Stage-Gate™ vs. DPD in software development
Year: 2004
Editor: S. Vajna
Author: Ottosson, S.
Abstract
Product Development is complex as it is time dependent and many agents participate during the development process. When comparing the efficiency of development processes - measured e.g. in development time, cost and user satisfaction – the internal factors that should be considered are management principles, physical environment, tools & methods, financial resources, organisation & work, and the people doing the work. To deepen the knowledge of product development mechanical field, two software development cases (web portals) have been studied. Case 1 was performed in 2003 in Gothenburg, Sweden according to Stage-Gate™ principles. Case 2 was also performed in Gothenburg during January and February of 2004 according to dynamic product development (DPD) principles. Both cases solved the same problem. Case 2 had more functionality than Case 1. For Case 1 Time to Sales was 30 weeks compared to 3 weeks for Case 2. For Case 1 Time to Ready Products was 30 weeks while for Case 2 it was 10 weeks. The programming time was 400 - 500 hours in the first case while it was 250 hours in the second case. Thus DPD showed to be as advantageous for software development as it has been shown to be for the development of mechanical products, mecatronic products, and assistive products e.g. for disabled people. A side conclusion from the investigations is that the traditional outsider researcher position using interviews gave only rough information of Case 1 while IAR gave detailed information and understanding of Case 2.
Keywords: Product development, Software development, Research methods