Concept for Organizational Structures of Agile Development Networks

Abstract

Today's development projects take place in an environment characterized by with fast-paced changes of market conditions. This development leads to new challenges for the manufacturing industry, especially in high-wage countries. One response to these challenges is the adaptation of agile practices from the software industry to R{\&}D departments of manufacturing companies. The main objectives are improved adaptability to changing requirements and a reduced time-to-market. At the same time, rising complexity of technical systems leads to a growing variety of stakeholders and competences involved in a development project. The required capabilities are increasingly provided in so-called product development networks. This paper presents a methodology to increase the innovation productivity of agile development networks by phase-oriented configuration of relevant elements of the underlying organizational structure of the network. The objective is to leverage the advantages of the mentioned approaches and to create a framework for designing agile development networks.