Reducing Product Development Lead Time With an Agile Way of Working

Abstract

Reducing time to market is a crucial aspect in product development as more products are being developed than ever before. Being fast to market can come with various benefits, such as a competitive advantage, being a technical pioneer, and higher profits from introducing the product faster. Consequently, it is valuable for companies to investigate how they can reduce time to market. One of the newest approaches used in New Product Development (NPD) is Agile product development. The Agile methodology responds to the shortcomings of traditional development methodologies, which view changes as something that has to be eliminated instead of being incorporated. Today, companies apply the Agile way of working in the hope of reducing product development lead time and improving their overall processes. This has led to Husqvarna Construction Products (HCP) looking into the potential of applying an Agile way of working in their NPD process to reduce time to market. A research was conducted at HCP in the form of a case study with a qualitative approach. The researchers formulated two research questions to fulfill the purpose of the study. The first research question was used to analyze if an Agile way of working could reduce the product development lead time. The second research question was designed to identify the challenges that may emerge when implementing Agile into an organization characterized by traditional development processes. The study’s findings support that an Agile way of working can reduce product development lead time if implemented efficiently. The study aimed at identifying challenges in HCP’s NPD process. These challenges were divided into three categories: challenges related to the early phases, process-related challenges, and communication challenges. The researchers analyzed if an Agile way of working could solve these challenges by applying different tools, artefacts, and roles from Agile-Scrum. The study concludes that using an Agile way of working can be helpful to solve some of the challenges identified at HCP and achieve a shorter time to market. The study’s findings also show that various challenges may emerge when transforming from a traditional development process to a more Agile way of working. The researchers recommend that HCP look into the Agile-Stage-Gate hybrid model because this approach has shown to be effective in reducing time to market.