Develop Products Agile

PTC Agile Worx supports its users in the development of complex and networked products and is aimed primarily at interdisciplinary teams consisting of different groups and specialists - for example from mechanical engineering, electronics and software development, as well as from suppliers, OEMs and customers. PTC Agile Worx enables you to organize the entire process of product management and project management in one central location, thereby accelerating it. This includes translating the rough idea of ​​a product into a clear and understandable version, collecting all the functions and features of the product in a product backlog, prioritizing the most important elements and functions, sprint planning the general conditions such as Method,Setting goals and tasks, providing insights into ongoing team activities and discussing the current project status in regular meetings. Thanks to PTC Agile Worx, customer feedback can also be integrated, so that companies can expect fewer product failures and do not launch products with features that nobody uses.

In addition, the software links databases in CAD, ALM and PLM systems and supports the integration of real-time data from the IoT, so that real-world knowledge can flow into product development.

What is agile product development?

Agile product development is to be understood as an alternative to traditional product development and focuses primarily on flexibility instead of rigid structures and complex documentation. The goal of this flexible and dynamic development process is to bring innovative products to market faster. Instead of formulating a final plan for the finished product, the agile approach defines user needs and market requirements so that they can then be concretized step by step in the further course of the project.

An overview of the additional functions of PTC Agile Worx

• Team room: Via the team room, a virtual basis for essential project information on the homepage of PTC Agile Worx, users can access the team taskboard and write down relevant information about their role and their project.
• Team taskboard: All upcoming tasks of a team including their status and the responsible team are clearly displayed in the taskboard.
• Backlog management: The product backlog is a collection of requirements for the later product, all open tasks are displayed here. These can easily be added, deleted and edited.
• Sprint planning: All tasks are assigned to a specific sprint that has a start and end point to implement a new product component.
• Product and team member settings: PTC Agile Worx enables administrators to easily manage products, teams, and users, to define and control product releases and sprints, and to integrate third-party products.

Exemplary process of an agile product development

Typica is a major supplier to the automotive industry. The company wants to use the new possibilities of the Internet of Things efficiently and shorten the product development from 5 years to 18 months. PTC Agile Worx makes a significant contribution to achieving this goal by shortening product delivery cycles and improving individual and team productivity. This new generation of intelligent, networked products requires agile development and therefore the ability to react quickly to feedback from customers, competitors and other market participants and to incorporate this into the development process.

The needs of Typica's product development teams are complex. You develop complex, physical products. This requires close coordination with more than 80 globally distributed teams from areas such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, software development and system analysis. The demands placed on product developers are high and subject to the highest demands in terms of safety, quality and compliance: In contrast to products that can be replaced immediately, Typica produces brake systems that have to function perfectly for an indefinite period. The product lines must be managed accordingly over years or decades.

As the first SaaS application for agile project management in the industry, PTC Agile Worx meets these high requirements. Interdisciplinary teams can share ideas, solve problems and track the progress of their work on a central platform.

Step 1: anchor agile processes

The first step on the way to agile product management included the implementation of agile practices within the project team, the department or at the entire company level. The team must be familiarized with the roles, disciplines and tasks of the agile process. The formal allocation of roles to product owners, Scrum masters and members of the project team helps with the later prioritization and management of upcoming tasks, decides on the perspective and ensures that customer feedback is regularly integrated into the work. The goal of such agile product management is to address and overcome the otherwise hidden technological or organizational hurdles through clear processes.

Step 2: standardize interdisciplinary teams

In the next step, the teams are better coordinated with each other in order to receive helpful feedback. For example, an isolated test of a car's ECUs is of little use. However, if these are integrated into the brake mechanics, the teams receive valuable information on functionality and user experience.

The collaboration of interdisciplinary teams requires a modular process structure with clearly defined interfaces between the teams, so that they can work in parallel and complete subtasks at the same time. The linking of databases in CAD, ALM and PLM systems helps in the development process.

Step 3: ensure quality and safety

As a provider of safety-related products, Typica attaches great importance to safety and quality. With PTC Agile Worx, existing frameworks for quality and compliance can be effectively incorporated and expanded. In addition, requirements for the later product can be integrated with the parts structure of the PLM software Windchill from PTC in order to understand how the individual tasks will affect it.

Step 4: manage product variants

PTC Agile Worx supports the development of complex products and the close coordination with technical teams by focusing primarily on flexibility instead of rigid rules and extensive documentation. With the software, Typica teams can share and manage open tasks across multiple backlogs, or assign teams to other sprint cycles. This means that sprint cycles are modeled on the actual working reality of the developers and are not hierarchical.

Step 5: Integrate information from the real world

The product developers at Typica rely on feedback from various sources as well as real-time information in order to continuously test and adapt their product. Thanks to intelligent networking with sensors, developers quickly receive important information and can thus positively influence the next product iteration. Typica can therefore limit the chances of a later product failure and does not launch any products with features that nobody uses. (qui)