Project Management in R&D

Abstract

This chapter touches upon a less researched area of project management viz. R&D projects. It begins with the characterization of R&D projects that are typically misunderstood in their fundamental premises. Most people associate such projects with significant breakthrough innovation, while most R&D projects are not in the objective breakthrough innovation to that extent. Hence, given this backdrop the chapter touches upon the key challenges in such projects. Notable among them are those of defining exit gates, getting the right team sizes, and having a robust estimation model.

This is an article written by the author while he was in the US. It is taken from his blog. This article explains the dynamics of risk management and the challenges in intrinsically high-risk environments like R&D. It points out the exact nature of misconceptions and management issues that one faces in the R&D sectors. One can see more of this in subsequent chapters.