For many companies, especially the ones that are knowledge-intensive such as consulting companies or service delivery firms, it has been increasingly popular to organize the employees in so called self-managing teams. These teams have proven to increase efficiency as they reduce overhead costs by not having the need of being supervised by a manager. These teams should handle the daily work tasks by themselves as well as make decisions, handle the teams’ development in line with company desires, and work towards greater performance. Furthermore, the teams need to structure the performance management and be able to handle all the activities that are included within that process. Performance management is a process that is designed to improve the overall performance at the company. Activities within the process include goal setting, performance feedback and performance appraisals. All these activities should help the company with structuring a way of getting the right input for giving the suitable rewards to their employees. The team will always be influenced by different factors that will affect the team: both from within the team and from the organization as a whole. Therefor, the purpose of this thesis was to investigate how external factors (within the organization but outside the team) and internal factors have an impact on the self-managing teams within knowledge-intensive companies, and how well they can perform the performance management activities. To be able to answer the purpose, a case study was made at the IT-consulting company Findwise AB. A year ago (Spring 2011), the three development teams at the Stockholm office got organized in more permanent teams. They saw a need of structuring their daily work and therefor they implemented the agile working method Scrum at the office, a working method focusing on iterative and incremental development.  They started to operate more self-managed and a lot of the responsibilities that had been managed outside the team were now integrated towards the team. This fall (2012), the Team Leaders in each team will begin to take over the responsibility for parts of the performance appraisal process, a performance management activity that previously was done by an external manager outside the team.  Furthermore, the team should to a greater extent than before, handle other performance management activities, such as setting goals and giving performance feedback. The case study showed that the following external factors have an impact on the executing of performance management activities within the self-managing teams: external leaders and the information systems. Furthermore, the group beliefs and meeting organizational objectives, roles and responsibilities, and team composition were internal factors that had an impact. During the analysis, it became clear that things that were found in the empirical data collection also affected how effective the performance management activities were executed within the teams. The external factors were the internal processes at the company, which refers to the fact that the team members also have responsibilities outside the team, and the external Project Leaders, which refers to that the teams sometimes uses Project Leaders for the customer projects that are not held permanent within the team. A new internal factor that was found was the various working methods that were used between the development teams. The recommendations given to the case company included the need of setting clear goals that are tangible, as well as having attainable goals connected to a carrier plan. Furthermore, the study showed a need of implementing performance feedback sessions were input from all relevant stakeholders, inside and outside the company, could be gathered. / För många företag, speciellt de som är kunskapsintensiva så som företag inom konsultsektorn eller tjänstesektorn, har det blivit allt mer populärt att organisera de anställda i självorganiserande team. Dessa team har visat sig öka produktiviteten då de minskar overheadkostnader genom att de inte har ett stort behov av att kontrolleras av en ledare eller chef. Dessa team ska kunna hantera dagliga aktiviteter själva och ta de beslut som krävs inom gruppen, men även se till att teamet utvecklas i linje med organisationens önskemål, samt att de arbetar för att ständigt öka prestationen inom gruppen. Dessutom måste teamen arbeta med målstyrningsprocessen och se till att de kan hantera alla de aktiviteter som finns inom denna process. Målstyrning, eller verksamhetsstyrning, är ett samlingsnamn för en process som underlättar möjligheten för ökad prestation inom ett företag. Aktiviteter som ingår inkluderas av målsättning, prestationsfeedback och utvärdering. Dessa aktiviteter kan