What is Agile Product Development?

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Agile Product Development Definition

Agile product development is the strategy of leveraging digital technologies (e.g., the Cloud) and iterative design methods to help minimize risks and respond rapidly to change throughout the new product development process. Many companies adopt cloud-native product lifecycle management (PLM) and quality management system (QMS) solutions to facilitate real-time, frequent collaboration across internal teams and external partners. This keeps everyone in on the same page and on track with meeting key deliverables. Teams also gain greater visibility and can respond quickly to design errors, part shortages, and other issues that impact the final product release.

By dividing the product development process into short iterations or sprints, cross-functional teams can evaluate different requirements and optimize the design through continuous feedback. Ultimately, companies deliver products faster and reduce costs, while providing more value to customers. Although this iterative approach is traditionally associated with software, it can also apply to other aspects of product development including hardware design.

FAQs

What is Agile in product management?

Driven by the Agile Manifesto of software development, agile product management fosters close collaboration between cross-functional design and development teams, quicker review and response cycles, consistent customer feedback, better visibility for informed decision-making, and enhanced product innovations. With agile product management teams work in parallel and are aligned on all development activities vs. the traditional waterfall method where teams work separately in an unorganized process creating silos of information that result in delays, rework, and reduced product quality.

Why Agile is good for product development?

Adopting the agile methodology is good for product development because it is an iterative process that allows internal teams and external supply chain partners to collaborate, consistently incorporate customer feedback, and address issues early in the product design. Agile enables organizations to react and adapt quickly to external disruptions and more easily overcome new product development roadblocks.

What are 3 Agile practices?

Three core agile practices include:

  1. Collaboration- agile emphasizes open collaboration and transparent communication across all product teams.
  2. Rapid iterations- rapidly and frequently testing potential options to help build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
  3. Customer feedback- the ultimate goal of the agile methodology is to quickly process customer feedback and incorporate product changes that meet customer expectations and needs.
Is agile important for product management?

Agile redefines how product managers approach product planning and development. In comparison to traditional planning and development, an agile framework offers a more flexible environment. Since products are developed in a collaborative way, using small steps early in the design, companies can speed cycles, save costs, and meet customer needs.

Embracing a New Era of Product Development

Manufacturers are rethinking traditional product development practices as teams become more dispersed, global competition grows, and the demand for smarter, more connected products increase.

To stay ahead of the competition and keep up with demand, companies must embrace a new era of product development and utilize agile methodologies. Read everything you need to know about agile product development.

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