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• 1. [Article] Applying Agile Project Management Principles to Pre-Silicon Hardware Design and Verification

  In today’s rapidly changing environments and uncertain markets, responding to change quickly and effectively is the key to success. There has been an increasing demand for iterative development process ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Applying Agile Project Management Principles to Pre-Silicon Hardware Design and Verification Author: Hee, Cho Yong, Monalisa, Mitali, Dash, Pranabesh, Ashraf, Rehman Year: 2010 In today’s rapidly changing environments and uncertain markets, responding to change quickly and effectively is the key to success. There has been an increasing demand for iterative development process for products. Agile development process has been successfully used application software development projects to respond to rapid customer requests. This paper explores the applicability of Agile Project Management approaches to the Hardware Design and Verification (DV) process. Pre-silicon hardware design and verification process has its deep roots in manufacturing. The process and culture for project management present in hardware design groups are closer to manufacturing than software development process. The common characteristics of absolute adherence to planning coming from manufacturing can clearly be seen in hardware design groups. A company’s corporate culture emanating from manufacturing background can be a barrier to adoption of any kind of software development process. For the purpose of our study, the authors conducted interviews with six different design groups at Intel ® Corporation. The interviewers explored the management aspects of the project, discussed the challenges and issues encountered with the longer development cycles in hardware design process. The paper analyzes the data gathered and discusses the patterns observed across the groups. Agile Project Management expects a shift in the “attitude” of the Program or Project Managers and requires organizational buy-in for adopting and successfully practicing it. The paper goes into recommendations to mitigate the existing issues by using Agile management principles and suggests behaviorial changes if project groups do move to an Agile development process at Intel, where majority of the groups follow traditional management principles. Title: Applying Agile Project Management Principles to Pre-Silicon Hardware Design and Verification Author: Hee, Cho Yong, Monalisa, Mitali, Dash, Pranabesh, Ashraf, Rehman Year: 2010 In today’s rapidly changing environments and uncertain markets, responding to change quickly and effectively is the key to success. There has been an increasing demand for iterative development process for products. Agile development process has been successfully used application software development projects to respond to rapid customer requests. This paper explores the applicability of Agile Project Management approaches to the Hardware Design and Verification (DV) process. Pre-silicon hardware design and verification process has its deep roots in manufacturing. The process and culture for project management present in hardware design groups are closer to manufacturing than software development process. The common characteristics of absolute adherence to planning coming from manufacturing can clearly be seen in hardware design groups. A company’s corporate culture emanating from manufacturing background can be a barrier to adoption of any kind of software development process. For the purpose of our study, the authors conducted interviews with six different design groups at Intel ® Corporation. The interviewers explored the management aspects of the project, discussed the challenges and issues encountered with the longer development cycles in hardware design process. The paper analyzes the data gathered and discusses the patterns observed across the groups. Agile Project Management expects a shift in the “attitude” of the Program or Project Managers and requires organizational buy-in for adopting and successfully practicing it. The paper goes into recommendations to mitigate the existing issues by using Agile management principles and suggests behaviorial changes if project groups do move to an Agile development process at Intel, where majority of the groups follow traditional management principles. Close