tillsammans underlätta för organisationen att skapa en struktur som kan ge input för att kunna ge rätt belöning till företagets anställda. Teamen som ska arbeta med dessa aktiviteter kommer alltid influeras av olika faktorer som påverkar hur väl de kan arbeta som ett självgående team och ha möjlighet att arbeta effektivt med tidigare nämnda målstyrningsaktiviteter. Dessa faktorer kan innefatta påverkan internt inom teamet, men även påverkan utanför teamet men inom organisationen. Detta examensarbete hade därför som syfte att studera hur externa faktorer (inom organisationen men utanför teamet) och interna faktorer har en inverkan på självorganiserande team i kunskapsintensiva företag, samt hur detta i sin tur påverkar hur väl de kan utföra målstyrningsaktiviteterna.  För att kunna besvara syftet gjordes en fallstudie på IT-konsultföretaget Findwise AB. Under våren 2011 började de tre utvecklingsteamen på företagets kontor i Stockholm organisera sig i mer permanenta team. De såg ett behov av att få en bättre struktur på det dagliga arbetet och implementerade därför den agila arbetsmetoden Scrum på företaget som går ut på att arbeta inkrementellt där utvecklingslösningarna utförs iterativt. Detta ledde till att teamen började arbeta allt mer självständigt och många av de ansvarsområden som tidigare legat utanför teamen integrerades nu mot teamen. Hösten 2012 kommer teamledarna för varje team börja ta över ansvaret för delar av utvärderingsprocessen, en målstyrningsaktivitet som tidigare har utförts av olika externa ledare utanför teamet. Tanken är även att teamen ska utföra flertalet av de övriga målstyrningsaktiviteterna inom teamet, så som målsättning och ge feedback. Fallstudien visade att de externa ledarna i organisationen samt företagets informationssystem var externa faktorer som hade en inverkan på utförandet av målstyrningsaktiviteterna inom självorganiserande team. Studien visade även att delade värderingar inom gruppen och möjligheten att nå organisationens mål, roller och ansvarsområden samt gruppsammansättning var interna faktorer som hade en påverkan. Under arbetets analysfas upptäcktes även att faktorer som hittades i det empiriska materialet även det hade en påverkan på hur effektivt målstyrningsaktiviteterna kunde utföras inom teamet. Nya externa faktorer som påträffades var så kallande interna processer, vilket syftar till att de anställda i många fall har ansvarsområden utanför teamet, samt att teamen ibland använde sig av externa projektledare under utförandet av kundprojekt. En ny intern faktor som påträffades var att teamen påverkades av att de redan nu hade börjat utveckla olika arbetsmetoder inom gruppen. Studien avslutades med att ge rekommendationer till fallföretaget med information om att de behövde sätta klara och konkreta mål som på ett tydligt sätt gick att koppla till en karriärs- eller utvecklingsplan för individen. Dessutom visade studien på ett behov av att implementera feedbackmöten på team och individnivå där input kunde hämtas från samtliga intressenter inom företaget samt från de externa kunderna.

Automatic physical database design tools rely on ``what-if'' interfaces to the query optimizer to estimate the execution time of the training query workload under different candidate physical designs. The tools use these what-if interfaces to recommend physical designs that minimize the estimated execution time of the input training workload. Minimizing estimated execution time alone can lead to designs that are not robust to query optimizer errors and workload changes. In particular, if the optimizer makes errors in estimating the execution time of the workload queries, then the recommended physical design may actually degrade the performance of these queries. In this sense, the physical design is risky. Furthermore, if the production queries are slightly different from the training queries, the recommended physical design may not benefit them at all. In this sense, the physical design is not general. We define Risk and Generality as two new measures aimed at evaluating the robustness of a proposed physical database design, and we show how to extend the objective function being optimized by a generic physical design tool to take these measures into account. We have implemented a physical design advisor in PostqreSQL, and we use it to experimentally demonstrate the usefulness of our approach. We show that our two new metrics result in physical designs that are more robust, which means that the user can implement them with a higher degree of confidence. This is particularly important as we move towards truly zero-administration database systems in which there is not the possibility for a DBA to vet the recommendations of the physical design tool before applying them.

