Building a car agile:
Consulting an agile organisation in the automotive industry

Agile product & organisational development. Case of a car manufacturer in the context of Neuwaldegg’s consulting for agile organisations.

A German car manu­fac­turer has reco­g­nised itself that auto­no­mous driving is a game changer for the entire industry and will turn exis­ting busi­ness models upside down. In the future, cars will have to have an elec­tric drive, drive auto­no­mously, be connected and be available on-demand. The tradi­tional car manu­fac­turer must ther­e­fore radi­cally trans­form itself into a mobi­lity service provider. There are already a few start-ups with semi-auto­no­mous vans on the market that are attrac­ting all the media atten­tion. It was ther­e­fore clear that the German car manu­fac­turer would have to develop its own solu­tion quickly in order to not get left behind. As the company has little tech­no­lo­gical exper­tise in auto­no­mous tech­no­logy and customer requi­re­ments are still unclear, it decided to try an agile approach.

A completely new mobility solution

The aim is to design a comple­tely new mobi­lity solu­tion for the trans­port of goods and people and to bring it quickly to market, in order to learn and not get left behind by the competition.

First agile baby steps

For the first phase, a cross-func­tional team of ten employees and mana­gers was put toge­ther to develop the initial concept for the new mobi­lity solu­tion on a joint project site. The team members are trained in agile working methods and work in a self-orga­nised and non-hier­ar­chical manner away from the line orga­ni­sa­tion. The new mobi­lity solu­tion concept is deve­loped accor­ding to agile prin­ci­ples and with a strong customer focus in just four months. After successful comple­tion of the concept design phase and accep­tance of the results by the board of direc­tors, six agile teams consis­ting of a total of 35 employees and mana­gers are assem­bled for the next phase.

Agile hardwareprototyp

The team’s aim is to build real hard­ware proto­types based on the concept booklet and to under­take the first auto­no­mous drives. The first custo­mers are inten­si­vely involved in deve­lo­ping the proto­types. The customer requi­re­ments are coll­ected in an agile backlog and each of the new mobi­lity solution’s func­tions is strictly tested for its respec­tive customer benefit. Para­digms cherished by engi­neers in the deve­lo­p­ment of vehicles are constantly ques­tioned and chal­lenged as a result using agile prin­ci­ples and working methods. Special atten­tion is paid to the coope­ra­tion between the agile orga­ni­sa­tional struc­ture and the classic line orga­ni­sa­tion. Classic patterns (e.g.: hier­archy: “King beats Jack”) encounter new patterns of self-orga­ni­sa­tion and distri­buted autho­rity at this sensi­tive interface.

Agile organisational structure

After just eight months of deve­lo­p­ment time, the first vehicle was able to successfully complete an auto­no­mous drive on the factory premises so the project can move on to the next phase, in which the new mobi­lity solu­tion can be used by custo­mers. A comple­tely agile orga­ni­sa­tional struc­ture for approx. 250 employees and mana­gers is being deve­loped for this purpose, which works outside the line orga­ni­sa­tion. This was imple­mented using new agile methods of orga­ni­sa­tional deve­lo­p­ment (change back­logs, trans­for­ma­tion sprints, etc).

To the first autonomous driving prototype in one year 

The first auto­no­mous driving proto­type was deve­loped within just twelve months using agile working methods and orga­ni­sa­tional struc­tures. It was important to work out a tailor-made approach to orga­ni­sa­tional deve­lo­p­ment and to keep a respectful eye on the company’s 120-year history.

David Max Jeggle

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