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NPD Project Management
There's more to project management than preparing a project plan in a
Gantt chart format. PD-Trak™ provides a set of tools and functions to
help plan and manage projects from initial conception of a product idea
through production/ deployment/implementation.
PD-Trak™ provides a flexible approach to managing projects. Some
organizations with large, more complex development projects need a
comprehensive approach to project management using a dedicated project
management tool such as MS Project® with a network schedule/gantt
chart, resource planning and levelling, task statusing, and performance
measurement. PD-Trak™ can work effectively with this more sophisticated
project management approach. Other organizations rely more on using a
defined NPD process with standard stage durations and avoid the
complexities of a dedicated project management system. PD-Trak™ provides
the Task Plan worksheets for teams to status accomplishments and plan
upcoming work while avoiding the need for a comprehensive project
management system.
PD-Trak™ is unique in also providing a management summary of the
status of all projects with the Master Project Schedule.
The Project File
The Project File is the basis for this NPD Project Management system.
The Project File provides a consistent, structured solution for
documenting projects and sharing project-related information. The
Project File components may be accessed directly using MS Office
applications or may be accessed via Internet Explorer. The Project Home
Page provides intuitive navigation to information stored in each
project's file. It uses a standard Windows® folder structure
for storing and archiving project documents.
The Project File contains the following elements:
 | The Program Plan document defines the project strategy and
incorporates a project schedule or Gantt chart, a project resource
plan, a project budget, and a risk management plan.
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| The Project Brief form captures a summary of the project
including planned stage-gate dates, objectives, resource
requirements and a financial justification. This form provides
boundary conditions for managing the project and represents the
current goals for the project and product.
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| A MS Project® Gantt Chart template based on the
defined NPD process facilitate creation of a project plan.
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| The Budget and Schedule Worksheet provides a standard method
for estimating the development expense based on phase length and
staffing profile.
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| The Financial Justification Worksheet provides a standard method
for assessing the financial return of the NPD project.
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| The Task Plan worksheets, one for each stage or phase of the
project, identify the tasks that must be performed, the deliverable
documents that must be completed, the responsibility for the tasks
and deliverables, the due date for completion, and the status of the
tasks and deliverables. This provides a mechanism for teams to
review accomplishments and plan upcoming work. These worksheets can
also serve as an alternative to using a project management system.
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| Project Tracking Charts compare the original plan to the actual
project performance for development time and cost, shows schedule
slippage over the course of the project (Slip Chart), and show
product price and cost as originally planned versus as currently
planned.
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| The Action Item Register is a central location for storing and
tracking action items with identified responsibilities and planned
and actual completion dates.
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| Standardized Worksheets for organizing NPD project information
such as meeting minutes, project status reports, and trip reports.
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The Master Project Schedule
The Master Project Schedule extracts information from the Project
Files to compile a concise management summary of key information for
each project. Functional and executive management use the Master Project
Schedule to monitor all projects or all projects in a particular
business unit or product line. There are three views that can be
selected, each one showing a different set of information within the
Master Project Schedule. All views aid in managing the portfolio of
projects and tracking actual vs. planned accomplishment.
For example, the Gates Dates section shows performance in meeting the
project milestones as shown below. In addition to the gates, other
project milestones can be defined and schedule performance tracked (see
example under the Virgo project below).
The "Calendar" view below shows the planned and actual checkpoint
dates in a timeline format (the top line represents the original plan,
the bottom line the current plan).
Summary
These functions and tools provide a more complete solution to
managing NPD projects than traditional project management software. They
also provide an alternative to the complexity of a traditional project
management system for less complex projects.
For further information, please contact us,
and we will do our best to help.
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