Perhaps the best summary of how ICP and the Co‐op Group handled their joint project in 2000 can be taken from an internal memo from ICP’s development manager: “please be prepared for the s**t to hit the fan”. The Co‐operative Group, one of the largest retailers in the UK, and ICL,...

While time to market was the most critical measure of performance in product development throughout the 1990s, the recent economic downturn has caused a shift in priorities. Today, lowering product development costs is the key focus. To this end, companies are looking for ways to improve R&D and...

Making a video game these days is getting more and more like making a movie. So‐called blockbuster games are developed by large teams of programmers managed by “producers”, can take many years to come to market and generally cost major amounts of money to make. The rewards, however, can be...

On the face of it, there may not seem much in common with a World Bank project to increase the productivity of Nicaraguan farmers, and British financial institutions’ need to bring profitable new products and services on stream quickly. Or with a US office‐product company’s determination...

An extensive review of systems development practices during the late 1990s produced some alarming statistics. It suggested that up to 90 percent of all IT projects failed to meet their goals, while 80 percent were late and over‐budget, and 40 percent were abandoned. The value of IT investments...

Any company striving to challenge the likes of Intel and Microsoft must be innovative. That much goes without saying. If it isn’t, then it will surely be left trailing in the wake of the high‐tech giants. Sun Microsystems offers alternative technology to the big two and can certainly be...

Product development management has evolved through major generations, and each successive generation has enabled far greater performance than the previous one. In the 1990s, aggressive competitors used time‐based product strategies to alter the competitive balance in their industries by...

Purpose – Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach – Scans the top 400 management publications in the world to identify the most topical issues and latest...

Purpose – Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach – Scans the top 400 management publications in the world to identify the most topical issues and latest...

Purpose – Most development processes have the effect of putting innovation in a straitjacket. This is because they encourage heavy up‐front planning followed by sticking to the plan, which imposes considerable constraint on change during a project. Unfortunately, change in product...