• 2. [Article] New Product Development: Amorphous Silicon Thin Film PV

  Q-Cells is a company founded in 1999 and is currently a global leader in manufacturing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.[1][2] The current products use traditional crystalline Silicon (cSi) technology. Although ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: New Product Development: Amorphous Silicon Thin Film PV Author: Sheikh, Nasir Jamil, Bokka, Naresh, Rasiah, Rekha, Bourque, Greg, Natale, Rocco, Khamis, Rabah Year: 2010 Q-Cells is a company founded in 1999 and is currently a global leader in manufacturing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.[1][2] The current products use traditional crystalline Silicon (cSi) technology. Although this is recognized as the industry leading technology, Q-Cells has set a goal to be the leader in next generation solar PV. We need to develop a process capability within our organization to support the design and development of industry leading second generation (2G) PV technology. The organization has created the Q-Cells NPI process, a modified stage gate phase model to support this new product development. The Q-Cells senior management has given their support to our defined product development lifecycle process. To achieve this goal of 2G solar PV, our new technology experts have been searching for new developments in research labs around the country. The rest of this report will document the process we propose for use by Q-Cells to insure a successful product development, from the idea generation stage, successively through definition, design, systems engineering and product engineering to full production manufacturing. Title: New Product Development: Amorphous Silicon Thin Film PV Author: Sheikh, Nasir Jamil, Bokka, Naresh, Rasiah, Rekha, Bourque, Greg, Natale, Rocco, Khamis, Rabah Year: 2010 Q-Cells is a company founded in 1999 and is currently a global leader in manufacturing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.[1][2] The current products use traditional crystalline Silicon (cSi) technology. Although this is recognized as the industry leading technology, Q-Cells has set a goal to be the leader in next generation solar PV. We need to develop a process capability within our organization to support the design and development of industry leading second generation (2G) PV technology. The organization has created the Q-Cells NPI process, a modified stage gate phase model to support this new product development. The Q-Cells senior management has given their support to our defined product development lifecycle process. To achieve this goal of 2G solar PV, our new technology experts have been searching for new developments in research labs around the country. The rest of this report will document the process we propose for use by Q-Cells to insure a successful product development, from the idea generation stage, successively through definition, design, systems engineering and product engineering to full production manufacturing. Close

• 3. [Article] Review of R&D Project Selection Models

  Evaluation and selection of new projects is vital to the health of an organization. For many firms, especially those that depend on technology innovation to stay in business, the key to continued competitiveness ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Review of R&D Project Selection Models Author: Boemo-Mokhawa, Nametsegang, Gomez, Fredy, Hsieh, I-Hsuan, Lotfi, Theodore Nyma Year: 2010 Evaluation and selection of new projects is vital to the health of an organization. For many firms, especially those that depend on technology innovation to stay in business, the key to continued competitiveness lies in their ability to develop and implement new products and processes. For these organizations, research and development (R&D) is an integral function within the technology strategic management framework. There are two related sub-problems to selection of R&D projects: to access the evaluation of individual projects and to build a portfolio of the most promising projects among all submitted to a certain call for projects. Finally what really matters is the portfolio, which contains only the projects to be funded and amounts assigned to each project. This paper reviews some of the frequently used models and tools by different governmental and nongovernmental firms to select their R&D projects and briefly explore, based on literature reviews, the contribution of each model to the firm‟s strategies down the organizational hierarchy (Top-Down); from the institutional strategy down to the R&D strategy. Conclusions and suggestions for future research are also provided. Title: Review of R&D Project Selection Models Author: Boemo-Mokhawa, Nametsegang, Gomez, Fredy, Hsieh, I-Hsuan, Lotfi, Theodore Nyma Year: 2010 Evaluation and selection of new projects is vital to the health of an organization. For many firms, especially those that depend on technology innovation to stay in business, the key to continued competitiveness lies in their ability to develop and implement new products and processes. For these organizations, research and development (R&D) is an integral function within the technology strategic management framework. There are two related sub-problems to selection of R&D projects: to access the evaluation of individual projects and to build a portfolio of the most promising projects among all submitted to a certain call for projects. Finally what really matters is the portfolio, which contains only the projects to be funded and amounts assigned to each project. This paper reviews some of the frequently used models and tools by different governmental and nongovernmental firms to select their R&D projects and briefly explore, based on literature reviews, the contribution of each model to the firm‟s strategies down the organizational hierarchy (Top-Down); from the institutional strategy down to the R&D strategy. Conclusions and suggestions for future research are also provided. Close

• 4. [Article] Project Selection for New Product Development utilizing a Hierarchical Decision Model

