Improving distributed collaboration - methods for identification and developing of improvement potentials

Due to the increasing globalization, collaboration in product development between different locations is gaining more importance. Current circumstances, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, are even forcing the introduction of distributed collaboration in product development. Regarding to the Covid-19 pandemic, in many cases the transition was completed in a short time and even unplanned. The transition to a distributed approach creates new, unexpected problems in the collaboration of distributed product development teams, which have to be solved continuously. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to develop a concept that offers methods for the continuous improvement of distributed collaboration that are appropriate to the specific circumstances. Following a literature search, 135 participants were asked about the need for methodological support in identifying and developing improvement potentials in distributed collaboration. The demand was confirmed by the majority of participants. Consequently, a concept was developed to methodically support the improvement process. The developed concept was designed as an interactive tool, which offers the user methods for methodical approach to improvement potentials in accordance with his needs and resources. The basis is the problem-solving methodology SPALTEN. For a standardized and comprehensive description of the methods, fact sheets were prepared. The tool and the concept were evaluated in the industry in a distributed and agile development simulator. The evaluation confirmed the added benefit of the methodical support for the improvement process in the distributed collaboration.