Success factors of an IPD based approach in a remote multidisciplinary team environment - Reflections on a case study

Integrated Product Development (IPD) is comprehensively discussed in literature. The human-centered approach offers a parallelized set of work activities in interdisciplinary teams. Due to the rapid globalization of IPD activities in the companies, project members are often obliged to work remotely in teams and through virtual means of communication. However, with the recent shift towards working remotely in IPD teams new challenges have emerged that might adversely affect the success of IPD projects. The objective of the paper is to outline the key factors strengthening and weakening the IPD process in a remote multidisciplinary team environment. To fulfill the objective, a case study on an international multidisciplinary team of postgraduate students working on a design project with an IPD approach, was conducted. The results highlight key success factors and their contributions to the project success in a remote multidisciplinary team environment. Additionally, key weaknesses of such approach and their negative impacts are also indicated.