  Evaluation and selection of new projects is vital to the health of an organization. This paper explores the background of new project selection and the methodologies to evaluate new projects for selection. ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Project Selection for New Product Development utilizing a Hierarchical Decision Model Author: Gomez, Fredy, Lai, Ho-Min, Ball, Larry, Alawini, Abdussalam Year: 2010 Evaluation and selection of new projects is vital to the health of an organization. This paper explores the background of new project selection and the methodologies to evaluate new projects for selection. To illustrate the process, a new product selection evaluation is performed for North African Food Products (NAFP) using a Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM). NAFP is the pseudonym for an existing confidential food products company in North Africa. Two improved existing and eight new products were evaluated using the pair wise comparison method. HDM experts were consulted for construction of the model. Five products were selected for consideration by NAFP managers. The research methodology is discussed and appendixes for the data and interviews are provided. The new products selected for development were either improved existing or new products from NAFP‟s existing production lines. The results were validated by post survey interviews with the NAFP managers. Conclusions and suggestions for future research are also provided. Title: Project Selection for New Product Development utilizing a Hierarchical Decision Model Author: Gomez, Fredy, Lai, Ho-Min, Ball, Larry, Alawini, Abdussalam Year: 2010 Evaluation and selection of new projects is vital to the health of an organization. This paper explores the background of new project selection and the methodologies to evaluate new projects for selection. To illustrate the process, a new product selection evaluation is performed for North African Food Products (NAFP) using a Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM). NAFP is the pseudonym for an existing confidential food products company in North Africa. Two improved existing and eight new products were evaluated using the pair wise comparison method. HDM experts were consulted for construction of the model. Five products were selected for consideration by NAFP managers. The research methodology is discussed and appendixes for the data and interviews are provided. The new products selected for development were either improved existing or new products from NAFP‟s existing production lines. The results were validated by post survey interviews with the NAFP managers. Conclusions and suggestions for future research are also provided. Close

• 5. [Article] PMT² Unveils New PMTablet

  In order to continue its streak of successful high tech devices, PMT2 has decided to dive into the world of electronic tablets and develop the first generation of a product called PMTablet. With heavy ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: PMT² Unveils New PMTablet Author: Colon, Rafael, Jovanovic, Stevan, Justice, Jay, Thirumalai, Mukundan, Tibbot, Paul Year: 2010 In order to continue its streak of successful high tech devices, PMT2 has decided to dive into the world of electronic tablets and develop the first generation of a product called PMTablet. With heavy competition from iPad and Amazon‟s Kimble, it is imperative that PMT2 reach the market as soon as possible with a quality product with all features necessary to keep it in the battle with the competition. If the features list for this new product was not enough of a challenge for this project, the company has decided to finish the project in record time. There is a lot of pressure in respect to time-to market. The combination of risk due to technical complexity of the project is multiplied by the time-to-market pressure. In order for PMT2 to increase its chances of success on this project, the company has tasked the authors of this report to create a company wide Risk Management System (RMS) in order to identify, monitor and mitigate risk. This report details the structure of the RMS created by the project management gurus of PMT2. With their arsenal of latest and greatest PM tools, this report will take you through the detailed Scope assessment of the project using WBS; followed by a thorough Risk Analysis procedure resulting in a PI Matrix; naturally backed by a bulletproof Risk Response Plan; scrupulously simulated by a Monte Carl analysis; all combined to successfully mange the risk of a project of this magnitude. Title: PMT² Unveils New PMTablet Author: Colon, Rafael, Jovanovic, Stevan, Justice, Jay, Thirumalai, Mukundan, Tibbot, Paul Year: 2010 In order to continue its streak of successful high tech devices, PMT2 has decided to dive into the world of electronic tablets and develop the first generation of a product called PMTablet. With heavy competition from iPad and Amazon‟s Kimble, it is imperative that PMT2 reach the market as soon as possible with a quality product with all features necessary to keep it in the battle with the competition. If the features list for this new product was not enough of a challenge for this project, the company has decided to finish the project in record time. There is a lot of pressure in respect to time-to market. The combination of risk due to technical complexity of the project is multiplied by the time-to-market pressure. In order for PMT2 to increase its chances of success on this project, the company has tasked the authors of this report to create a company wide Risk Management System (RMS) in order to identify, monitor and mitigate risk. This report details the structure of the RMS created by the project management gurus of PMT2. With their arsenal of latest and greatest PM tools, this report will take you through the detailed Scope assessment of the project using WBS; followed by a thorough Risk Analysis procedure resulting in a PI Matrix; naturally backed by a bulletproof Risk Response Plan; scrupulously simulated by a Monte Carl analysis; all combined to successfully mange the risk of a project of this magnitude. Close

