Competiveness of small and middle-sized enterprises (SME) correlates with recognizing customer needs and being able to efficiently react to it. At the same time, SME face a limitation of their resources. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor the strength of product variety management (PVM) and its impact on the performance product development processes (PDP) in a multi-project environment. This paper aims at creating the means for SME to gain awareness of the interrelations of PVM and PDP. The latter are described using a dependency model, which has been derived from literature and empirical data gathered in case studies with six SME. The model serves as basis of a self-assessment-tool for SME to support the identification of the need to improve their PDP and the prioritization of improvement methods.     «

Competiveness of small and middle-sized enterprises (SME) correlates with recognizing customer needs and being able to efficiently react to it. At the same time, SME face a limitation of their resources. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor the strength of product variety management (PVM) and its impact on the performance product development processes (PDP) in a multi-project environment. This paper aims at creating the means for SME to gain awareness of the interrelations of PVM and PDP. The lat...     »