Integrating Project Management Into the Product Development Process

It is in the tactical planning and management of individual projects where any new ideas or issues that were identified at the stage-gate/ portfolio review are acted on. To this end, coming out of the stagegate is generally a good point at which to make detailed modifications to your project plan (see Figure 12-4).

Figure 12-4: Phase-to-phase detailed project planning.

To effectively get the outputs from a stage-gate/portfolio review input into the detailed planning for the next project stage, you must clearly articulate how the project management process will be integrated with the product development process. If you don't, valuable information can slip through the cracks and won't be addressed. One method I have found effective is to use the Project Data Sheet (PDS) format to create a new subproject for each new stage. This means that you will have one Project Data Sheet and high-level plan for the whole project, plus a sub-PDS and detailed plan for each stage. The executive summary format of the PDS makes it ideally suited for presentation and discussion with the stage-gate committee, as well as providing an organized framework for making modifications based on the aforementioned discussion.

Agile Strategy

Use Project Data Sheets to define each project stage as a subproject, to ensure that outputs from a stage-gate/portfolio review are integrated into the detailed planning for the next stage.

The extension of the stage-gate product development process described in this chapter will help you better manage your projects and portfolio on an ongoing basis, while maintaining a focus on the critical technical and innovative engines of your company. In today's competitive and uncertain business environment, innovation alone will not win the day. Product development needs to reach outside of R&D, create a linkage, and become immersed in the business environment. Gifted managers (product and project managers) often create this necessary linkage, but they will eventually be stretched too thin. Extending your product development process by integrating portfolio management and project management is one way to support these leaders, as well as broaden the bridge so that other project managers and team leads can help maintain this critical connection.