The Remodeling of a New Product Development Process Relating the Project Management Techniques of Pmbok to the Product Development Techniques of Stage-Gate Model

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the innovation process of a construction company which has a specific department for the development of new products and readjust the process by using PMBoK project management techniques together with stage-gate techniques. For this purpose it was used the action research methodology and the data was collected through participant observation, specific interviews with directors from the innovation department, meetings, brainstormings and document analysis. The results showed that the junction of these two techniques made the innovation process become systematic, from the idea of launching the product, with pre-determined activities on pre-determined steps of the process and with multifunctional teams on both, the execution of the activities and on the project decision making. The model also showed itself versatile, once that it is possible to omit steps and/or activities from the process, depending on the type of product to be developed.