2 The Internet is a powerful new communication medium for conducting free market style business transactions at the speed of light involving the instant exchange of billions of dollars on a global scale by nearly all of the planet’s inhabitants regardless of geographic location, financial condition, or social status.

3 Primarily due the Internet industry’s low market entry requirements, the 21st century suddenly shifted the balance of power away from industrial age organizations in favor of Internet firms, enabling them to monopolize market share and achieve unprecedented levels of profitability, and along with that, the new millennium presents rather formidable challenges for managing the development of Internet products and services.

4 Some firms use approaches to managing the development of Internet products and services based on principles of flexible manufacturing, lean development, and rapid adaptation to turbulent market conditions, where change is measured in minutes and hours, while other firms continue to use approaches rooted in scientific management principles pioneered at the turn of the 20th century, when market change was measured years and decades.

5 Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine whether the use of flexible and fast- moving Agile Methods for managing the development of Internet products and services are more effective for improving a firm’s market performance than traditional approaches based on slower-moving scientific management principles, which are still in widespread use (especially in the government sector).

6 Interchangeable parts Specialized machines Reliance on suppliers Focus on the process of production Division of labor Skills of American workers Flexibility Continuous technological improvement

7 Focus on low costs and low prices Economics of scale Product standardization Degree of specialization Focus on operational efficiency Hierarchical organization Professional managers Vertical integration

8 Time based competition Proliferating variety Just in time production Regional marketing Continuous improvement Short product life cycles Market driven quality Globalization Networked organizations Micromarketing Customization Lean production Cycle time reduction Total quality management Flattened hierarchies Computer manufacturing Process reengineering Focus on services Fragmented markets Quick response Flexible manufacturing Database marketing

9 EARLY CUSTOMER INVOLVEMENT –Customers and developers work together daily –Continuous solicitation of customer feedback FLEXIBLE PROCESSES –Changing requirements always welcome –Use of just-enough management processes –Focus on technical excellence and design –Focus on simplicity of products and processes

10 ITERATIVE RELEASES –Deliver working software frequently –Working software is primary success factor SELF ORGANIZING TEAMS –Build projects around motivated individuals –Use ample face-to-face conversation –Teams produce best products and services –Solicit team input for continuous improvement

11 Are the use of flexible and fast-moving Agile Methods for managing the development of Internet products and services more effective for improving a firm’s market performance than traditional approaches based on slower-moving scientific management principles?

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16 Contradictions within and across disciplines with respect to agility –Stronger case for high task interdependency, while purists argue for low task structure –Some call for large investments in product complexity, while purists argue for simplicity –Realistic qualitative case studies are critical of agility, while survey research is pro agility –Some claim agility is a path to a finite goal, while others feel it’s a path to infinite change

17 Agility is one of the most pressing issues of our time with respect to the Internet –Internet firms and traditional organizations are adapting Agile Methods in increasing numbers –There has never been a greater need for scholarly studies of agility for Internet firms There are many scholarly studies of agility in the design and manufacturing fields –Scholars are divided on whether enough scholarship exists for agility for Internet firms

18 High risk assumptions: –The use of Agile Methods are a measurable phenomenon — Is this a dead end study? –Agile Methods will continue to be relevant in the near future — Will they become obsolete? –Agility is not linked to Internet technologies — Which themselves may become obsolete? –Scholarship on agility has not already entered the maturity stage of its product life cycle

19 There are few scholarly studies, which: –Are based on scholarly theoretical conceptual models for managing Internet product design –Test the four major principles of Agile Methods outlined for managing Internet product design –Quantifiably link the use of Agile Methods to the effects of improved firm performance –Alternatively, disprove the utility of Agile Methods for managing Internet product design

20 Tracing the tenets of agility back to their historical roots in a scholarly fashion Inadvertently including or omitting key studies from field of product innovation Untangling the diversity of principles of agility from the body of scholarship Developing a defendable scholarly conceptual theoretical model of agility

21 Choosing a representative set of scholarly principles, which define Agile Methods Selecting a representative industry sector and cross section of firms to analyze Selecting a scholarly methodology, which supports the goals of studying agility Consistently addressing viewpoints of agility across academic disciplines