ESTABLISHING DISCIPLINE IN THE SELECTION, PLANNING, AND CARRYING OUT OF RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Discipline is needed in managing R&D projects to ensure that the projects pay off. R&D projects must be targeted toward company or customer needs. R&D projects also must meet their objectives on time and within budget. To target R&D projects properly, an R&D group and business units must work together in selecting R&D. To do this, they need to arrange ways in which they together can focus on a company's highest technical and business priorities. To get R&D projects planned and controlled effectively, R&D managers should require researchers to answer the most critical questions in their technical work. Their answers to these questions form the core of an R&D project plan. Finally, the pivotal activity in establishing discipline as related to R&D projects is holding critical, but fair, project reviews. Nothing makes a researcher focus technical work more than knowing that an R&D project will be reviewed at midpoint. © 1990.