Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T13:05:50.425Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agile Product Development: Features Identification and Application in the Electricity Sector

Part of: Innovation Engineering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Artur Tavares Vilas Boas Ribeiro ,
Lorenna Fernandes Leal ,
Guilherme Soares Gurgel do Amaral ,
Ricardo Kahn ,
Bruno Guilherme Pacci Evaristo ,
Victor Romão ,
G Altmann Ricardo ,
R Avó Marcos ,
Mario Sergio Salerno  and
Guilherme Ary Plonski
...Show all authors
Artur Tavares Vilas Boas Ribeiro
Affiliation:
University of Sao Paulo;
Lorenna Fernandes Leal
Affiliation:
University of Sao Paulo;
Guilherme Soares Gurgel do Amaral
Affiliation:
ISA CTEEP;
Ricardo Kahn
Affiliation:
ISA CTEEP;
Bruno Guilherme Pacci Evaristo
Affiliation:
Lunica
Victor Romão
Affiliation:
Lunica
G Altmann Ricardo
Affiliation:
Lunica
R Avó Marcos
Affiliation:
Lunica
Mario Sergio Salerno
Affiliation:
University of Sao Paulo;
Guilherme Ary Plonski
Affiliation:
University of Sao Paulo;
Eduardo Zancul*
Affiliation:
University of Sao Paulo;
*
Contact: Zancul, Eduardo, University of Sao Paulo, Departamento de Engenharia de Produção, Brazil, [email protected]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The electricity sector is in the midst of a structural change driven by new technologies. In Brazil, the electricity sector regulation has mechanisms to foster innovation, including investments in R&D. Recently, the regulatory agency and the industry have been calling for approaches to increase the rate at which R&D departments generate solutions that end up being adopted. As a result, novel approaches to R&D project management have entered the agenda. In this context, the objective of this paper is to characterise Agile Product Development and its application in a highly regulated sector. The paper presents a systematic literature review with the debates about Agile and new product development. Then, a case study exploring an early adoption of the Agile approach in R&D project management in the Brazilian electricity sector is presented. Results include the identification of the Agile features most frequently mentioned in the literature. Moreover, the case study explores the Agile features that were more easily absorbed in early adoption, such as iterative patterns, and discusses implementation challenges in team structure, feedback loops, and communication.

Keywords

New product developmentLean designDesign processCase study
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 2149 - 2158
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

