6.4.3 Project leader's decisions

The project leader has also decisions to make so as to achieve the outcomes set by top management within the time and budget structure of the product development manager. Firstly the project leader has to decide with more senior management on the aim, outcomes and constraints of the project. The project leader selects techniques for the activities identified by the product development manager, which are within the capabilities of the team members or outside agencies, and which will produce the product with the qualities needed by the consumer. The project leader decides how to do this within the resources and the time allowed so that the project remains on schedule. The project leader decides the balance between the effectiveness and the efficiency of the product development, that is balancing the quality of the product development and the time and resources used (see Fig. 6.10). This is very difficult decision making, especially for the young project leader.

There needs to be help from more senior management. Nothing is worse than senior management telling the project leader to produce the ideal product but not allocating the resources to attain it, or to give them a project known to be a problem without the knowledge to start solving it. The project leader's most important organisational decision is the product development project plan with the activities, resources, time, and the communication and control during the project. The project plan with its predicted timing and use of resources is the basis for decisions that determine the efficiency of the product development; the project leader using it to make the decisions on overruns of time and resources. Few product development projects, except for simple incremental product changes, can be predicted accurately - either the direction of the design and development or the outcomes in the results. So the project leader is continuously making decisions during the project on the relationships between:

     product and the consumer needs;

     product and the company;

     process, distribution and marketing;

     production and marketing functions.

These decisions are made not only with the core product development team but also with the wider team in the functional departments and in outside organisations. These decisions are extremely important to the quality of the research and need to be recognised reasonably early before the project becomes confused and disorganised.

Think Break 1. For product development in your company, outline the PD Process for     each of the following:     (a) product improvements,     (b) new product introductions,     (c) process improvements,     (d) new process introductions. If your company does not have PD Processes, design them for the company. Identify the individuals or groups who are responsible for the product strategy and the product development programme, and for go/no-go decision making at the end of Stages1, 2, 3 and 4 in the PD Process. 2. Select a recent project, which was a radical product innovation, and     identify the critical decisions, where they occurred in the project and     who were the decision makers.     Identify decisions and decision makers in:     (a) the go/no-go decisions,     (b) decisions that led to final product qualities, product image, product          features and uses,     (c) decisions that led to production method, distribution method,          marketing strategy, costs and pricing,     (d) decisions on the project efficiency, in achieving timing and costs.