Systematic Development of Product-Service Systems

Main problems occurring in Product-Service Systems (PSSs), are due to an inadequate requirements analysis and lack of a strong PSS conceptual design. Problems vary from exceeding budgets, to missing functionalities, unsuccessful market launch, or even project abortion. Furthermore, the special characteristics of a PSS have to be considered already at an early stage of the development process. Requirements Engineering (RE) and design methodology as well as supporting Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) need to establish a common perception of the targeted PSS. At the same time, the inner complexity of PSS leaves requirements analysis, design activities and development tasks fragmented among many disciplines and sometimes conflicting, unstable, unknowable or not fully defined. In this context, a concurrent, transdisciplinary and collaborative design of PSS is required to create feasible and successful solutions. The objective of this chapter is to present a structured approach to face the specific challenges of PSS development in detail, to elaborate a general framework that features a systematic approach for PSS development, and to consider the effects of changes in specific product and service design on a systematic PSS development process.