References

Beck, K., Beedle, M., Van Bennekum, A., Cockburn, A., Cunningham, W., Fowler, M., Grenning, J., Highsmith, J., Hunt, A., Jeffries, R. and Kern, J. (2001), Manifesto for Agile software development.Google Scholar
Carvalho, M., Fleury, A. and Lopes, A.P. (2013), “An overview of the literature on technology roadmapping (TRM): Contributions and trends”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 80 No. 7, pp. 1418–1437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2012.11.008Google Scholar
Carvalho, R. Q., Santos, G.V. and Barros Neto, M.C. (2013), “R&D+ i strategic management in a public company in the Brazilian electric sector”, Journal of Technology Management & Innovation, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 235–250. http://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-27242013000200019Google Scholar
Chuang, S.W., Luor, T. and Lu, H.P. (2014), “Assessment of institutions, scholars, and contributions on Agile software development (2001–2012)”, Journal of Systems and Software, Vol. 93, pp. 84–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2014.03.006Google Scholar
Conboy, K. (2009), “Agility from first principles: Reconstructing the concept of agility in information systems development”, Information Systems Research, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 329–354. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.1090.0236Google Scholar
Conforto, E.C., Amaral, D.C., da Silva, S.L., Di Felippo, A. and Kamikawachi, D.S.L. (2016), “The agility construct on project management theory” International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 34 No. 4, pp. 660–674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.01.007Google Scholar
Conforto, E.C., Salum, F., Amaral, D.C., da Silva, S.L. and de Almeida, L.F.M. (2014), Can Agile project management be adopted by industries other than software development?”, Project Management Journal, Vol. 45 No. 3, pp. 21–34. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21410Google Scholar
Conforto, E.C. and Amaral, D.C. (2016), “Agile project management and stage-gate model—A hybrid framework for technology-based companies”, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Vol. 40, pp. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtecman.2016.02.003Google Scholar
Cooper, R.G. (2014), “What's next?: After stage-gate”, Research-Technology Management, Vol. 57 No. 1, pp. 20–31. https://doi.org/10.5437/08956308X5606963Google Scholar
Cooper, R.G. (2016), “Agile–Stage-Gate Hybrids: The Next Stage for Product Development Blending Agile and Stage-Gate methods can provide flexibility, speed, and improved communication in new-product development”, Research-Technology Management, Vol. 59 No. 1, pp. 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2016.1117317Google Scholar
Cooper, R.G. and Sommer, A.F. (2016a), “The Agile–Stage-Gate Hybrid Model: A Promising New Approach and a New Research Opportunity”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 513–526. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12314Google Scholar
Cooper, R.G. and Sommer, A.F. (2016b), “Agile-Stage-Gate: New idea-to-launch method for manufactured new products is faster, more responsive”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 59, pp. 167–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.10.006Google Scholar
Cooper, R.G. (2017), “Idea-to-Launch Gating Systems: Better, Faster, and More Agile: Leading firms are rethinking and reinventing their idea-to-launch gating systems, adding elements of Agile to traditional Stage-Gate structures to add flexibility and speed while retaining structure”, Research-Technology Management, Vol. 60 No. 1, pp. 48–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2017.1255057Google Scholar
Cooper, R.G. and Sommer, A.F. (2018), “Agile–Stage-Gate for Manufacturers: Changing the Way New Products Are Developed Integrating Agile project management methods into a Stage-Gate system offers both opportunities and challenges”, Research-Technology Management, Vol. 61 No. 2, pp. 17–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2018.1421380Google Scholar
Di Silvestre, M.L., Favuzza, S., Sanseverino, E.R. and Zizzo, G. (2018), “How Decarbonization, Digitalization and Decentralization are changing key power infrastructures”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 93, pp. 483–498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.05.068Google Scholar
Dingsøyr, T., Nerur, S., Balijepally, V. and Moe, N.B. (2012), “A decade of Agile methodologies: Towards explaining Agile software development”, Journal of Systems and Software, Vol. 85 No. 6, pp. 1213–1221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2012.02.033Google Scholar
Dybå, T. and Dingsøyr, T. (2008), “Empirical studies of Agile software development: A systematic review. Information and software technology, Vol. 50 No. 9–10, pp. 833–859. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2008.01.006Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, B., Stol, K.J., O'Sullivan, R. and O'Brien, D. (2013), May. “Scaling Agile methods to regulated environments: An industry case study”. In Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Software Engineering (pp. 863–872). IEEE Press. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE.2013.6606635Google Scholar
Grimheden, M.E. (2013), “Can Agile methods enhance mechatronics design education?”, Mechatronics, Vol. 23 No. 8, pp. 967–973. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mechatronics.2013.01.003Google Scholar
Giorgadze, L., Alibiev, D., Chirico, G.D. and Kazhikenova, A.S. (2017), Minimization of product defects by the means of implementing correct test pyramid in the software development process.Google Scholar
Ghobakhloo, M. and Azar, A. (2018), “Business excellence via advanced manufacturing technology and lean-Agile manufacturing”, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-03-2017-0049Google Scholar
Karlstrom, D. and Runeson, P. (2005), “Combining Agile methods with stage-gate project management”, IEEE software, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 43–49. https://doi.org/10.1109/MS.2005.59Google Scholar
Leite, M. and Braz, V. (2016), “Agile manufacturing practices for new product development: industrial case studies”, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 560–576. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-09-2015-0073Google Scholar
MacCormack, A., Crandall, W., Henderson, P. and Toft, P. (2012), “Do you need a new product-development strategy?”, Research-Technology Management, Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 34–43. https://doi.org/10.5437/08956308X5501014Google Scholar
Pikkarainen, M. and Passoja, U. (2005), June. “An approach for assessing suitability of Agile solutions: A case study”. In International Conference on Extreme Programming and Agile Processes in Software Engineering (pp. 171–179). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11499053_20Google Scholar
Reich, Y. and Subrahmanian, E. (2017), “The PSI matrix–A framework and a theory of design”. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED17), Vol. 7: Design Theory and Research Methodology, Vancouver, Canada, 21.–25.08.2017.Google Scholar
Ries, E. (2011), The lean startup: How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Crown Books.Google Scholar
Ries, E. (2017), The Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-term Growth. Penguin Random House LLC, New York.Google Scholar
Schön, E.M., Escalona, M.J. and Thomaschewski, J. (2015), “Agile values and their implementation in practice”, IJIMAI, Vol. 3 No. 5, pp. 61–66. https://doi.org/10.9781/ijimai.2015.358Google Scholar
Serrador, P. and Pinto, J.K. (2015), Does Agile work?—A quantitative analysis of Agile project success. International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 1040–1051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.01.006Google Scholar
Smith, P.G. (2008), “Change: Embrace it, don't deny it”, Research-Technology Management, Vol. 51 No. 4, pp. 34–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2008.11657512Google Scholar
Sommer, A.F., Hedegaard, C., Dukovska-Popovska, I. and Steger-Jensen, K. (2015), “Improved product development performance through Agile/Stage-Gate hybrids: The next-generation Stage-Gate process?”, Research-Technology Management, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 34–45. https://doi.org/10.5437/08956308X5801236Google Scholar
Sagar, A. D. and Van der Zwaan, B. (2006), “Technological innovation in the energy sector: R&D, deployment, and learning-by-doing”, Energy Policy, Vol. 34 No. 17, pp. 2601–2608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2005.04.012Google Scholar
Subrahmanian, E., Eckert, C., McMahon, C. and Reich, Y. (2017), “Economic development as design: Insight and guidance through the PSI framework”, In: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED17), Vol. 1: Resource-Sensitive Design | Design Research Applications and Case Studies, Vancouver, Canada, 21.–25.08.2017.Google Scholar
Tura, N., Hannola, L. and Pynnönen, M. (2017), “Agile Methods for Boosting the Commercialization Process of New Technology”, International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, Vol. 14 No. 03, p. 1750013. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219877017500134Google Scholar
Waldron, K. (2017), “Implementing a collaborative working environment using Agile: the lexisnexis experience. Legal Information Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 16–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S147266961700007XGoogle Scholar