• 6. [Article] New Technology Introduction Process: RFID for groceries

  The high level process consists of three major funnels and two key parts. The first funnel is “Discovery” in which the new strategic goals are communicated company wide at an all hands meeting. In this ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: New Technology Introduction Process: RFID for groceries Author: Artiga, Roberto, Intarode, Nuttavut, Lotfi, Theodore Nyma, Praechareonwatana, Nuttavut, Osman, Osman, Sell, Vera Year: 2010 The high level process consists of three major funnels and two key parts. The first funnel is “Discovery” in which the new strategic goals are communicated company wide at an all hands meeting. In this stage, the company starts identifying major opportunities available in the market, having as its outcome a prioritized project list. As an example, in the grocery market, different opportunities had been observed and RFID was selected as a potential opportunity in the prioritized projec list to use as a substitute for the traditional bar code. Based on our estimate it can create an emerging market worth 6 billion USD in 5 years. The second funnel is “Technology.” It starts with identification of core competencies needed to transfer technology from laboratory to factory and will end with a technology transfer plan which contains how to close the gap between what is required and what Paru currently has in-house. The third funnel is “New Product Implementation.” It is a hybrid process which will go for simultaneous product and process concept development. These processes are carried out with proactive integration and collaboration so by the time the engineering release is approved, everything is in place to go into large-volume manufacturing without any further delays. Paru will go through the above mentioned steps to produce and sell RFID tags. After the three major funnels, the next stage of the process is volume production. This stage does not only includes manufacturing but also all the activities for continuous improvement that result to solve problems identify during volume production as well as those activities to optimize costs, quality, and yield until a second generation product is released or a product goes into obsolescence. The following sections describe the details of each part of the development process; all diagrams are included in the appendix of this report. Title: New Technology Introduction Process: RFID for groceries Author: Artiga, Roberto, Intarode, Nuttavut, Lotfi, Theodore Nyma, Praechareonwatana, Nuttavut, Osman, Osman, Sell, Vera Year: 2010 The high level process consists of three major funnels and two key parts. The first funnel is “Discovery” in which the new strategic goals are communicated company wide at an all hands meeting. In this stage, the company starts identifying major opportunities available in the market, having as its outcome a prioritized project list. As an example, in the grocery market, different opportunities had been observed and RFID was selected as a potential opportunity in the prioritized projec list to use as a substitute for the traditional bar code. Based on our estimate it can create an emerging market worth 6 billion USD in 5 years. The second funnel is “Technology.” It starts with identification of core competencies needed to transfer technology from laboratory to factory and will end with a technology transfer plan which contains how to close the gap between what is required and what Paru currently has in-house. The third funnel is “New Product Implementation.” It is a hybrid process which will go for simultaneous product and process concept development. These processes are carried out with proactive integration and collaboration so by the time the engineering release is approved, everything is in place to go into large-volume manufacturing without any further delays. Paru will go through the above mentioned steps to produce and sell RFID tags. After the three major funnels, the next stage of the process is volume production. This stage does not only includes manufacturing but also all the activities for continuous improvement that result to solve problems identify during volume production as well as those activities to optimize costs, quality, and yield until a second generation product is released or a product goes into obsolescence. The following sections describe the details of each part of the development process; all diagrams are included in the appendix of this report. Close

