Dysfunctional Agile–Stage-Gate Hybrid Development: Keeping Up Appearances

Abstract

Increasingly, the development of today’s “smart” products requires the integration of both software and hardware in embedded systems. To develop these, hardware firms typically enlist the expertise of software development firms to offer integrated solutions. While hardware firms often work according to a plan-driven approach, software development firms draw on Agile development methods. Interestingly, empirically little is known about the implications and consequences of working according to contrasting development methods in a collaborative project. In response to this research gap, we conducted a process study of a collaborative development project involving a software firm and a hardware firm, within which the two firms worked according to contrasting development methods. We found that the software firm was gradually compelled to forgo its Agile method, creating a role conflict in terms of its way of working. As such, our results contribute to the literature on Agile–Stage-Gate hybrids by demonstrating how, in collaborative embedded systems development, hybridization of development methods may cause projects to fail. Our main practical implication entails the introduction of the “sequential Agile approach.”