Methodology for Determining Agile Product Scopes in Development Projects

Abstract

In today's fast-paced and unpredictable business environment, manufacturing companies are exposed to increasingly dynamic market conditions and volatilely changing customer expectations. Therefore, a complete definition of requirement specifications is often not possible, as customer needs in early development phases may strongly differ from needs in advanced phases. One way to encounter these challenges is the application of agile methods from software industry to the development of physical products. However, companies face high barriers during the implementation of agile methods in physical product development. This paper introduces a methodology to determine the application suitability of agile methods for highly interconnected physical products by using Agile Indicators. Agile Indicators are metrics that support the decision-making process for or against agile development methods at the level of individual product scopes. In order to do so, a classification of different types of development questions derived from uncertain requirements is presented. Subsequently, product scopes are determined in accordance with the existing development questions. In a next step, the derived product scopes are evaluated with Agile Indicators and the interdependencies between product scopes are analyzed. Based on this analysis a final selection of product scopes for agile development can be conducted.