A dynamic model for managing overlapped iterative product development

Abstract

Intense competition in many industries impels firms to develop more products in less time. Overlapping of development activities is regarded as one of the most promising strategies to reduce project cycle time. However, the gain from overlapping must be weighed against the additional resource and time for rework. This paper presents a new product development (NPD) process model, termed Dynamic Development Process Model (DDPM), for managing overlapped iterative product development. We validated the model with data from a mobile phone development project. The DDPM was employed to identify appropriate policies for the overlapped iterative projects in the case study company. These identified policies were implemented in the company and led to marked improvement in project performance, thus demonstrating the viability of our model. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.