We all know of development projects that become endless or fail to deliver results. The complex nature of product development — changing technology, changing customer requirements, global competition — offers many challenges to delivering innovative products on schedule. It’s this complexity that precludes standard project management approaches, which assume a stable and predictable environment. Instead, flexibility, adaptability, strong leadership and a clear understanding of the expected results make up the recipe for success for your development program.

We have authored several project management books, including “Project Management Toolbox ” and the recently published “Flexible Project Management for Product Development.” The newer Guide-book addresses the fact that product development is in constant turmoil and consequently traditional project management approaches don’t work.

We strongly recommend that our clients provide engineering managers and Leads with a strong foundation in project management. Further, we believe that each model of PMO (Project Management Office) should be unique, but also that not every product development organization needs a PMO.

How we help you

Given our sole focus on product development consulting, we’re able to collaborate with your development team on the imperative of clean execution. We know your team lives in a product development world, not a project management one, and we focus our approach accordingly—allowing us to immediately connect with your team.

We help you create a culture of clean execution, with engineering managers and Leads who understand their responsibilities to deliver business results — and know the ways-and-means to make it happen. We create and implement project management models tailored to your unique business objectives and the organizational culture. We help fix unrealistic schedules and reduce confusion over roles and responsibilities, particularly in multi-site environments. And we help with resource allocation where too many projects overwhelm the development team.

We show you how to characterize each development project based on its unique complexity, before it starts, such that you can staff it appropriately. We help you empower your team through the use of the Bounding Box so they can gain velocity and accelerate time-to-market. We help you develop the skill of protocols to ensure clear communication even in multi-site environments.

When we’re done, your engineering team will see project management as an ally, not a constraining force imposed on them. They’ll also have the tools they need, the select processes essential to project management — as well as the judgment to adapt to changing environments and still deliver measurable results.

It all starts with a consultation directly with one of our Senior Experts during which we identify and prioritize your challenge -- risk free, no charge.