Identification of Project-Related Context Factors for the Tailored Design of Hybrid Development Processes

Abstract

To fulfil the strategic importance of product development, manufacturing companies need to deal with the underlying processes. As plan-driven approaches have proven to be too inflexible for today’s market dynamics, development projects are alternatively carried out by using agile process models. However, while a too high degree of agility leads to efficiency problems, a too low degree brings major challenges in market competition. As a result, a multitude of hybrid approaches as an integration of agile and plan-driven processes arise. When defining those hybrid processes, the project context should be taken into account. The consideration of the context is decisive for an optimal process performance. Therefore, the focus of this research lies on the identification of relevant context factors. The knowledge of those factors enables the characterisation of each project individually and subsequently supports determining the appropriate level of agility as a prerequisite for adjusting the optimal hybrid development approach.