Research and development (R&D) activities do not fit the traditional project model. They may seem difficult to manage because of their inherent ambiguity, the need for creative exploration, and often the lack of having defined milestones and outcomes. However, project management methods, along with systems engineering as a complementary discipline, provide the ability to categorize R&D activities, bound them, and then assess progress along a defined course of action. They also provide information about status and progress, visibility into opportunities and challenges that might otherwise be missed, allowing timely course corrections.
Project Management for Research and Development: Guiding Innovation for Positive R&D Outcomes, Second Edition, provides methods for optimizing results in R&D by using structured processes that come from project management and are intertwined with the key complementary discipline of systems engineering. It provides processes, tools, and techniques to assess and manage creative activities in an optimal way. The core of the book is a flexible framework, which lifts the burden off organizations that do not want to invest heavily in implementing a significant number of often conflicting processes. It is a lightweight, flexible structure to help organizations and individuals meet their most important goals, no matter how complicated or complex these goals may be.
Each chapter in the book includes Apply Now exercises, which allow immediate application of fundamental concepts, summarizes key points of concepts and terms, and provides templates to apply the ideas from each chapter to a real-life situation. The book also features unique and creative case studies to demonstrate the application of project management to various R&D projects.