Absolute Orange

Agile methodologies and new product development

Written on Mon, 1st August 2011
By Amy Varga

Agile methodologies differ from other project management methods because it does not "...assume that the entire set of requirements and activities can be forecast at the beginning of the project. Agile methods combine all the elements of product development, such as requirements, analysis, design, development and testing in brief, regular iterations. Every iteration delivers a working product or prototype, and the response to that product or prototype serve as crucial input into the succeeding iterations." [Successful projects through Agile project management, 2010. Nancy Nee [online] Available at: Successful projects through Agile project management [Accessed 23 July 2011]]

The definition above emphasizes the importance of delivering a working product at every iteration however, in new product development there is no existing product. Furthermore, building a new product has many challenges and unknowns. Whilst using agile is desirable there are a number of risk factors, which include:

1. Changing core requirements
   Agile works very well in managing changes to feature level requirements as long as the core architecture stays stable. In new product development requirements that affect the core system or its architecture are common. Having a clear indication of these requirements during the analysis phase of new product development gives development teams the opportunity to prototype these features without risking other development efforts from being rendered useless as changes occur in core requirements.
2. Unknown technical challenges that have not been verified with a prototype
   For a new product, the number of unknown technical challenges (ideas that have not been proven to work) is way bigger than for an established product. It is usually necessary to identify these challenges, understand their impact, plan contingencies and prove the ideas sooner than later. If one of these efforts ends up falling in the later phases of agile development, this could have devastating effects on the overall delivery plans for the product.
3. Incomplete system architecture
   System architecture provides guidance and framework to make sure that the individual pieces of a new product are coming together the right way. Not having complete core architecture is like a bunch of people walking on their own paths with a 'hope' that they are going to meet somewhere. Agile methodology has provisions for bringing different parts of the project to sync-up together at the end of each phase. Having a framework to assess where the overall project is going and how it can come together is a key to ensure timely delivery of the entire product (especially when the product is being developed for the first time).
4. Lack of Framework for Continuous Integration
   Agile methodology requires that there be a way to continuously integrate the features being developed. Not having a framework to integrate, test and verify that the features are working together as intended could seriously hurt the project and may make integration effort a whole lot more challenging than it needs to be. [Agile methodology and new product development: four key issues, 2008. Alok [online] Available at: Agile methodology and new product development: four key issues [Accessed 23 July 2011]]

These challenges reiterate the importance of a defining a blueprint of the new product in the initial analysis and design stages of the development cycle. With this understanding systems and architectures can be designed and developed to support the anticipated concept of the product. It also stands that this blueprint is likely to change with each iteration and subsequent review.

Development of the new product using an agile approach would require that the first phase of the development of the new product should produce a very basic, featureless, working product.

The delivery of the basic product would then be reviewed by all stakeholders, including marketing, design, users (based on user testing) and the client. This review would provide input into the product backlog which would be prioritized by the product owner.

Agile methodologies would then allow for iterations on this product which would result in the implementation of enhancements and features whose priority could change with review and feedback.