致勝策略——淺談新產品開發的專案管理問題（轉）

為了快速有效的開發新產品，專案經理們必須注重本質問題並著眼於創新。

位於德國Wiehl-Bomig市的照明與建築控制裝置生產商Merten GmbH & Co. KG公司試圖逆潮流而動：當他們把產品賣給建築師和設計師而不是電氣施工者時，他們意識到，他們需要流行的高階產品以適應市場需求。

英國倫敦的Grimshaw工業設計公司在美國紐約市設有分支機構，他們提供了完美的候選品：一種可程式設計的照明和溫控玻璃開關，這種開關被塗成與四周牆壁協調的顏色。這兩家公司合作將願景變成了現實。“對於Merten公司來說，新產品的開發依賴於技術上的可行性，”專案管理總監艾克塞爾·科靈伯格說。“我作為專案總監的職責是設定基本的需求並與開發人員保持經常性的交流。作為一名篩選者，我要經常地檢查那些創造性的設計方案，保證它們切實可行與實用，並且還需要考慮生產流程。”

這個工作描述比較理想，但實施起來非常困難。“這是因為一個優秀的業務經理不一定是一名優秀的專案經理。”帕米拉·T·米勒說，她擔任總部設立在美國新澤西州內瓦克市的新澤西地平線藍十字藍盾公司（Horizon BCBSNJ）企業戰略與質量部門的副總裁。這是她多年監管Horizon BCBSNJ公司處理過的廣泛的專案所得出的結論，這些專案包括新的IT系統、改進業務流程和將健康險的新產品推向市場等，後者在現在糟糕的經濟狀況下被證明是異常費勁的。她認為，“你需要有一名接受過專案管理教育並掌握相關技能和方法的業務骨幹。”

軟體系統肯定會有所幫助。無論是開發一種新產品或新的IT系統，所有Horizon BCBSNJ公司正在實施的專案都由透過連線到Microsoft Project的組合專案管理系統所管理和監控，這套系統由美國加州舊金山市的Business Engine公司提供。“這是所有資訊單一的儲存中心：這裡面有超過200個專案。”米勒說。“在公司的最高層，我們會監控那些對公司未來至關重要的35個專案。

那些針對新市場推出的新產品成為“最重要專案”列表的主要候選者，這些新專案提供了全新的受益、共同支付和可選附加服務的不同組合。然而，透過軟體管理並不完整，Horizon BCBSNJ同時施行了一些有效而實際的准入規則，米勒說。“對於那些大型專案，我們起初並沒有批准所有的預算，而只是其中的一部分，然後對他們說：‘請拿出一份完整歸檔的專案計劃和可行性研究報告來。’然後，當他們完成這些文件之後，我們會撥給他們更多的預算。”

危險區域

儘管他們的產品不是那種可以在雜貨店或五金店買得到的看得見摸得著的商品，Horizon BCBSNJ巧妙的避免了把新產品推向市場所要經歷的考驗和痛苦。沒有創新的業務不會存活下來，但創新本身並不是全部內容。新產品必須被及時的推向市場以滿足真正的市場需求，並且避免消耗過多的資源以免遏制其他新產品的開發。處理得當的話，你會開發出像Sony Walkman那樣的產品；處理失誤的話，你會製造出像福特埃茲爾（Ford Edsel）轎車那樣的東西，這種1950年代的失敗產品作為如何設計、建造和推出新車的反面教材已經在汽車史中消失。

“推出新產品的最佳實踐的最基本原則是生產那些市場需要的東西，消費者要能夠負擔得起，並且有一個有說服力的理由去以特定的價格購買它們。”格林·拉德克利夫·布萊安說，他是英國吉爾福德的一名工程師，曾在諸多專案中工作過，包括協和式飛機和工業流程控制系統。

順利地推出一種成功的新產品涉及到跨越某些特別棘手的危險區域。“當你研究那些成功的新品推出並把它們與那些失敗的案例比較時，這兩者對專案開始時的四個基本問題的回答會暴露出諸多不同點。”格雷格·基森斯說，他是美國俄亥俄州哥倫布市的Catalyst管理諮詢公司的常務合夥人。“這四個基本問題是：為什麼要做這個專案？哪些人要參與到此專案中？我們都需要做些什麼事情？何時做這些事情？”

還有，僅僅給出這四個問題的答案還不夠：提出問題的順序也很重要。“優秀的專案團隊以這種順序回答這些問題：從最有效的問題開始，向後遞減，以確定日期開始。”基森斯說。

3，2，1，發射？

當然，理論上，找出些推出新產品的動機並不困難。公司一直在推出新產品，市場人員和工程師總會想出些聰明的主意。把兩者結合起來，這是很簡單的事情，不是嗎？錯。你不能僅僅因為市場部門認為是該推出點新東西的時候了就開發一種出類拔萃的新產品。

“客戶關注的本質是使新產品開發出來並被推向市場。”西蒙·布拉格認為。布拉格是英國桑迪市ARC諮詢集團的研究主任，他強調說，客戶關注不僅僅意味著在設計的時候為客戶著想；它意味著主動與客戶交談，引匯出他們的想法，並且請他們對正在進行的工作提出建議。