Changes in South Africa's political and economic sphere demand the democratisation of the workplace, participation and empowerment of the work force. Flatter hierarchical structures, as a result of downsizing, enhance involvement but also demand that workers function in a more autonomous manner. The use of self-managing work teams has increased in response to these competitive challenges. Self-managing work teams are groups of employees who are fully responsible for a well-defined segment of finished work that delivers a product or a service to an internal or external customer. The functioning of self-managing work teams, in terms of the systems model, can be described as certain inputs that help the team to perform certain tasks and follow processes in order to achieve certain outputs. Inputs include the motivation, skills and personality factors of team members, while the tasks and processes refer to problem solving, conflict resolution, communication and decision making, planning, quality control, dividing of tasks, training and performance appraisal. These inputs and processes lead to outputs such as efficiency, productivity and quality of work life. To date empirical studies regarding self-managing work teams in South Africa focused on the readiness of organisations for implementing these teams. Little research has been done on characteristics of successful self-managed work group members. Findings regarding members of self-managing work teams elsewhere in the world couldn't uncritically be applied to South Africa, because of widely different circumstances. Research on dispositional factors such as sense of coherence, self-efficacy, locus of control and the big five personality dimensions could therefore help to identify predictors of effectiveness that can be validated in consecutive studies for selection purposes in a self-managing work team context in South Africa. The objective of the research was therefore to determine the relationship between dispositional characteristics of members of a self-managing work team and the effectiveness and quality of work life of these members. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The sample included members of self-managing work teams (N = 102) from a large chemical organisation and a financial institution in South Africa. The Orientation to Life Questionnaire, a Self-efficacy Scale, the Locus of Control Questionnaire and Personality Characteristics Inventory were used to measure the dispositional variables. Quality of work life (measured as consisting of satisfaction, commitment to the organisation and commitment to the team) and self-rated team member effectiveness were used as dependent variables. Descriptive statistics, Pearson and Spearman correlations, canonical correlations and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the data and investigate the relationships between the various dispositional characteristics quality of work life and effectiveness of the team members. The results showed practically significant positive relationships between sense of coherence, self-efficacy, autonomy, external locus of control and internal locus of control on the one hand, and quality of work life and effectiveness of the team members of self-managing work teams on the other hand. Of the big five personality dimensions only openness was associated with commitment to the team in terms of the quality of work life. Stability, extraversion and openness were associated with the self-rated effectiveness of the team members of self-managing work teams. The structural equation modelling showed that there is a positive path from the dispositional characteristics to the satisfaction, commitment and self-rated effectiveness of the team members. The dispositional characteristics will also enhance the members' experience of role clarity and mediate the effects of job-induced tension on the members' self-rated effectiveness. Satisfaction of the team members moderate the relationship between the dispositional characteristics and commitment, as well as mediate the effects of job-induced tension on the commitment of the team members. Organisations implementing self-managing work teams can benefit from developing and enhancing these dispositional characteristics in their selected team members and could also validate these dispositional characteristics in terms of selection criteria for self-managing work team members. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Changes in South Africa's political and economic sphere demand the democratisation of the workplace, participation and empowerment of the work force. Flatter hierarchical structures, as a result of downsizing, enhance involvement but also demand that workers function in a more autonomous manner. The use of self-managing work teams has increased in response to these competitive challenges. Self-managing work teams are groups of employees who are fully responsible for a well-defined segment of finished work that delivers a product or a service to an internal or external customer. The functioning of self-managing work teams, in terms of the systems model, can be described as certain inputs that help the team to perform certain tasks and follow processes in order to achieve certain outputs. Inputs include the motivation, skills and personality factors of team members, while the tasks and processes refer to problem solving, conflict resolution, communication and decision making, planning, quality control, dividing of tasks, training and performance appraisal. These inputs and processes lead to outputs such as efficiency, productivity and quality of work life. To date empirical studies regarding self-managing work teams in South Africa focused on the readiness of organisations for implementing these teams. Little research has been done on characteristics of successful self-managed work group members. Findings regarding members of self-managing work teams elsewhere in the world couldn't uncritically be applied to South Africa, because of widely different circumstances. Research on dispositional factors such as sense of coherence, self-efficacy, locus of control and the big five personality dimensions could therefore help to identify predictors of effectiveness that can be validated in consecutive studies for selection purposes in a self-managing work team context in South Africa. The objective of the research was therefore to determine the relationship between dispositional characteristics of members of a self-managing work team and the effectiveness and quality of work life of these members. