The application of agile frameworks and practices in product development

Product development faces increasing challenges in today’s fast-evolving environment. Agile has emerged as a promising approach to navigate and succeed under such conditions. Grounded in the values and principles of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, practitioners have designed agile frameworks and practices that have demonstrated significant benefits in software development. Motivated by these benefits, organisations are now extending the application of agile frameworks and practices to their product development systems.However, applying agile frameworks and practices in product development is far from straightforward. Organisations must address the inherent challenges within these frameworks and practices and reconcile them with the unique characteristics of product development, often with limited guidance from existing literature. Despite its growing popularity among researchers and practitioners, the application of agile frameworks and practices in product development remains an immature phenomenon.This dissertation explores the application of agile frameworks and practices, focusing on factors, adaptations, and implications that arise. Drawing on three case studies, it demonstrates that a critical factor influencing this application is knowledge specialisation and the presence of shared knowledge frames within epistemic communities. Furthermore, the dissertation identifies key adaptations, including agile teams tailored for product development, a loose Definition of Done, and the use of Result Definition and Project Main Plan. These adaptations evolve bidirectionally: while agile frameworks and practices are adapted to fit the characteristics of product development, product development itself is also adapted to accommodate agile frameworks and practices. The dissertation shows that applying agile frameworks and practices brings benefits, such as addressing challenges linked to the temporariness of product development project teams, while also raising tensions, including constraints on resource reallocation, inward team focus, and dilemmas between team members’ knowledge breadth and depth. The dissertation highlights the iterative nature of this application, which requires knowledge integration through a collaborative process that enables epistemic communities to preserve their own understanding of agile while redefining a shared understanding.Finally, the dissertation calls for further research across diverse organisational and industry contexts to identify additional influencing factors, adaptations, and implications. It also urges moving beyond intra-organisational applications to explore the application of agile frameworks and practices in inter-organisational product development efforts.