這些事情說起來比做起來要簡單。“為了給開發部門提供最多的好處，根據產品的不同，開發歷時的不同和產品服務於單個客戶和多個客戶的不同，我們要謹慎地組織客戶介入。”路·愛爾蘭警告說。愛爾蘭是來自美國田納西州克拉克斯維爾市的專案管理顧問。所以，組織由各種客戶代表構成的小組，花時間考慮你要問他們的問題和為什麼要問這些問題，這些都是些比較明智的策略。要小心失去太多控制：“不能讓客戶來驅動專案的商業因素，要讓他們關注於產品開發的進展。”愛爾蘭說。

令客戶失望

不要陷入一個過於緊迫的最後期限。專家們同意這是一件艱難的事情，但他們也一致認為管理本身就是做艱難的事情。

美國內華達州史巴克市Sierra Nevada公司的國防合同高階專案經理康妮·露娜認為，當最後期限變得非常緊迫的時候，同客戶和高層管理的和諧關係將對緩和問題大有幫助。她說：“如果有一種比較和諧的關係，我們可以跟他們說我們無法在12個月內完成，但可以在13個月內做到。”儘管如此，她還是承認：“改變最後期限是個艱難的決定。”

至於人員因素，要讓專案得到那些能夠對產品的成功推出做出最大貢獻的人，訣竅在於新技術能夠多大程度的將人們從單一地點的束縛中解脫出來，艾力克·巴夫耶認為。他是美國德克薩斯州休斯頓市Welcom公司專案管理軟體部門的全球市場副總裁。“許多年以前，讓人們在一個地點工作很容易，因為這樣比較易於管理和溝通。現在他們可以在任何地方工作。”他說。

然而，英明的專案經理總是能夠感知遠處的危險。帕特里克·卡路西歐說，他是位於加拿大安大略省康考德市的質譜儀生產商MDS Sciex公司的專案經理。他說：“避免組織支離破碎的團隊很重要，因為這樣會防止大量的技術和經驗孤立分散。如果沒有這樣做，將會導致缺少跨職能部門的重要溝通，造成進度延誤和費用超支。”

更多並不一定更好

不要忽視專案範圍蔓延的危險性：在把新產品開發方法變得敏捷和靈活的努力過程中，公司要承擔專案管理工作變得草率的風險。“‘敏捷’和‘靈活’是嚴密的方法論，它不能使新產品開發方法變得混亂無章。”愛爾蘭說。

在Sierra Nevada公司，有一種很重要的工具來確保上述情況不會發生：配置控制委員會，這是一個在國防工業比較常見的監督團隊。露娜說：“它為我們和客戶設立了期望值，同時它也是我們管理範圍蔓延的手段。如果客戶要我們進行產品變更，它會使客戶意圖變得明確。”

換句話說，如果考慮得當，儘管在專案後期進行變更有利於創造出類拔萃的新產品，但在開始時做變更要比以後做更容易，風險也更小。問題在於：你能否透過“敏捷”和“靈活”把福特埃茲爾變成Sony Walkman？

原文：
　　　　　　　　　　　　Play to win
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　By Malcolm Wheatley

To develop new products quickly and efficiently, project managers must focus on the essentials with an eye toward innovation.

When lighting and building controls equipment manufacturer Merten GmbH & Co. KG of Wiehl-Boming, Germany, wanted to move upstream and sell its products to architects and designers rather than electrical installers, it realized that it needed a high-end, stylish product that would appeal to that market.

London, U.K.-based Grimshaw Industrial Design with offices in New York, N.Y., USA, provided the perfect candidate: a programmable glass switch for lighting and temperature controls, colored to match the surrounding wall. Together, the tow companies worked to turn the vision into reality. For Merten, new product development relies on technical feasibility,” says Axel Klingberg, director of project management. “My responsibility as project director is to set the basic requirements and stay in constant dialogue with the developers. I act as a filter, constantly checking the creative design, ensuring it remains practical, functional and takes into account the production processes.”

This job description is hard to beat – but tantalizingly difficult to deliver in practice. “Just because someone is a great business manager, that doesn’t make them a great project manager,” says Pamela T. Miller, vice president of enterprise strategy and quality at Newark, N.J., USA-based Horizon Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ). It’s a conclusion that she’s come to after years of watching Horizon BCBSNJ tackle projects as far-ranging as new IT systems, improved regulatory compliance and bringing new managed healthcare products to market – the latter proving especially taxing in today’s troubled economy. “You need to have a cadre of business people who have been steeped in project management skills, education and methodologies,” she says.

Software systems certainly help. Every single project underway at Horizon BCBSNJ, whether for a new product or a new IT system, is managed and monitored though a project- and portfolio-management system from Business Engine Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., USA, which links to Microsoft Project. “It’s a single repository for everything: We have more than 200 projects in there right now,” Miller says. “Right at the very top of the organization, we’ll track the most important of those – the 35 or so that are most critical to our future.”

