Are you using a New Product Development (NPD) process that builds in the
critical success factors and ensures quality of execution?
The stage-gate model of product development was popularized by Robert Cooper
in his 1993 book “Winning at New Products” [36].
A stage-gate process breaks the new product project into between four and
six discrete stages. Each stage is cross-functional in that it consists of parallel
activities undertaken by different functional areas within the firm. In addition,
information needed to advance the project to the next stage is gathered during the
current stage and reviewed for a go/no-go decision.
A typical stage-gate process of product development comprises five stages such as:
- preliminary investigation
- detailed investigation
- development
- testing and validation
- full production and market launch.
Sounds simple and straightforward, doesn't it? Well, there's a lot more to it
than you think. By driving down uncertainties at each stage, you can considerably
decrease your overall development risk and increase your chances of success. Similarly,
each stage costs more than the preceding one. Therefore, you limit your risk by incrementally
committing to new projects.
The “gates” are the points in the development flow at which the activities of the
completed stage are examined for compliance with a set of rules. They are the project review
and decision meetings. At the gate meetings, go/kill decisions are made and future resources are allocated.
Gates have a common structure comprising three main elements:
- a set of required deliverables produced by the development team
- criteria against which the project is judged
- outputs from the decision process.
During the gate process, three main areas are assessed:
- the business rationale (this is the most important one)
- the quality of execution of the project
- the proposed action plan and resource allocation.
Now, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do we have a formal NPD process?
- Does it follow a stage-gate model to reduce risk and optimize success?
Let us add value to your NPD process and to your organization.
info@strategies2innovate.com
Read about other important technology management issues such as absorptive
capacity and what it means to your organization.
