Project Management in the Fuzzy Front End

Revision as of 15:17, 11 September 2016

In many organizations the pressure on the Product Development Process (PDP) has increased through the demand of greater product varieties and shorter lifecycles. Organizations aim for a structured way of speeding up the Product Development Process while not loosing effective scoping in the identification of market needs. Often they have succeeded using the Stage Gate Process - or a customized version of it. ^[1] But even though the execution of an idea has increased in efficiency the search and selection of the ideas in the "Fuzzy Front End" of the PDP resembles great complications to the project management. This comes with no surprise since the "Fuzzy Front End" is typically characterized through a high degree of uncertainty and equivocality. ^[2] However transferring knowledge from the Risk Management tools for decision making under uncertainty can be applied to ease the Project Management in the Fuzzy Front End.

Project Management

The "Fuzzy Front End"

Figure 1: Process Model of Innvoation and the Fuzzry Front End ^[3]

The Management of Innovation

Project Management of Incremental Innovations

The Fuzzy Front End of Incremental Innovations

The Stage Gate Process

In development of incremental innovations organizations aim for a very structured way.

Project Management of Radical Innovations

The Fuzzy Front End of Radical Innovations

Decision Making under Uncertainty

Forecasting Innovations

Risk Assessment

Decision Making

References

1. ↑ Tidd, J. & Bessant, J. (2013). Managing Innovation - Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 5th Edition, p.405-412, UK, ISBN 978118360637
2. ↑ Florén, H. & Frishammar, J. (2012). From Preliminary Ideas to Corroborated Product Definitions: Managing the front-end of new product development, California Management Review, 54 (4), p.20-43
3. ↑ Wikipedia. Fuzzy Front End. Retrieved 11.09.2016