Methodology for the evaluation and selection of the suitability of highly iterative product development methods for individual segments of an overall development project

Today´s challenge for manufacturing companies is the fulfillment of constantly growing heterogeneous customer requirements by simultaneously delivering highest quality standards within shortest time. One way to face this challenge is the highly iterative product development approach. Its objective is the distribution of the current development process in many short and iterative sub-processes. This procedure enables a regular involvement of customers in the development process and an early validation of the development status, which jointly results in customer-specific and marketable products. However, most companies do not know how this short-cycle concept can be used in development projects. This is due to the fact that most published papers just describe the highly iterative methods, however, without considering the suitability of these methods for individual development scopes. This paper aims at the presentation of a methodology for the evaluation and selection of highly iterative product development methods depending on the individual development scopes.