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The sample included members of self-managing work teams (N = 102) from a large chemical organisation and a financial institution in South Africa. The Orientation to Life Questionnaire, a Self-efficacy Scale, the Locus of Control Questionnaire and Personality Characteristics Inventory were used to measure the dispositional variables. Quality of work life (measured as consisting of satisfaction, commitment to the organisation and commitment to the team) and self-rated team member effectiveness were used as dependent variables. Descriptive statistics, Pearson and Spearman correlations, canonical correlations and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the data and investigate the relationships between the various dispositional characteristics quality of work life and effectiveness of the team members. The results showed practically significant positive relationships between sense of coherence, self-efficacy, autonomy, external locus of control and internal locus of control on the one hand, and quality of work life and effectiveness of the team members of self-managing work teams on the other hand. Of the big five personality dimensions only openness was associated with commitment to the team in terms of the quality of work life. Stability, extraversion and openness were associated with the self-rated effectiveness of the team members of self-managing work teams. The structural equation modelling showed that there is a positive path from the dispositional characteristics to the satisfaction, commitment and self-rated effectiveness of the team members. The dispositional characteristics will also enhance the members' experience of role clarity and mediate the effects of job-induced tension on the members' self-rated effectiveness. Satisfaction of the team members moderate the relationship between the dispositional characteristics and commitment, as well as mediate the effects of job-induced tension on the commitment of the team members. Organisations implementing self-managing work teams can benefit from developing and enhancing these dispositional characteristics in their selected team members and could also validate these dispositional characteristics in terms of selection criteria for self-managing work team members. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo fazer uma análise crítica de um modelo para implantação de equipes autogerenciáveis utilizado por uma determinada empresa do ramo automotivo. Nela são apresentados diversos conceitos teóricos necessários para esta análise crítica. O estudo de caso é descrito de forma a mostrar como a implantação foi feita nesta empresa, comparando-o com a teoria apresentada. Foi analisado um modelo para implantação de equipes autogerenciáveis e melhoria de desempenho, já utilizado e avaliado como eficaz em outras unidades da empresa. Foram analisadas nesta dissertação as dificuldades encontradas durante a primeira fase da implantação, sendo identificados os pontos a melhorar para o sucesso das fases seguintes. Através do estudo percebe-se que autonomia restrita e aumento da responsabilidade, as principais características do modelo analisado, permitem obter bons resultados em curto espaço de tempo, principalmente no que diz respeito ao fluxo de informações e a motivação dos trabalhadores, mas que a empresa necessita repensar sua forma de organização fabril para que possa obter os reais benefícios das equipes, já que a fixação das metas de equipe é tão importante quanto a fixação das metas individuais. O programa implantado pela empresa não trouxe melhoria dos resultados durante o período de estudo, mas houve progresso no trabalho em equipe, sem que, no entanto, houvesse redução dos níveis hierárquicos. / This dissertation has as objective make a critical analysis of a model for implantation of self managing teams, used by a company of the automotive branch. Diverse theoretical concepts, necessary for this critical analysis, are presented. The case study shows the way of the implantation was made in this company, comparing it with the presented theory. It was analyzed a model for implantation of self managing teams and improvement of performance, already used and evaluated as efficient in other units of the company. The difficulties found during the first phase of the implantation were analyzed in this dissertation, and the points to improve for the success of the following phases were identified. Through this study its perceived that restricted autonomy and empowerment, the main characteristics of the analyzed model, allow to get good results in short space of time, mainly in the information flow and the workers motivation, but the company needs to rethink about its manufactory organization to find the real benefits of work in teams, because the setting of the team goals is as important as the setting of the individual goals. The program implanted by the company didnt improve results during the study period but the company progressed in teamwork, without suppression of hierarchic levels.

