The purpose of this study was to conclude if it would be possible to use Agile
Development methodologies with mechanical and mechatronic engineering.
Agile values and practices have revolutionized the software development industry in
the last decade, and therefore it was of interest to figure out if other engineering
disciplines could also take profit of Agile. The research has been mainly focused on
finding literature and also finding some case studies about how to adapt agile
approaches to mechanic and mechatronic products. The objective was to conclude if it
was possible, and in that case, which adaptations were needed to in order to fit
mechanical and mechatronic engineering.
The literature that has been found about the concerned issue is all based on
experiences, commentaries and interviews of users, due to the lack of other available
or existing sources. Specifically, most of the founded experiences are referred to
hardware or mechanical development using Scrum.
The results of the research indicate that it is possible for mechanical development team
to use agile approaches, but they require some adaptations. Moreover, during the
research some advices have been found, which might be useful for starting applying
Agile with mechanical or mechatronic engineering.
