Tailoring the development process according to the context of the project

As part of a research project on design methodology, the authors have developed a framework to facilitate the tailoring of the product development process according to the context of the project. In the first part of this paper, the reader is introduced to the framework. The second part presents two case studies conducted during the Management of Product Development course at the University of Twente. The case studies were intended to validate deployment of the framework to facilitate the selection and/or tailoring of the development process of a chosen product. This depends on the circumstances surrounding the product and the organisation that develops it. The first case study analyses the development process proposed by students for a product they chose, without exposure to the framework. In contrast the second case study analyses the proposed development processes of a group of students after they were exposed to the framework. This paper presents the differences observed in the proposed development processes when the major variables that influence this process are highlighted. © 2008 CIRP.