<p>The aim of the present thesis was to study elderly self-managing and disabled women’s dietary intake and meals in relation to age, household structure (single-living or cohabitant), disability and cooking ability. The women were aged 64-88 years and living at home, in the mid-eastern part of Sweden. The self-managing women were randomly selected. The disabled women – suffering from Parkinson's disease, rheumatoid arthritis or stroke – were selected from patient records. A total of 139 self-managing and 63 disabled women participated. Two dietary assessment methods were used: a repeated 24-h recall and a three-day estimated food diary, providing dietary intake for five non-consecutive days. The results indicate that elderly women still living in their homes seem to manage a sufficient dietary intake despite disability and high age. The reported energy intakes in all groups of women were low, which might be explained by an actual low intake and/or under-reporting. The portion sizes seemed to be smaller in the highest age group, leading to lower intakes of some nutrients. Thus also the nutrient density of the food should be given greater consideration. The meal pattern was shown to be regular and the distribution of main meals and snacks was found to be satisfactory. Meals and snacks that were defined as such by the women themselves thus seem to be more significant from an energy and nutritional perspective. Perceived cooking ability co-varied with energy and nutrient intake as well as with meal pattern.</p><p>Further, a qualitative dietary assessment method, FBCE, was analysed. It was concluded that it must be supplemented with a dietary assessment method providing energy intake figures to ensure a sufficient intake, especially when studying groups at risk for low energy intake. </p><p>Furthermore, the aim was to perform a dropout analysis. When studying older women and food, a low participation rate might be expected since the most active, the very ill as well as the disabled tend to decline participation, but also since food is a gender issue. Food could, especially for women, be a sensitive area of discussion, even though older women seem to choose "healthy foods" and eat "proper meals".</p>

The aim of the present thesis was to study elderly self-managing and disabled women’s dietary intake and meals in relation to age, household structure (single-living or cohabitant), disability and cooking ability. The women were aged 64-88 years and living at home, in the mid-eastern part of Sweden. The self-managing women were randomly selected. The disabled women – suffering from Parkinson's disease, rheumatoid arthritis or stroke – were selected from patient records. A total of 139 self-managing and 63 disabled women participated. Two dietary assessment methods were used: a repeated 24-h recall and a three-day estimated food diary, providing dietary intake for five non-consecutive days. The results indicate that elderly women still living in their homes seem to manage a sufficient dietary intake despite disability and high age. The reported energy intakes in all groups of women were low, which might be explained by an actual low intake and/or under-reporting. The portion sizes seemed to be smaller in the highest age group, leading to lower intakes of some nutrients. Thus also the nutrient density of the food should be given greater consideration. The meal pattern was shown to be regular and the distribution of main meals and snacks was found to be satisfactory. Meals and snacks that were defined as such by the women themselves thus seem to be more significant from an energy and nutritional perspective. Perceived cooking ability co-varied with energy and nutrient intake as well as with meal pattern. Further, a qualitative dietary assessment method, FBCE, was analysed. It was concluded that it must be supplemented with a dietary assessment method providing energy intake figures to ensure a sufficient intake, especially when studying groups at risk for low energy intake. Furthermore, the aim was to perform a dropout analysis. When studying older women and food, a low participation rate might be expected since the most active, the very ill as well as the disabled tend to decline participation, but also since food is a gender issue. Food could, especially for women, be a sensitive area of discussion, even though older women seem to choose "healthy foods" and eat "proper meals".