• 7. [Article] Vizio Inc. Product Development Process

  Vizio Inc., which started with only 3 people in 2002, has become the number one shipper of LCD HDTVs to the U.S. consumer electronics market of 2009. They have achieved their fast growth by concentrating ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Vizio Inc. Product Development Process Author: Lim, Donggyu, Krampits, Mark, Letts, Matthew, Katarya, Nitin, Shott, Tom Year: 2010 Vizio Inc., which started with only 3 people in 2002, has become the number one shipper of LCD HDTVs to the U.S. consumer electronics market of 2009. They have achieved their fast growth by concentrating on their target segment and market. The founder started in the TV sale business and thought that he could sell to a niche market in the consumer electronic market, especially LCD TV. Therefore, he began to make an inexpensive, but high quality LCD TVs. Another key to his success is that he formed strong relationships with overseas TV manufacturers. While his competitors are selling the same products worldwide, Vizio focuses on the U.S. market. Vizio has developed a solid sales network and has established brand power. It has over 170 employees and over $4 billion in sales in 2009. Vizio is going to introduce a new technology, 3D TV, into their product line. It has been decided that a new process, a Phase Gate Product Life cycle will be followed for this new technology and others that will be produced in the future. Title: Vizio Inc. Product Development Process Author: Lim, Donggyu, Krampits, Mark, Letts, Matthew, Katarya, Nitin, Shott, Tom Year: 2010 Vizio Inc., which started with only 3 people in 2002, has become the number one shipper of LCD HDTVs to the U.S. consumer electronics market of 2009. They have achieved their fast growth by concentrating on their target segment and market. The founder started in the TV sale business and thought that he could sell to a niche market in the consumer electronic market, especially LCD TV. Therefore, he began to make an inexpensive, but high quality LCD TVs. Another key to his success is that he formed strong relationships with overseas TV manufacturers. While his competitors are selling the same products worldwide, Vizio focuses on the U.S. market. Vizio has developed a solid sales network and has established brand power. It has over 170 employees and over $4 billion in sales in 2009. Vizio is going to introduce a new technology, 3D TV, into their product line. It has been decided that a new process, a Phase Gate Product Life cycle will be followed for this new technology and others that will be produced in the future. Close

• 8. [Article] Legit Widget: Risk Plan Proposal

  The intention of this project is to develop and present a Risk Management System (RMS) for a fictitious company in effort to use the tools taught in the EMT 546 Project Management Tools course. Members ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Legit Widget: Risk Plan Proposal Author: Barzanji, Alyaa, Millward, Helen, Natale, Rocco, Pamintuan, Karen, Villanueva, Maribel, Wendt, Stephanie Year: 2010 The intention of this project is to develop and present a Risk Management System (RMS) for a fictitious company in effort to use the tools taught in the EMT 546 Project Management Tools course. Members of Team One are now associates in a company called Legit Widget. We have provided background as to what our company does and how we make money, which will assist in communicating our company’s experience, operation and quality of work. The Project Management practices that Legit Widget uses in this project will demonstrate and enlighten our board members as to the quality that we bring to the challenge of implementing a necessary RMS. We will also explain some of our Project Management best practices to further add confidence in our preparation of our new Risk Management System. Title: Legit Widget: Risk Plan Proposal Author: Barzanji, Alyaa, Millward, Helen, Natale, Rocco, Pamintuan, Karen, Villanueva, Maribel, Wendt, Stephanie Year: 2010 The intention of this project is to develop and present a Risk Management System (RMS) for a fictitious company in effort to use the tools taught in the EMT 546 Project Management Tools course. Members of Team One are now associates in a company called Legit Widget. We have provided background as to what our company does and how we make money, which will assist in communicating our company’s experience, operation and quality of work. The Project Management practices that Legit Widget uses in this project will demonstrate and enlighten our board members as to the quality that we bring to the challenge of implementing a necessary RMS. We will also explain some of our Project Management best practices to further add confidence in our preparation of our new Risk Management System. Close

