Is it possible to apply an Agile approach in large organization which are developing physical Product?

Agile is becoming more and more popular in many industries outside the IT where it was born. Large organization are looking at Agile to become more effective in delivering their products to the customers and to be more adaptable to change. Using Agile in the Engineering contexts means to use Agile at scale and Agile for hardware: it is key to understand how to adapt the methodologies and the approaches from the IT into new contexts.

We must be prepared to face three main challenges that the are crucial for the implementation of Agile in an engineering context:

• How can we create a physical product incrementally?
• How can we organize an Agile team when there are specific competences and a T-shaped developer is rare?
• How can be agile when we need to work with suppliers of parts, products and systems with a long lead time?

During the talk I will go through my experience from the trenches, making a parallel between the software development and the physical development. I will use examples taken from real projects from the automotive, packaging and aerospace industries in order to show what can be achieved. The talk is based on the real experience and provides a mirror of the reality showing both the results and the short-comes: I will present the lessons learned from these projects, the key success factors and the attention points.

Do you want to understand how to implement agile in the development of physical products? Come and join me!

Learning Outcomes:

• Explain what Agile at engineering is, what is the context and the main features
• Learn how to create incrementally a physical product
• What is the structure and the roles in an Agile team which is developing a physical product in an engineering context
• What are the challenges in working with the suppliers and how to overcome them