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MAHD

Authors:
Geoffrey Hunter
Geoffrey Hunter
Published On:
Jul 18, 2024
Last Updated:
Jul 19, 2024

MAHD (Modified Agile for Hardware Development) is a project management methodology aimed at hardware development that is a hybrid of Agile and traditional project management methodologies. It was founded by Dorian Simpson and Gary Hinkle and broadly shared to the public in 20171. The authors recognize the benefits of Agile methodlogies that are very common in software development, but also recognize that hardware development has unique challenges (usually due to much slower iteration time to design and build a piece of hardware than it is to write and test a piece of software).

The MAHD logo2.

Hardware is different than software — requirements must be frozen to ship, prototypes cost money, incremental features impact whole designs, etc. To address these unique needs of physical products, MAHD rethinks Agile tactics while maintaining the benefits of Agile principles.

— MAHD Framework Overview3.

IPAC Iterations

An IPAC (Integration-Prototype-Alignment-Customer) iteration is a development and learning cycle that is aimed to be about 1-3 months long (this can vary depending on the project)4. An IPAC iteration is the key concept which enforces an agile approach to hardware development. This is because it provisions for a short development cycle, followed by a testing and engagement with a customer before the next iteration begins. IMO the term Customer should really be replaced with “Stakeholder” (IPAS perhaps?), as “Customer” may not apply for early IPEC iteration deliverables, indeed for some projects the concept of a “Customer” may not even exist.

Footnotes

  1. MAHD. About Us. Retrieved 2024-07-19, from https://mahdframework.com/modified-agile-for-hardware-founders/. ↩

  2. MAHD. MAHD Homepage. Retrieved 2024-07-18, from https://mahdframework.com/. ↩

  3. MAHD. MAHD Framework Overview. Retrieved 2024-07-18, from https://mahdframework.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/MAHD-Overview-v3.0-1_20_2023.pdf. ↩

  4. MAHD. The MAHD Framework Core. Retrieved 2024-07-19, from https://mahdframework.com/mahd-framework-core/. ↩