As the complexity of the product and the rate of change of the market has increased dramatically in recent years, firms are more difficult to forecast product requirements in their development process. This paper reviews the problem of improving the prediction of one in one of the increasing mobility of product development, thus reducing the need for accurate long-term forecasts. It introduces the concept of flexibility, shows how it can be measured, and the results of a large empirical study on the development of integrated systems that have found that projects using flexible technologies surpassed projects using inflexible technology by a factor of 2.2 (in person- months). Finally, the article suggests three main strategies for introducing flexibility in the organization. These strategies can help companies increase their agility and position themselves to succeed in the more rapid and turbulent markets. "Hide
by Stefan Thomke, Donald Reinertsen Source: California Management Review 24 pages. Publication Date: 01 Oct 1998. Prod. #: CMR130-PDF-ENG
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