Contemporary product development projects are increasingly influenced by volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) conditions, which impair the effectiveness of established management approaches. In this context, agile approaches in general, as well as Scrum in particular, have become widely used practical solutions for addressing VUCA-conditions. However, adapting the agile approach, which has gained particular prominence in software development, to context-specific situation remains challenging due to the lack of a solid theoretical foundation. For instance, the prescribed use of Scrum, as outlined in the Scrum Guide, often fails to reflect the realities of the development of mechatronic products in practice. The necessity of context- and situation-specific adaptations is both well-established and empirically substantiated in industrial practice. Considering the current state of the art, both academic and practical perspectives highlight the need for enhanced methodological support in order to meet existing adaptation demands. These demands are closely linked to the context of leadership. The objective of this thesis is to support agile product development projects by systematically designing and refining an artifact, in order to facilitate situation- and context-specific adaptations related to the field of leadership. The Design Research Methodology serves as the methodological framework for addressing the research objective in a scientifically rigorous manner. By adopting a systemic perspective, this thesis first draws analogies between product development and military concepts before contrasting them. The author of this thesis assumes that the elements, relationships, and mechanisms of actions relevant in leading military operations under extreme VUCA conditions are analogous to those in agile project management under VUCA conditions. This investigation focuses on Scrum, recognized as the standard agile methodology in industrial practice. By contrasting military and Scrum concepts, individual elements can be theoretically refined and further developed. A systems-theoretical conceptualization of agility serves as a theoretical foundation for this process. The first artifact contributes to the theoretical refinement of the concept of agility, whereby agility is understood and conceptualized both as an attribute and as a construct. The second and most significant artifact represents a modification of the Scrum framework, in which individual elements are either further differentiated or adopted from the German Army in leading military operations. These two symbiotically related artifacts illustrate that certain elements are constitutive for both the Scrum framework and the agility construct. The findings presented in this thesis support practitioners in effectively and efficiently managing agile product development projects by providing transparently structural elements and their concrete mechanisms of action. Unveiling these elements enables designing context-specific adaptations, configuring tailored solutions, and mitigating misleading interpretations. From an academic perspective, this thesis enriches and theoretically advances existing concepts regarding agility, for example by reinterpreting Scrum as a leadership framework and a fractal whose structural elements and mechanisms of action apply in both stable and extreme VUCA conditions.     «

Contemporary product development projects are increasingly influenced by volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) conditions, which impair the effectiveness of established management approaches. In this context, agile approaches in general, as well as Scrum in particular, have become widely used practical solutions for addressing VUCA-conditions. However, adapting the agile approach, which has gained particular prominence in software development, to context-specific situation remains c...     »