Managing Innovative Projects

Alan Webb, Project Management Consultant and visiting lecturer at the Surrey Management School

• 1. Introduction. 2. Innovation and the creation of new products; Innovation as away of survival; the process of innovation product life-cycles; case study: product life-cycles; sources of ideas for innovative products; strategies for innovation; sources of funds for developing projects; summary; contacts. 3. Getting organized; Project management; project management and project structures; leadership and the individual; the structure of the project team; summary. 4. Planning: the way ahead; organization for planning; the role of planning in a development project; setting out the project plan; example: prototype scheduling and test; scheduling activities with limited resources; network analysis; establishing activity durations; example: analysis of a simple network; expected event dates; example: prototype manufacture and test; activity on node, or precedence networks; alternative logic; networks in practice; summary. 5. Success by design; factors that influence design; the design cycle; simultaneous engineering; quality by design; taguchi methods; example: test for lowest fuel consumption; design reviews; configuration management; in perspective; structures engineering data; summary. 6. The cost and value of products; value for money; design-to-cost; value engineering; example: cost-to-function analysis for an automatic washing machine; summary. 7. Managing the flow of materials; planning the acquisition process; build sequences; control and coordination; example: feasible output calculation; construction of a line-of-balance chart; computerized materials management; case study: a computerized materials management system; leading the materials management group; summary. 8. Progress, performance and control; the project control cycle; the slip diagram; example: completion of a set of drawings; case example: slip diagram for the BAe/GEC Nimrod AEW 3 Project; the origins of formalized cost and schedule control; example: estimate of the outcome of a project at the mid-point of it''s life; the organizational impact of cost-performance measurement; work breakdown structures; organization for cost-performance measurement; measuring project progress; contemporary software; cost-performance measurement in practice; progress reports; lines of communication; reviews; summary. 9. Planning and implementing the production programme; types of production; economic aspects of tooling; example: acquisition of a special machine; total annual cost analysis; the learning process; case example: time reductions for fabricated aircraft panels; example: batch costs for vehicle chassis; example: learning rates with two shifts; cost reductions attributable to learning; example: cost reductions where an incentive scheme is in operation; the rate of production progress; the measurement of production progress; example: the build up of production output; management responses to low output rates, production readiness; summary. 10. The economics of projects; estimating the project cost; estimating methods; Match" parametric software; case study: product cost estimate; justifying the project; example: project investment decision; the profit potential of new products; example: profitable sales figures for a new project; how much s spent on innovative projects. summary. 11. Managing the risks; the nature of risks; risk analysis; case example: product and market strategy options; example: variability in durations of a development project; new developments; in perspective; risk management; summary. 12. Some commercial aspects; prime contracts; forms of contract; fixed-price contracts; example: contract price adjustment; liquidated damages; intellectual property rights; summary. 13. Software for project management; contemporary software; developments in technology; products available; some factors in choosing project software; summary. Appendix: Products and vendors. Further reading."

1. Introduction. 2. Innovation and the creation of new products 3. Getting organized 4. Planning: the way ahead 5. Success by design. 6. The cost and value of products 7. Managing the flow of materials 8. Progress, performance and control 9. Planning and implementing the production programme 10. The economics of projects 11. Managing the risks 12. Some commercial aspects 13. Software for project management Appendix: Products and vendors. Further reading.