Shortening of product engineering processes by agile engineering methods

Due to growing globalization, increasing connectivity and a greater competitive pressure, products tend to have an ever-shorter lifetime in the market. Therefore, an effective, efficient and well-structured developing process for new products is inevitable to ensure a company’s long-term success. The following approach is intended to help accelerating and improving the engineering process of physical products. The approach is based on the agile developing method Scrum, which is an established approach in software engineering. Its key elements are free task selection of employees, the “anyone can do it” principle and clearly defined roles and regulations. This paper demonstrates the opportunities and limitations of applying the agile method Scrum to physical product engineering. Finally, the topic is discussed critically and further research potential is pointed out