Project Management

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Project management during product development

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Pavan Kottapalli Senior Designer| IHI Turbo America British Columbia, Canada
Hi folks,

I think project management during product development is a challenge. Product development is a time consuming and resource consuming process. It is always important to control costs and maintain schedule during this period where the waste in terms of triple constraint is invisible. Most of the projects go over budget during this phase of the project. Please share your thoughts and any ideas to effectively manage projects which involve product development.

Best wishes,
Pavan
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Rita Ferguson PMP Project Manager Consultant Milford, Oh, United States
Jun 21, 2018 4:38 PM
Replying to Pavan Kottapalli
...
I am looking forward for some more real time experiences. Do you agree the fact that Produce development is a challenging part of project management and how you are handling with some examples?.
There is an extremely wide range of "Product Development". There is innovation and developing a new product or material that has never before been made. It may entail working with new suppliers and/or suppliers who have partnered with your organization in the new endeavor. Some suppliers may be developing new products for your organization to test in your new product. I've seen very complicated innovations that take years and some that are never brought to market commercially.

In my experience, an innovative development project starting from the ground floor was covered by an R&D budget.

On the other side of the spectrum is designing a product that will be built on a proven technology -- the modification can be substantial or it can be easily fitted onto the current technology but it can at least be estimated within an acceptable range.

In terms of budgeting, as Sergio stated above, this is best done by a financial analyst within the PMI framework. Don't forget to perform risk management!
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Liam Alexander United States
I agree that managing projects during product development is tough because the work is slow, the costs are not always visible, and the schedule can easily slip. What has helped me is working with product development project managers who follow a clear step by step process, like the one used by Brand New MD. They break the work into research, concept, design, prototyping, and launch, and they track progress in each stage instead of waiting for one big update at the end. This makes it easier to control budget and time because the team can see issues earlier and adjust quickly. A structured product development flow also keeps everyone aligned on what matters most, so resources are used in the right place and waste stays low. This kind of steady and organized approach has worked better for me than trying to manage product development with normal project controls.
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