Agility vs. Engineering
Is agile product development and the application of engineering practices a contradiction, can they be combined or do they even complement each other? In this article we want to investigate this question.
Category: Agile Hardware Development
Version 1 launched! Our scaled agile development framework for physical products
The P4-Dev framework describes a new type of organizational structure for companies that develop physical products. Together with its sister framework P4-Ops for operational business, it describes a holistic operating system for product creation in modern organizations that implement the principles of lean, agility and New Work. Version 1 has now been launched in German…
Gap Mapping: Transparency and Structure of Product Developments
In discussing what product development actually is, I like to argue that product development is the “management of uncertainty.” Unfortunately, many believe that it will only be possible to reach their goal with a detailled plan, that will only be executed. Such plans are often requested by management, so that only then a project may…
Why I favour Knowledge Gaps over Hypotheses
Hypothesis is a term and concept used by Eric Ries’ Lean Startup. The idea behind it is that the organization confirms or disproves one or more (business) assumptions as quickly as possible. Quote from Eric Ries on 4 common misconceptions about lean startup: “I have the idea of fail almost. It’s like I’m trying to…
Better innovations under pressure, deadlines and conflicting goals
How does deadline pressure affect the quality of results? I often experience project teams being formed with the goal of developing innovative new ideas and technologies under pressure. In order to give the team a sense of urgency and to get results as soon as possible, management sets tight time limits.
Differences in the development of physical and IT & service products
When introducing agile frameworks and methods, I often hear that agile working in the development of physical products is not possible. I agree that some extensions are useful or even necessary, but the principles are very applicable. So in this article, I’d like to take a closer look at the differences between the realities of…