Integrating Product and Technology Development: A Proposed Reference Model for Dual Innovation

Although dual innovation projects, defined in this article as the concurrent development of products and technologies, often occur in industry, these are only scarcely supported methodologically. Limited research has been done about dual innovation projects and their inherent challenges (e.g. managing dependencies) and opportunities (e.g. streamlining development). This paper presents five existing reference models for technology development (TD), which were identified via a systematic literature review, where their possible integration with product development (PD) reference models was investigated. Based on the specific characteristics desired for dual innovation projects, such as integrated product development and coverage of multiple development stages, a set of selection criteria was employed to select suitable PD and TD reference models. The integration and adaptation of the selected models has led to a proposed integrated reference model for dual innovation that is currently being instantiated in the context of an ongoing action research project.