High-tech product development in agile mode makes concurrent engineering fully possible even with large cross-functional teams.
The value delivered to the customer, enabled by digital models, pretotypes extends the value of working software, expressed by the agile manifesto.
Value delivered to the customer drives teams beyond releasing the working product.
This is the story of what was done in a high-tech company that develops radar equipment.
The special features of high-tech product development
The development of a high-tech product is characterized by the following significant elements:
- There is strong integration between Hardware and Software
- The software is at different levels such as Firmware, SW CPU and SW PC
- Products often work under extreme operating conditions
- Many skills are required
- It is necessary to break down the project into the hardware part and the software part by taking care of their integration
- A lot of experimentation is needed given the interaction between hardware and software.
The critical issues of high-tech product development
There are the following critical development factors:
- Concurrent engineering is very difficult to achieve in sequential process
- Can’t wait for requirements to be completed before starting any development due to short lead time
- It is difficult to make integrations between design, production and purchasing.
- Experimentation is done with breadboards, mockups, structural models, or simulators
- People are focused on domain skills and local optimum
The approaches required for the development of physical products
High-tech product development as with all physical products requires 2 integrated approaches:
- The development of alternative solutions to compare with each other
- The same functionality can be realized in different ways each with advantages and disadvantages.
- Concurrent design or concurrent engineering
- Different departments work simultaneously on different aspects and/or stages of product development.
- The alternative solutions that are designed and/or developed are analyzed and evaluated from the different perspectives that each department brings.
The high-tech product development with agility
Agile development proceeds by small steps or iterations of process.
Product increments and changes (product iterations) are developed at each step
These increments and changes may not be functioning elements of the product.
Indeed, it should be remembered that it brings value to the customer or stakeholders anything that allows them to direct development as:
- Product forerunners or pretotypes
- Simulations and digital models
- Product updates
Agile development that proceeds in steps with increments and product changes effectively encapsulates concurrent engineering:
- At the end of each step of development, the work done is presented (Sprint Review)
- In the following next step planning meeting (sprint planning), the items that have emerged are discussed and planned if they need to be developed.
- Sprint Review and Sprint Planning events are really operational design review meetings
This provides a process that continuously carries out the design review meetings that are critical to concurrent engineering.
The Agile approach, allows development to begin with still incomplete requirements that themselves become deliverables.
This allows requirements to be refined according to what emerges in the early stages of product development.
In this way, product development becomes technically feasible and sustainable for the customer, the company, and the team.
These are elements of the development process that I experienced with teams at a company in Rome that builds high-tech radar equipment.
The process of developing high-tech products has many other implications, both technical and human, which we are addressing with management and teams.
I like to mention in particular:
- The compatibility of agility with medium- and long-term planning typical of high-tech products
- The impact of the agile approach on the work of development teams in offices and labs
The human aspect is the most relevant, and I will return to these topics with a more article.