After many years of limited activity in the field of coordination research, new organizing forms with the aim to abandon managerial hierarchies have caused a renaissance in the research of new solutions to this universal organizing problem. An emerging stream of research about Self-Managing Organizations (SMOs) which eliminates formal hierarchies and managers completely, have left researchers wondering about SMOs new coordination solution as antecedent organizing forms have their coordination solution strongly dependent on managers. The aim of this thesis was to explore and identify the mechanisms that SMOs utilize to coordinate work output, how these mechanisms are configured and how they correspond to the settings of SMOs. Due to the nascent state of knowledge development within this field, the aim was operationalized with the help of coordination conceptualizations and theory from nearby fields. A multiple case-study was conducted, using deep, semi structured interviews, triangulated with internal documentation, external documentation and archival records. The study identified the mechanisms Planning based on ‘sense and respond’, Competence driven and partially fluent roles, the merged category of Familiarity peer-trust and transparency, Digital infrastructure, Cultural content and finally, Content of repeated procedures. Through a self-composed analytical approach, the study revealed that traditionally mechanistic coordination mechanisms were of less importance to SMOs and had an added organic and group-dependent dimension to their configurations, compared to similar mechanisms in hierarchies. Furthermore, the findings suggested that Digital infrastructure, Cultural content and Content of repeated procedures were configured in a way, particularly useful and important to SMOs. The reason was that the three mechanisms constituted a mechanistic but editable framing, which both aligned and encouraged organic efforts in a certain direction. They also corresponded well to SMOs settings as they could be exercised and edited by anyone, they facilitated coordination cross-teams without managers and they were scalable in theory.

Successful implementation of equity driven policies has proven to be a difficult and vexing issue especially in developing countries. As a result, many educational reforms were found in practice to be at variance with their founding objectives. The purpose of this exploratory and descriptive study therefore was to trace the implementation pathway traveled by the National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF) Policy from the center (National Department of Education) to the periphery (school level). This was informed by the necessity to explain where, how and why the discrepancy developed between the policy intentions and educational outcomes (i.e. effects). The NNSSF policy aimed at the fundamental transformation of the schools since it requires the following things to happen : the delegation of financial management and authority to the School Governing Body (SGB), the day-to-day management of curriculum delivery, the generation of additional funds, and the improvement and maintenance of school infrastructure. The allocation and management of these functions constitute in what is called “self-managing schools”, thus freeing such schools from the bureaucratic processes associated with centralization. This (research) investigation is guided by two research questions: 1. How was the new School Funding Policy (SFP) implemented within and through the different levels of the education system? 2. What were the effects of the National Norms and Standards For School Funding (NNSSF) policy on equity at school level? In essence, this research explains how different education stakeholders understand the new funding policy, and with what effects. In tracing the course of the NNSSF policy, I paid special attention to policy breakdown by comparing and contrasting the views and estimations of various implementers across the four levels of the education system namely: national, provincial, regional and school levels. This research on the understandings of policy was not restricted to formal definitions of policy, but went further to seek understanding on the practical unfolding of the funding policy separately, and in relation to other policies. Data was collected over a period of seventeen (17) months. In this regard, I used multiple methods of data collection including profiling, semi-structured interviews, critical observations of the setting, document analysis, photographic records and structured questionnaires. The main findings of the study include the following : ¨ The National officials showed a legalistic and formal understanding of the NNSSF policy, but such understanding lacked a holistic, coherent and integrated approach to equity. ¨ The understanding of the policy varied among the provincial officials. But such understanding again demonstrated a bureaucratic or functionalist-oriented approach to the implementation of the NNSSF policy. This suggests that much emphasis was placed on observing protocol and official communication of the new policy.. ¨ The regional policy