In order to survive in today’s highly competitive global market, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have had to transition from sequential to concurrent product development, which significantly shortens development cycles, reduces costs and ensures high product quality. Despite its many advantages, concurrent product development does not address the challenges related to today’s ever-growing uncertainty, constantly changing environment and unstable requirements. A potential solution to this problem could be found in more flexible and value-driven agile project management approaches typical of software development. In the doctoral thesis, we adapted the best practices of agile project management and combined them with concurrent product development principles. Based on a thorough literature review and a case study in a Slovenian medium-sized manufacturing company, we developed a generally applicable agile concurrent product development hybrid that is specifically suitable for SMEs. The model is upgraded with the key support systems and concrete guidelines that allow SMEs to easily implement and adapt the model to their capabilities and needs. The results of the research showed that the introduction of the proposed model significantly increases the level of agility. Additionally, a positive impact on project success can be observed. The concurrency principles focus on high project efficiency in terms of time, cost and quality, while agility principles ensure the necessary flexibility and enable quick and efficient response to change, and thus greater stakeholder satisfaction.
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