The Role and Characteristics of Hybrid Approaches to Project Management in the Development of Technology-Based Products and Services

Abstract

There is a trend of combining agile and traditional project management practices for technology-based product and service development in the search for more agility. Although there are, in the literature, hybrid models that propose combinations of traditional and agile approaches, there are no studies that discuss the impact of the adoption of this approach in organizations in practice. Consequently, guidance on the selection of the most appropriate project management approach has remained largely theoretical, rather than based on companies’ experiences. The objective of this research is to analyze how organizations that develop technology-based products and services apply hybrid approaches to project management, their characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages, conducting a literature review and multiple case studies as research methods. Results reveal that hybrid approaches to project management are currently fundamental for companies in order to deal with distinct organizational cultures, specific processes, customer contractual requirements, and project specificities. This study also led to a consolidated list of the characteristics of hybrid approaches to project management.

Hybrid project management – a systematic literature review

“…Due to the larger selection of techniques and methods, a suitable tool can be applied depending on the project type and project status. In this way, the project benefits can be increased under certain circumstances, a better result can be achieved, and the goal can be reached more quickly with lower costs [13,20]. At the start of the project, it is often unclear how the project goals are to be achieved.…”

“…The main advantage of all these methodologies is their flexibility [5,[17][18][19]. The agile approach is ideal for short-time project initiatives that need requirements to be discovered and new technology to be evaluated [20]. On small, stand-alone projects, agile methodologies are less burdensome and more in tune with the software industry's increasing needs for rapid development and coping with continuous change [11].…”

Servitisation through structural adaptation

“…Project-based organisations have been studied from the product-oriented model (Kujala et al , 2010; Galera-Zarco et al , 2014; Momeni and Martinsuo, 2019; Copola Azenha et al , 2020). Nevertheless, for many leading PBOs operators, integrating services into the project is seen as a fundamental shift to create more customer value (Artto et al , 2008; Kujala et al , 2013; Galera-Zarco et al , 2014).…”

EUBIM2021. International BIM EUBIM-2021. 10º Encuentro de usuarios BIM

“…Esta natural incorporación de metodologías híbridas está en consonancia con la aparición en estudios de proyectos de infraestructuras (Bushuiev y Kozir, 2020) y en la inclusión del Hybrid Agile Project Management (HAPM) de la Industria aeroespacial (Parvez, 2019). En la mayoría de estudios, los resultados revelan que los enfoques híbridos son fundamentales para empresas con distintas culturas de la organización (Copola et al, 2020). El futuro dirá si es un paso obligatorio en esta transición o será una combinación de enfoques de gestión de proyectos, obligatoria en el futuro del sector de la construcción.…”