Evaluating an Agile Method for Planning and Controlling Innovative Projects

This article presents an extensive investigation carried out in two technology-based companies of the São Carlos technological pole in Brazil. Based on this multiple case study and literature review, a method, entitled hereafter IVPM2, applying agile project management (APM) principles was developed. After the method implementation, a qualitative evaluation was carried out by a document analysis and questionnaire application. This article shows that the application of this method at the companies under investigation evidenced the benefits of using simple, iterative, visual, and agile techniques to plan and control innovative product projects combined with traditional project management best practices, such as standardization.

[1]  Timothy J. Kloppenborg,et al.  The Current State of Project Management Research: Trends, Interpretations, and Predictions , 2002 .

[2]  D. Coghlan,et al.  Action research for operations management , 2002 .

[3]  Lynn Crawford,et al.  Developing Organizational Project Management Capability: Theory and Practice , 2006 .

[4]  Terry Williams,et al.  The Need for New Paradigms for Complex Projects , 1999 .

[5]  Karlos Artto,et al.  Change decisions in product development projects , 2007 .

[6]  David Matheson,et al.  Value Innovation: Passport to Wealth Creation , 2005 .

[7]  Jan Terje Karlsen,et al.  Perspectives on project management , 2007 .

[8]  Paul A. Szulewski.  Book Review: Next Generation Product Development: How to Increase Productivity, Cut Costs, and Reduce Cycle Times by Michael E. McGrath , 2005 .

[9]  Kenneth H. Rose,et al.  Book Review: Government Extension to a Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)-Third Edition , 2006 .

[10]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: PAST RESEARCH, PRESENT FINDINGS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS , 1995 .

[11]  H. Maylor.  Beyond the Gantt chart:: Project management moving on , 2001 .

[12]  Svetlana. Cicmil,et al.  New Possibilities for Project Management Theory: A Critical Engagement , 2006 .

[13]  Joyce Fortune,et al.  Current practice in project management — an empirical study , 2002 .

[14]  Rosa Oppenheim,et al.  Winning at New Products , 1990 .

[15]  R. Tijssen.  Science dependence of technologies: evidence from inventions and their inventors , 2002 .

[16]  Aaron J. Shenhar,et al.  Project Management Research—The Challenge and Opportunity , 2007, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[17]  Gad Vitner,et al.  Project Control: Literature Review , 2006 .

[18]  Robert G. Cooper,et al.  Perspective: The Stage‐Gate® Idea‐to‐Launch Process—Update, What's New, and NexGen Systems* , 2008 .

[19]  Jonas Söderlund,et al.  On the broadening scope of the research on projects: A review and a model for analysis , 2004 .

[20]  W. R. Howard.  Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products , 2010 .