Chapter 2

Development Processes and

Organizations

Learning Objectives
Is there a standard development process

that will work for every company?

What role do experts from different
functional areas play in the development
process?
What milestones can be used to divide the
overall development process into phases?
Should the development organization be
divided into groups corresponding to
projects or to development functions?

Usefulness of a welldefined Development

Process
Quality assurance
Coordination
Planning
Performance Management
Improvement

Six Phases of the Generic

Development Process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Planning
Concept development
System-Level design
Detail design
Testing and refinement
Production ramp-up

Planning
Often referred to as phase zero
since it precedes the project
approval and launch of the actual
product development process.

Output: Target market, business

goals, key assumptions and
constraints.

Concept Development
Needs of the target market are
identified, alternative products
concepts are generated and
evaluated, and one more concepts
are selected for further
development and testing.

System-level Design
Includes the definition of the
product architecture and the
decomposition of the product into
subsystems and components.
The final assembly scheme for the
production system is usually
defined during this phase.

Detail Design
Includes complete product
specifications such as tolerances,
materials, geometry, etc.
Specifications of the purchased parts
Process plans and assembly plans of
the product defined
Tooling defined

Testing and Refinement

Involves construction and evaluation of several
preproduction versions of the product

Early (alpha) prototypes: Usually built with

production-intent parts -- parts with the same

geometry and material properties as the
production version but not necessarily fabricated
with the actual processes to be used in production.
Alpha prototypes tested to determine whether (a)
the product will work as designed and (b) product
satisfies key customer needs.

Testing and Refinement

Beta prototypes are usually built with
parts supplied by the intended
production processes but may not be
assembled using the intended final
assembly process.
Beta prototypes used to answer
questions about performance and
reliability in order to identify necessary
engineering changes.

Production ramp-up
The product is made using the
intended production system.
Purpose is to train the work force
and weed out any remaining
problems in the production
processes
Transition from ramp-up to normal
production is gradual

The Generic Product

Development Process

Concept Development
Activities
Identifying customer needs
Establishing target specifications
Concept generation
Concept selection
Concept testing
Setting final specifications
Project planning
Economic analysis
Benchmarking of competitive products
Modeling and prototyping

Identifying customer
needs
The goal of this activity is to
understand customers needs and
to effectively communicate them
to the development team.

Output: organized customer needs

list, importance rating for each
need

Establishing target
specifications
Specifications provide a precise
description of what a product has to
do. They are translation of the
customer needs into technical terms.
Targets for the specifications are set
early in the process and represent
the hopes of the development team.

Concept generation
The goal is to thoroughly explore the

space of product concepts that may

address the customer needs
Concept generation includes a mix
of internal and external search
Output: Usually a set of 10-20
concepts, each typically represented
by a sketch and brief descriptive text

Concept selection
Concept selection is the activity in
which various product concepts are
analyzed and sequentially
eliminated to identify the most
promising concept(s).

Concept testing
One or more concepts are tested
to verify that the customer needs
have been met, assess the market
potential of the product, and
identify any shortcomings.

Setting final specifications

The target specifications set
earlier in the process are revisited
after a concept has been selected
and tested.

Project planning
The team creates a detailed development

schedule, devises a strategy to minimize

development time, and identifies the
resources required to complete the project.
Major results of the front-end activities are
captured in a contract book which contains
the mission statement, the customer needs,
the detail of the selected concept, the
product specifications, the economic analysis
of the product, the development schedule,
the project staffing, and the budget.

Economic analysis
The team often with the support of a
financial analyst, builds an economic
model for the new product.
This model is used to justify
continuation of the overall
development program and to resolve
specific trade-off among, for example,
development costs and manufacturing
costs.

Benchmarking of
competitive products
An understanding of competitive
products is critical to successful
positioning of a new product and
can provide a rich source of ideas
for the product and production
process design.

Modeling and prototyping

Every stage of the concept development
process involves various forms of models
and prototypes. These may include,
among others: early proof-of-concept
models, which help the development team
to demonstrate feasibility: form-only
models, which can be shown to customers
to evaluate ergonomics and style; and
spreadsheet models of technical tradeoffs.

Adapting the Generic

Product Development
Process
Technology-push product
Platform products
Process-intensive products
Customized products

Technology-Push Products
The firm begins with a new
proprietary technology and looks
for an appropriate market in which
to apply this technology
Gore-Tex (an expanded Teflon
sheet) manufactured by W.L. Gore
Associates

Technology-Push Products
Many extremely successful products
have arisen from technology-push
development
This approach is unlikely to succeed
unless
- the assumed technology
offers a clear competitive advantage
- suitable alternative technologies
are unavailable or very difficult for
competitors to utilize.

Platform Products
A platform product is built around a
preexisting technological subsystem ( a
Technology Platform).
Examples: tape transport mechanism in the
Sony Walkman, the Apple Macintosh OS
Huge investments were made in developing
these platforms, and therefore every
attempt is made to incorporate them into
several different products.

Platform Products

Differences between Technology Push

& Platform products:
a technology platform has already
demonstrated its usefulness in the
marketplace in meeting customer needs
Products built on technology platforms
are much simpler to develop than if the
technology were developed from scratch.

Process Intensive Products

Examples of process-intensive
products include semiconductors,
foods, chemicals, and paper.
In many cases, process-intensive
products are produced in very high
volumes and are bulk, as opposed
to discrete goods.

Customized Products
Examples: switches, motors, batteries, and
containers.
Slight variations of standard configurations
and typically developed in response to a
specific order by a customer.
Development of customized products
consists primarily of setting values of
design variables such as physical
dimensions.

Variants of Generic
Development Process

Product Development
Organizations
Organizations are formed by establishing

formal or informal links among individuals

Reporting relationships: Reporting

relationships give rise to the classic notion of
supervisor and subordinate.
Financial arrangements: Individuals are linked
by being part of the same financial entity, such
as that defined by a particular budget category
or profit-and-loss statement.
Physical Layout: links are created between
individuals when they share the same office,
floor, building, or site.

Product Development
Organizations
Regardless of their organizational
links, particular individuals can be
classified in two different ways:
according to their function and
according to the projects they work
on.

Product Development
Organizations
A function (in organizational terms) is an
area of responsibility usually involving
specialized education, training, or
experience.
Regardless of their functions, individuals
apply their expertise to specific projects.
In product development, a project is the
set of activities in the development
process for a particular product.

Functional & Project

Organizations
In functional organizations, the
organizational links are primarily
among those who perform similar
functions.
In project organizations, the
organizational links are primarily
among those who work on the
same project.

Matrix Organizations
The matrix organization was conceived
as a hybrid of functional and project
organizations.
In the matrix organization, individuals are
linked to others according to both the
project they work on and their function.
Typically each individual has two
supervisors, one a project manager and
one a functional manager.

Variants of the matrix

organization
Heavyweight project organization
Lightweight project organization.
A heavy weight project
organization contains strong
project links.

Various Product
Development
Organizations

Choosing an
Organizational Structure
The most appropriate choice of

organizational structure depends on

which organizational performance
factors are most critical to success.
Functional organizations tend to breed
specialization and deep expertise in the
functional areas.
Project organizations tend to enable
rapid and effective coordination among
diverse functions.

Choosing an
Organizational Structure
How important is cross-functional
integration?
How critical is cutting-edge functional
expertise to business success?
Can individuals from each function be
fully utilized for most of the duration of a
project?
How important is product development
speed?

Characteristics of Different
Organizational Structure