Study Week 3 Product development

Question 1

What is the goal with project portfolio management?

Answer 1

Project portfolio management refers to a company’s capability to manage it’s portfolio of projects in order to achieve maximum return on investment

Question 2

Technology cycles characterised in to two phases

Answer 2

Fluid phase – when there is considerable uncertainty about the technology
and its market.
Specific phase – begins after several emerges.

Question 3

What is a dominant design?

Answer 3

A design that wins allegiance in the market
Meets the requirements of many classes of users and in which numerous product features are implicit
Referred to a radical product innovations with few competitors on the market.

Question 4

Types of R&D projects (W&C)

Answer 4

•Research or advanced development projects
- Inventing new science and capturing new know-how.

• Breakthrough development projects
- The first generation of an entirely new product or process/process family.

• Platform or generational development projects
- A platform or core development project

• Derivative development projects
- Incremental development project.

Question 5

What are the goals in project portfolio management?

Answer 5

Maximize value of portfolio – unnecessary projects
Achieving a balanced portfolio - variation
A strong link to strategy – aligned with company vision.

Question 6

Which tools is used for each goal.

According to Cooper et.al

Answer 6

Maximize value of portfolio - scoring model
Strong link to strategy - Strategic buckets
Balanced portfolio - Bubble diagrams

Question 7

Technology sourcing strategies

Answer 7

Internal R&D
Technology Purchasing
Acquisitions
Joint Ventures and Alliances
Scanning

Question 8

What “trade-off” might be faced as a manager

Answer 8

• Time vs cost and quality
• One product vs a family of products
• Market pull vs technology push

Question 9

What is aggregate project planning and project portfolio management

Answer 9

It is the collective plan for the projects to undertake within planning horizon and the sequence the projects are to be carried out in. The aggregate project plan takes the available resources into account and sequences projects so that none may start until planned resources are available.