Barriers towards integrated product development: Challenges from a holistic project management perspective

The basis for product development in many large industrial companies is a traditional project management method positing non-overlapping phases, independent activities, and a dedicated project team. Research findings indicate that integrated product development methods increase performance compared to traditional methods, when it is a matter of complex problem solving where product development is a disruptive and non-linear process. Even though integrated product development has been the focus of a large number of research studies, most focus on identifying success criteria and improving performance while requirements for implementation of integrated product development remains under-researched. This study takes on a holistic project management perspective and identifies challenges and requirements through an in-depth case study. It is found that implementation requires both awareness and skills of integrated product development in senior management, and a set of cross-organizational project governance structures.