Agile teams in physical product development: characteristics and implications

In the physical product development context, agile practices, particularly agile teams, are seldom applied as originally intended. They are often equated with traditional project teams, which conflicts with the fundamental principles of agile teams, undermining several associated benefits. Unlike traditional project teams, agile teams are ideally stable, focusing on continuously delivering value to customers, blurring the traditional project-product divide. Studies on agile teams in physical product development are largely absent in the scientific literature. This article presents a case study of agile teams developing mechanical subsystems for complex commercial products. Based on the case, this study introduces a model highlighting three characteristics of agile teams in physical product development, in this article referred to agile physical product (APP) teams: explicit product focus, permanent product platform-modules responsibility, and combined new product development and product improvement responsibility. Derived from these characteristics, eight implications of such teams are discussed and presented as propositions to guide future research. The tensions between these implications are also discussed. The findings contribute to the research on agile practices in physical product development by providing empirical insights into the characteristics of agile teams and their implications within this context.