Project Selection

Abstract

Chapter 2 discusses the selection of projects with limited resources. Project selection is critical for an organization to be successful in the achievement of their corporate strategies and competitive advantages. Due to dynamic changes in the business environment, advancement in technology, and condensed product life cycles, companies need to focus their efforts on identifying, selecting, and maximizing their R&D projects to meet customer demands and develop a successful product. Failure to select the best R&D project can cause valuable resources to be spent on poor projects, which yield little result. The aim of this chapter is to identify the criteria that company uses to evaluate and rank R&D projects based on priorities and to select the most appropriate R&D project among several competing projects.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Survey

2.1.1 Page 1: Introduction

We are a group of students of “Research and Development Management” class at Portland State University. We are currently working on a project which identifies the criteria, best practices for selection of R&D project. The purpose of this survey is to establish the importance of different criteria that a person

R&D projects requires good amount of resources and therefore one need to consider a lot of factors before choosing it. Because R&D program must balance technical considerations with commercial potential, finding the best

We appreciate your help and support towards our project’s success.

2.1.2 Page 2: Expert Details

Details about the Expert:

Name of the expert(optional)
Designation/position held
Place of work
Years of experience in the field
Additional comments if any

2.1.3 Page 3: Selection Criteria

In this section, from your perspective, you will evaluate the importance of seven categories of R&D project selection criteria. Please use the following rating scale: 1 = Not important 2 = Slightly important 3 = Somewhat important 4 = Important 5 = Very important. (For Non US country, please mention the country name)

Economic and financial criteria

Benefit/cost ration
Rate of return
Contribution of profitability
Growth rate
Payback period
The overall importance of the above financial criteria

Organizational/institutional criteria

Contribution to the organization goal/objectives
Aid the organization in competing in the market
Internal political decisions (e.g. Personal preference of decision makers)
Importance to the organization for the future success
Importance to the functioning of the organization
Public relation effect (e.g. improve corporate image)
Importance to organization's critical success factors
The overall importance of the above criteria

Environmental criteria

Required by regulations (e.g. Federal, State)
Response to competition (e.g. Response time better or equal competitors)
Required by customers/suppliers
New industry standards
Lawsuit requires information
The overall importance of the above criteria

Technical criteria

High visibility of project
Availability of skilled personnel
Availability of needed technology
Position in project lifecycle
Threat of substitution technology
The overall importance of the above criteria

Risk factors

Technical risk
Structure risk (e.g. Change of organization structure/procedures)
Risk of cost overruns
Size risk (no. of user projects involved, estimated project time)
The overall importance of the above criteria

Market

Span of application
Potential to commercialize
Competition situation in market
Registered patent
The overall importance of the above criteria

Managerial consideration

Political acceptance
End user understanding, cooperation and commitment to project
Top management support
Match either user’s interest/work load
Middle management support
The overall importance of the above criteria

Use of R&D project measurement techniques, please choose and write the serial number in the bracket (  )

1. Subjective assessment by superior(s)

2. Assessment by independent third party

3. Questionnaire/verbal feedback by internal and/or external customers

4. Objective score on quantitative criteria

Please use 1–8 sequentially to sort the following Criteria according their importance (1–means the most important)

Economic and financial criteria
Organizational/institutional criteria
Environmental criteria
Technical criteria
Risk factors
Market
Managerial consideration
Other criteria (Please specify)

Other questions	Comments
Frequency and timing of measurement of R&D performance
Does your company change the criteria in time
Degree of uncertainty and complexity in the chosen project
Type of R&D (e.g. Basic, Exploratory, Applied R&D, Product Development)

Appendix 2: Detailed Information About General Electric Healthcare Projects

General Electric (GE) is an established company in the healthcare sector with the theme of “healthy imagination.” GE always has R&D as its top priority.

