Interorganizational agility - mutual adjustment in digital innovation ecosystems

Important results from the project

The study shows that strategies for internal product platforms influence the ability of collaborating parties to manage change. Much like agile methodologies, platforms aim to balance stability and flexibility. However, the platform only enables agile development at its periphery. Thus, platforms can both support and constrain agility, making it crucial for companies following both a platform strategy and an agile approach to manage their relation.

Expected long term effects

We believe that the incentives for collaborating actors to build product platforms - both for efficiency and strategic reasons, and to use change-enabling methodologies will increase over time. The continued coexistence of these two trends will be important to follow, and our study is an early contribution to our understanding of the interaction between them.

Approach and implementation

The project involved two software development companies that are collaborating on the development of a subsystem for cars. Both companies follow both a platform strategy and an agile working method. The study involves interviews with people at both companies with different roles. The project has run according to plan despite an initial change of a participant, which gave the project a slightly different focus but with the main purpose maintained.