SYNCHRONIZATION IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: A LITERATURE STUDY ON CHALLENGES AND PRACTICES
DS 84: Proceedings of the DESIGN 2016 14th International Design Conference
Year: 2016
Editor: Marjanovic Dorian, Storga Mario, Pavkovic Neven, Bojcetic Nenad, Skec Stanko
Author: Chucholowski, N.; Lehmer, K.; Rebentisch, E.; Lindemann, U.
Series: DESIGN
Section: DESIGN ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT
Page(s): 1465-1474
Abstract
Product development projects face a high degree of complexity due to e.g. modular product portfolios, ambiguous goals, distributed teams and interdisciplinary work. This creates challenges in aligning and coordinating interdependent activities (synchronization). We present a literature study that summarizes challenges and practices. Further, we describe an approach for the selection of practices for a given set of challenges. The study helps researchers and practitioners to understand synchronization needs in product development projects, and we believe, advances synchronization efforts.
Keywords: project management, activity interdependency, synchronization, coordination