GE has invested a lot into the healthcare sector, and as part of this healthy imagination, one of the initiatives is Clinical Business solutions. Improvising electronic medical records is part of this initiative [23]. Electronic health records help physicians to deliver better quality of care. Delivering efficient and effective care is the focus for eHealth advantage. Globally all the countries are participating in eHealth. Few of them are Europe, North America, and Asia/Pacific [23].

2.2.1 EHR in North America

In North America, GE healthcare provides its services through a product called “Centricity.” This patient information exchange system helps to work towards an effective care. Centricity Practice solution is an integrated medical records product that involves both practice management and patient’s chart [24]. This is a well-established product in North America.

2.2.2 EHR in Singapore

As part of eHealth initiatives, the same Centricity product has been selected to be introduced in Singapore. The Singapore government is focusing on getting a common EHR system for all the hospitals. Centricity is the product that GE is introducing in collaboration with the Singapore government. As an integrated product, Singapore government is not considering this as information technology project [25].

The implementation of electronic health records is completely different in both North America and Singapore, even though the product is similar in foundation. We went through a couple of interviews with experts who worked both in North America and Singapore to come up with the criteria.

2.2.2.1 Expert Study

To understand the difference in the implementation and development of the same product in different flavors, we approached experts with more than 15 years of experience in this area. The expert panel we selected has a managerial, architectural, and customer view on the application. To come up with criteria that are considered for R&D project selection, our expert panel included the following:

• Chief architects

• Business analysts

• Engineering manager

• Product manager

• User physicians.

These interviews were focused on the first step of our research process, which is the criteria selection.

From the interviews, the vital areas that influenced the criteria in this specific project were as follows.

2.2.2.1.1 Hospital System

In Singapore, the hospital management system is different from the USA.

USA—Types of hospitals in the USA include community hospitals, federal government hospitals, nonfederal psychiatric hospitals, and long-term care and hospital units of institutions [26]. The workflow in any hospital is almost the same when the patient enters or leaves the hospital [27]. Pharmacies are separate business from hospitals.

Singapore—In Singapore, hospitals are government, private owned and clinics. Primary care physicians, also known as the general physicians, play an important role in hospital system [25]. Workflows might not involve all the members as US workflows; the clinics do not have all the staff. Pharmacies are sometimes not separate to the medical facilities.

2.2.2.1.2 Government Incentives

The USA and Singapore have different approaches to incentives.

USA—It was not a requirement to use medical records, or there was no government policy for that, but recently government realized the way the healthcare market is growing and this made them to work on the incentives. The government recently introduced Medicare ($44,000) and Medicaid ($63,750) incentives when they have the appropriate attestation [28]. This is expected to bring in $5 billion to US EHR market [29]. This gives a great push for the adoption of electronic medical records.

Singapore—The government of Singapore has taken EMR adoption as separate platform integrating with others like networking and referral processing systems [24, 25]. This will provide the standardization efforts way earlier in the game compared to North America. Experts mentioned that components like networking, EMR, BizTalk, and CMS (clinical medical systems) vendors are collaborating to complete the project in Singapore.

2.2.2.1.3 Insurance Programs

USA—In the USA, insurance programs are predefined and are in practice many years ago. This is also a requirement in North America to receive quality care and affordable care. Few of them include Medicare, Medicaid, and all other private and nonprofit insurance providers [30]. This is an established market in North America.

Singapore—Insurance in Singapore is a common term, but not everybody has to have insurance. Patients can pick their own primary care providers. Only few companies are getting insurance policies established for their employees. Both public and private companies offer insurance in Singapore [31]. The government is trying to provide financial incentives for encouraging the adoption of insurance plans.

2.2.2.1.4 Users

USA—In the USA, besides physicians, there are many other persons who access EMR on a regular basis like receptionists, nurses, and assistants.

Singapore—Singapore also has similar users as the USA. The only difference occurs in the workflows. It is not always required to go through a receptionist or any other medical staff. Physicians in small clinics which are common in Singapore do not really have any staff.

These were few common comparisons that occurred in our expert study in understanding the implementation of EMR. The input from this study is transferred into some of the common criteria mentioned in the questionnaire.