Agile Project Management in Product Life Cycle

Abstract

Agile project management methodologies are becoming more popular day by day. They provide flexibility and adaptability to customers and project teams in terms of planning and competition. Due to these benefits, the share of the agile managed projects has been increasing. Most of the agile projects are executed on products. On the other hand, every product has a life cycle. Just as living beings, it is born, it grows/changes, matures, loses ground and completes its life and dies. The stages that define the product life in this way were put forth in The Product Life Cycle Theory. One or generally more projects and various operational works accompany the product throughout the product life. In this study, the effects of applying agile project management principles on product's life cycle are analyzed. In order to receive effective results from the agile project that accompany the product, project is suggested to be divided into phases and these phases are proposed to be differentiated according to the stage of the product. Furthermore, Product Life-time Project concept is introduced with agile methodologies. It reserves a project and its team to a specific product during its whole life. Product Life-time Project is applied to software development and automotive industries and the results are presented and compared with the traditional approach.