processes, as well as under the influence of specific factors. The reports of the experts of the World Economic Forum, experts of the American Hospital Association, the National Management and Technology Consulting Firm “West Monroe”, the consulting firms “Precedence Research Healthcare IT Marke”, “Deloitte”, the International Independent Expert on the Quality of Informatization of Medical Care, the developers of HIMSS software products were analyzed and developers of software products. Medical technologies, telemedicine and predictive analytics sectors, as well as the use of artificial intelligence, are among the sectors with the highest growth intensity.

New product development (NPD) is essential for business success and growth. High- to medium-technology manufacturing sectors have introduced standard models. The adaptation of these systematic NPD procedures supported by appropriate decision support tools has provided significant benefits in production cost, product quality and supply chain availability. However, the challenges involved in NPD of food are rapidly increasing due to consumer demand for organic and healthy diets, in particular, more nutritious low-calorie food, and preference for customised and personalised food products. This has resulted in a proliferation of new varieties, types and shapes of food products that are constantly introduced. Most of these new products are developed based on company-specific ad hoc NPD procedures, within small to medium enterprises that form the biggest proportion of food producers in most developed countries. This highlights a need for further research into novel NPD methods and tools in the food sector. This communication provides an overview of the NPD processes, analyses their strengths and shortcomings and outlines critical missing capabilities for food manufacturers in specific.

New product development (NPD) is widely recognized as an important source of being a competitive advantage. It can bring considerable returns to an organization but can also be considered a risky process, such as making wrong decisions in the project selection or suffer consequences from using inexperienced project teams. This study aims to develop a risk management model to help NPD teams in managing risks with their projects. The conceptual framework is developed from three sources of publications; systematic literature review of academic research during year 2002-2012, the project management body of knowledge from a professional association and the international standards related to risk management. The model consists of risk identification and the risk analysis process to use for the prioritization of risk factors. Thirty-nine risk factors were identified during the study and the risk breakdown structure (RBS) for food NPD with twenty risk categories have been developed and used for risk identification. The model has been validated by four case studies of NPD projects in the food industry of Thailand. The major risks found in these case studies were the quality of raw materials, trade barriers for export, understanding of customer requirements, inconsistency of raw material costs, communication problems between R&D and the manufacturing team, NPD team knowledge in project management, human resource constraints and product formulation for scale-up.Refined risk assessment models have been used to develop risk assessment tool, consisting of risk identification by RBS and a risk checklist, and risk analysis by fuzzy inference systems. Some suggestions for risk response strategies have been studied and discussed in this research. This integrated tool can be further developed and commercialized as suggested in a business plan to use by NPD teams as a roadmap and process work-flow for risk management of a NPD project in the food industry. The user acceptance test for prototype of a risk assessment tool from research showed results of a 90.5% acceptance rate by users in the NPD team.

This study explores the relationship between the level of e-Branding and the Development of new products or services through regression analysis.The results show an extremely strong and statistically significant connection between these factors.Specifically, each increase in the level of e-Branding leads to a proportional increase in the level of Development of new products or services, with an estimate coefficient of (0.89) and a p-value of less than (0.0001).The high t-value (33.70) and standardized beta coefficient (0.897) indicate that the level of e-Branding is a key factor in predicting the level of Development of new products or services in the market, while the VIF value (1) eliminates the possibility of multicollinearity.These results underline the importance of the level of e-Branding in modern business and suggest that companies actively investing in digital marketing strategies, such as social media, SEO, and e-commerce, are more likely to achieve market success.The study provides valuable insights for managers and marketing professionals, highlighting the need for the continuous development of e-Branding as a fundamental tool for improving market position and competitiveness in the Development of new products or services.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to gain knowledge on the impact of customer integration on the new product development of chemical companies in growing markets. The literature affirms the value of customer integration in the new product development, but it is relatively silent on the integration of value-adding partners, who are located further down the value chain. Considerable research has shown that organizations are more successful, when they integrate customers and suppliers into the product development and design process. The research described herein juxtaposes two modes of current theory on customer integration and refines and expands the existing theoretical framework. Hence, the purpose is to build theories from cases to provide an answer to the question of how an organization adopts customer integration by refining the understanding of the different roles of value-adding partners in the innovation process. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses an extended case method, including the resource-based view, literature related to the customer integration and four cases as a basis for establishing theoretical framework. Several in-depth interviews were conducted to gather information on the managerial practice to strengthen the grounding of theory. Findings An explorative study provides a value chain-oriented theory for chemical companies to improve the efficiency of the product development process. Therefore, it differentiates between the integration of direct and indirect customers. Each party can bring in complementary resources, which are not available internally. The findings show that integration of indirect customers contributes to more accurate anticipation of market needs. This allows companies to increase their success rate for new product development (NPD) activities. Research limitations/implications The results of this explorative study cannot be generalized, as theory building from case studies stands on its own analytic unit. Therefore, scholars are encouraged to test the proposed propositions using quantitative data and to apply them in other industrial sectors. Practical implications The paper includes implications for the development of a more efficient research and development, as well as launch, process of radical innovation of chemical companies. Originality/value This is one of the first studies using a value chain-oriented approach for customer integration during new product development.

New product development (NPD) is one of the important operations for the sustainable company, and the performance of NPD is a very serious concern for the company profit making. Properly evaluating NPD project performance could greatly benefit the NPD process. During NPD, design changes from inside or outside of the project team will have great influences on the project performance. The negative influences of those changes on performance could be reduced through proper project management actions. This thesis performs a case study analyzing operating data and the influencing factors in different NPD projects to provide reference for future NPD project practices. The main outcomes of the study include the need for the combined considerations on the source and content of design change, the project type, and the stage of project while researching the relationship between design change and project performance. In addition, properly implementing project management actions including communication and coordination, knowledge and problem solving, and organization management abilities could reduce the negative influences of the design change on project performance during NPD.