Applying scrum in new product development process

Abstract

For all organisations New Product Development (NPD) [1, 2], is a sophisticated process, necessary for introducing successfully the product on the market. Successfully means: customer satisfaction, benefits for organisation, new organisational and personal skills and experiences. The NPD process fulfils all conditions of project’s definition; that’s why many authors present the possibilities of applying to NPD process management instruments, specific for project management. Such attempts are limited to classical project managements methodologies and tools. Recently we observe growing interest in Scrum methodology, [3, 4]. Introduced for IT project management, nowadays is transferring completely or partially to manage the projects in other than IT fields of activities - healthcare, finance, consulting, education, and others, giving good results. This paper is a conceptual one, presenting an attempt made to show the possibility, utility and manner of transferring principal elements of Scrum toward NPD process. The objective of the paper is turn spotlight of New Product Development specialists on such possibility and encourage them to apply Scrum in this process management. The objective is achieved mainly in Sect. 5, where for all steps and activities in NPD process, their classification has been done, dividing them on unique or cyclical. The last ones (they are in the majority) can be managed according to Scrum methodology. It has been shown, for respective Scrum elements: roles, events and artefacts, how they can work in NPD process management. This study needs further research and empirical verification.