article

Developing Products on "Internet Time": The Anatomy of a Flexible Development Process

Authors:

Alan MacCormack,

Roberto Verganti,

Marco IansitiAuthors Info & Claims

Management Science, Volume 47, Issue 1

Pages 133 - 150

Published: 01 January 2001 Publication History

Abstract

Uncertain and dynamic environments present fundamental challenges to managers of the new product development process. Between successive product generations, significant evolutions can occur in both the customer needs a product must address and the technologies it employs to satisfy these needs. Even within a single development project, firms must respond to new information, or risk developing a product that is obsolete the day it is launched. This paper examines the characteristics of an effective development process in one such environment-the Internet software industry. Using data on 29 completed development projects we show that in this industry, constructs that support a more flexible development process are associated with better-performing projects. This flexible process is characterized by the ability to generate and respond to new information for a longer proportion of a development cycle. The constructs that support such a process are greater investments in architectural design, earlier feedback on product performance from the market, and the use of a development team with greater amounts of "generational" experience. Our results suggest that investments in architectural design play a dual role in a flexible process: First, through the need to select an architecture that maximizes product performance and, second, through the need to select an architecture that facilitates development process flexibility. We provide examples from our fieldwork to support this view.

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Index Terms

Developing Products on "Internet Time": The Anatomy of a Flexible Development Process
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Software management
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management

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cover image Management Science

Management Science Volume 47, Issue 1

January 2001

206 pages

ISSN:0025-1909

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Publisher

INFORMS

Linthicum, MD, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 January 2001

Received: 18 April 1999

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