There are two areas of product development management - of the whole programme and of the individual project. If there is a focused product development strategy, the projects in the programme are more clearly defined and there is less need in the initial stages to do a great deal of research to cull the projects that will not be successful. There is an interaction between the product strategy and product development strategy in which there is product, market and production analysis, and this eliminates projects before they are absorbed into the product development programme.

Management of the product development programme involves the effective use of the available skills, knowledge and other resources between the different projects. Timing is vital not only for the efficient use of resources but to ensure that the outcome - the product - is launched at the optimum time. Planning and control and costs within the programme budget are not always easy when there is a variety of projects whose progress cannot be exactly predicted. But the most important facet of programme management is to ensure the quality of the development and in particular the total outcome of product, production, marketing and finance.