• 9. [Article] Urban Bike Product Development Project

  Our mission was to come up with innovative ideas to meet the latent needs of urban bike riders. Our design process to meet our mission consisted of the following phases: Selecting the Market Phase Research ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Urban Bike Product Development Project Author: Rao, Meghana, Vagesh, Nikita, Runde, Neil, Bhella, Opinderjit Year: 2010 Our mission was to come up with innovative ideas to meet the latent needs of urban bike riders. Our design process to meet our mission consisted of the following phases: Selecting the Market Phase Research Phase consisting of three sub phases Observing customers Walking in customer shoes Interviewing customers Creative Innovation Phase consisting of sub stages Pattern Determination Idealization Idea Selection Kick starting our project we needed to select a market. As inputs firstly, we had our mission to come up with the innovative ideas to meet the latent needs of the customer and secondly, the bike company to which we would be selling our idea. With this initial information and discussion among the team members (and professor), we came up with the scope and domain of interest and chose commuters and casual riders in the Portland City area as our primary area of study and research. Research Phase can be viewed as the Inspiration phase of the process. During this phase, we collected some good insights, which is the key element for good idea generation and innovation. During the Observing sub-phase, we gathered good insights by getting out to the world, observing them, connecting with the things the way we had never done before. As a team, we walked in the customer’s shoes and saw things in their point of view not ours and giving us a sense of empathy. Lastly, we interviewed people with a set of predefined questions to get a more in-depth understanding of their needs. Creative Innovation Phase is the Idealization phase where we spent most of our time and energy coming up with good ideas. Good ideas fueled from the Inspiration phase drive the Pattern Determination sub-phase and four important themes emerged from patterns observed from the data collected in the research phase. During Idealization sub-phase, each individual and as well as a team, we performed brainstorming using sketch-boards and white-boards to come up with solutions to address the needs mentioned by the customers. Then we moved down from the low fidelity drawings to the high fidelity ones, narrowing down over twenty five ideas into twelve best ideas and coming up with the three final concepts with customer voting. Additionally we choose to perform another step weighing two dimensions of technical feasibility and the client portfolio. This constituted the Idea Selection phase. Note: The presentation slides associated with this report are included here as a supplemental file. Title: Urban Bike Product Development Project Author: Rao, Meghana, Vagesh, Nikita, Runde, Neil, Bhella, Opinderjit Year: 2010 Our mission was to come up with innovative ideas to meet the latent needs of urban bike riders. Our design process to meet our mission consisted of the following phases: Selecting the Market Phase Research Phase consisting of three sub phases Observing customers Walking in customer shoes Interviewing customers Creative Innovation Phase consisting of sub stages Pattern Determination Idealization Idea Selection Kick starting our project we needed to select a market. As inputs firstly, we had our mission to come up with the innovative ideas to meet the latent needs of the customer and secondly, the bike company to which we would be selling our idea. With this initial information and discussion among the team members (and professor), we came up with the scope and domain of interest and chose commuters and casual riders in the Portland City area as our primary area of study and research. Research Phase can be viewed as the Inspiration phase of the process. During this phase, we collected some good insights, which is the key element for good idea generation and innovation. During the Observing sub-phase, we gathered good insights by getting out to the world, observing them, connecting with the things the way we had never done before. As a team, we walked in the customer’s shoes and saw things in their point of view not ours and giving us a sense of empathy. Lastly, we interviewed people with a set of predefined questions to get a more in-depth understanding of their needs. Creative Innovation Phase is the Idealization phase where we spent most of our time and energy coming up with good ideas. Good ideas fueled from the Inspiration phase drive the Pattern Determination sub-phase and four important themes emerged from patterns observed from the data collected in the research phase. During Idealization sub-phase, each individual and as well as a team, we performed brainstorming using sketch-boards and white-boards to come up with solutions to address the needs mentioned by the customers. Then we moved down from the low fidelity drawings to the high fidelity ones, narrowing down over twenty five ideas into twelve best ideas and coming up with the three final concepts with customer voting. Additionally we choose to perform another step weighing two dimensions of technical feasibility and the client portfolio. This constituted the Idea Selection phase. Note: The presentation slides associated with this report are included here as a supplemental file. Close