Analyzing current Challenges on Scaled Agile Development of Physical Products

Abstract

Agile development has successfully established itself for coping with VUCA conditions on a team level. Furthermore, in developing cyber-physical systems or mechatronic products, the collaboration of multiple teams is often necessary. This necessity to scale contrasts with the paradigm of agile development from which additional challenges arise. The study examines the current challenges in scaling agile product development, characterized by scale-related challenges and physical constraints. This paper provides an empirical investigation to address these challenges. This publication shows that product development's top challenges are synchronization, coordination, resource allocation, and dependencies between different organizational units. It is determined that the challenges in the non-scaled environment also apply to scaling; however, substantial differences in their dependencies exist. Furthermore, an attempt to explain differences in scaled agile software development using comparative analysis is given. It becomes apparent that challenges such as production setup or physical limitations are non-existent.