New products, intended for new markets – and offering new and different mixes of benefits, co-payments and optional extras – are prime candidates for that “most important” list. But management-through-software isn’t the complete answer: Horizon BCBSNJ also imposes some hard-noted gating rules, Miller says. “With large projects, we don’t give people the whole budget, but just a fraction of it, and say: ‘Go out and develop a fully-documented project plan and feasibility study.’ Then, when we have that, we give them some more.”

Rough Waters
Although its products aren’t physical ones that you can pick up at the grocery or hardware store, Horizon BCBSNJ neatly encapsulates many of the trials and tribulations of bringing a new product to market. Business that don’t innovate don’t survive. But innovation on its own isn’t the whole story. New products must be brought to market in a timely manner, meet a genuine marketplace need and avoid being resource-hogs that stifle development elsewhere. Get it right, and you’ve got a Sony Walkman on your hands, Get it wrong, and you’ve got a Ford Edsel – a 1950s vehicular turkey that has gone down in automobile history as an example of how not to design, build and launch a new car.

“The most basic piece of best practice is to build something that the market wants and needs, can afford and can find a compelling reason to buy at a specific price point,” says Glyn Radcliffe-Brine, a Guildford U.K.-based engineer who has worked on projects as diverse as the Concorde airliner and industrial process control systems.

Successfully developing a winning new product involves navigating around some particularly troublesome danger spots. “When you look at successful product launches and compare them to unsuccessful product lunches, a lot of the difference between the two boils down to answering four basic questions right at the start,” says Greg Githens, managing partner of Catalyst Management Consulting of Columbus, Ohio, USA. “Why are we doing this project? Who are the right people to have involved in it? What exactly are we going to do? And when are we going to do it?

What’s more, just figuring out the answers isn’t enough: The sequence in which the questions are addressed matters, too. “The best project teams will answer these questions in this order,” Githens says. “The least effective ones tend to start in the reverse order, beginning with fixed dates.”

3, 2, 1, Launch?
In theory, of course, working out the motivation for new products shouldn’t be too difficult. Companies are always launching new items, and marketers and engineers are always coming up with smart ideas. Combine the two, and it’s a no-brainer, right? Wrong, You’re not going to develop a world-beater just because marketing says it’s time to launch something new.

“Customer focus is essential to getting a new product developed and delivered,” says Simon Bragg, research director at ARC Advisory Group of Sandy, England. Bragg stresses that customer focus doesn’t just mean thinking generically about customers while drawing up designs; it means actively talking to customers, bouncing ideas off them and inviting them to critique work in progress.

That’s easier said than done. “Depending on the product, the duration of time required to develop the product, and whether the product is for single or multiple customers, customer involvement will need to be carefully structured in order to provide maximum benefits for the development team,” warn Law Ireland, a project management consultant from Clarksville, Tenn., USA. So getting a representative mix of customers and putting time into thinking about what you’re going to ask them – and why – are smart strategies. Be cautious about ceding too much control: “Don’t let the customer drive the business parameters of the project, but instead have him or her focus on the product’s progress,” he says.

Disappointing the Customer
Don’t get railroaded into a project deadline that is too tight. Experts agree that this is a tough call – but are just as unanimous that management is about making tough calls.

Connie Luna, senior program controls manager with defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp., Sparks, Nev., USA, says that when dates look too tight, a good relationship with customers (and top management) can go a long way to sugaring the pill. “With a good relationship in place, it is possible to have a dialogue that says, we can’t make it in 12 months but we can in 13,” she says. Even so, she concedes, “changing the time frame is a tough decision.”

When considering the people dimension – getting the project staffed by the people who will make the greatest contribution to a successful product launch – the trick is to recognize the extent to which new technology has freed people from being tied to a single place, says Eric Pavyer, vice president of global marketing at project management software firm Welcom Inc. of Houston, Texas, USA. “In years gone by, it was easier to have people in one place, because it make them easy to manage, and easier to communicate with,” he says. “Now, they can work anywhere.”

However, the smart project manager will always be cognizant of the dangers of distance, says Patrick Carluccio, PMP, a project manager at MDS Sciex, a Concord, Ontario, Canada-based manufacturer of mass spectrometers. “It’s important to avoid structuring a disjointed team where pockets of technical expertise work in isolation,” he says. “This can lead to a lack of critical cross-functional communications, resulting in schedule and cost overruns.”

More Isn’t Always Better
Don’t overlook the dangers of scope creep, either: In the drive to become flexible and agile in their approach to new product development, companies can run the risk of slipshod project management practices. “’Agile’ and ‘flexible’ are methodologies that have rigor and should not be considered loose approaches to new product development,” Ireland says.

At Sierra Nevada Corp., a vital tool in ensuring that doesn’t happen often is the “configuration control board,” an oversight group that is common to the defense industry, Luna says. “It sets the expectations for us and the customer and is how we manage our scope creep,” she says. “If a customer wants us to make changes, it makes the implications very evident.”

In other words, change at the beginning of the project is easier and less risky than change toward the end – although change at the end can help create that world-beater, if it’s thought through correctly. The question is , could any amount of agility and flexibility have turned the Ford Edsel into a Sony Walkman?[@more@]