implementers demonstrated a limited understanding of the policy. Such an understanding could be characterised as a disengaging approach to policy and a sense of despair on how the implementation unfolded. ¨ The effects of the NNSSF policy on equity differed across the five case study schools. For example, previously advantaged schools (like Siege) experienced negative effects due to inadequate state allocation. This had ripple effects in the form of exorbitant school fees and the issuing of a lawsuit against a parent who was not able to pay such high fees. ¨ The previously disadvantaged schools were able to do their own planning which led to the timeous acquisition of resources as a result of the financial allocation to the school level. The key findings as well as the implications of this research only make this study unique, but also offer critical insights into policy implementation in developing contexts. The fact that the research involved the collection of data at four levels of the education system over a period of seventeen months generated extensive data sets for policy analysis. The collection of both qualitative (contextual) and quantitative data contributed to strengthening the validity and reliability of the study as a whole. Most importantly, the knowledge gained from this study not only offers policy lessons for the North-West province, but it yields important insights for policy implementers across the education system. / Thesis (PhD (Education Management and Policy Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Abstract Management of product development activities has become increasingly important, as cycle times of product development have shortened. Smaller product development projects are often conducted rapidly at companies based on customer or sales requests to answer the need for faster cycle times. However, this is often done without fully realizing the impact of the new projects on the larger project portfolio or organizational effectiveness. The main objective of this dissertation is to increase knowledge on the use of agile development methods in small, rapid product development projects, and on the implementation of a rapid product development model. The dissertation is formulated as a qualitative, inductive study based on the research results of four original publications and a summary combining the results. The results of the dissertation show that it is beneficial to separate a rapid product development process for certain types of customer- or sales-initiated projects. A new rapid development model with principles and guidelines is introduced to help organizations facilitate this separation. The implementation of the model can be supported with agile development practices, of which self-managing teams are studied in more detail. There is significant overlap between case companies’ perceived success factors for rapid development and self-management. The results imply that a functional rapid development model can be utilized as a strategic asset at companies. The results also provide empirical evidence that agile development practices can be utilized in product development. In addition to providing empirical evidence in scientific discussion about combining product development and agile software development practices, the results can be used to create better definitions of product development processes in general. / Tiivistelmä Tuotekehityksen johtamisesta ja hallinnasta on tullut entistä haastavampaa ja tärkeämpää, kun tuotekehitysprojektien läpimenoajat ovat lyhentyneet. Yritykset tekevät kasvamassa määrin lyhyitä tuotekehitysprojekteja asiakaspyyntöjen tai myynnin aloitteesta vastatakseen markkinoiden vaatimuksiin nopeasta kehityksestä. Tällaisten nopeiden tuotekehitysprojektien käynnistäminen ja toteutus tehdään usein ymmärtämättä yksittäisen projektin vaikutusta koko projektiportfolioon tai organisaation tehokkuuteen. Tämän väitöskirjan päätavoitteena on tutkia ohjelmistokehityksestä tunnettujen ketterien kehitysmenetelmien käyttöä nopeissa tuotekehitysprojekteissa ja uudenlaisen nopean tuotekehityksen mallin käyttöönotossa. Tutkimus on tehty laadullisena ja induktiivisena tutkimuksena perustuen neljään itsenäiseen tutkimusartikkeliin ja näiden tulokset kokoavaan kokoelmaosaan. Tutkimus osoittaa, että yrityksille on hyödyllistä erottaa erillinen prosessi tietyntyyppisille nopeille tuotekehitysprojekteille. Tutkimuksen tuloksena esitellään malli, joka tukee tätä erottamista periaatteiden ja ohjeiden avulla. Tätä mallia pystytään tukemaan ketterillä kehitysmenetelmillä, joihin liittyen on erityisesti tutkittu itseohjautuvia kehitystiimejä. Case-yritysten havainnoimilla nopean tuotekehityksen menestystekijöillä ja itseohjautuvien tiimien ominaisuuksilla on havaittavissa suurta päällekkäisyyttä. Tulokset osoittavat, että hyvin käytetty ja määritetty nopean tuotekehityksen malli voi olla strateginen kilpailuetu yrityksille. Tulokset lisäävät myös empiiristä tietoa ketterien menetelmien käytöstä tuotekehityksessä ja hyödyntävät siten ajankohtaista tieteellistä keskustelua. Tuloksia voidaan myös hyödyntää muiden tuotekehitysprosessien käyttötarkoituksen tarkempaan määrittämiseen.