Controllability of Product Development

The goals of the LUCOS project are to develop a method for improving the controllability of product development, as well as tools supporting the method. The focus is on the electronics and telecom industries.

Research Problem

Even though the strategic importance of product development is widely acknowledged, the controllability of product development is typically very poor. A product development project that finishes according to its original schedule and budget is an exception even today. Reasons for this are many, such as poorly implemented and communicated goal-setting, weak requirements management, inadequately performed project monitoring, and inability to learn from previous projects. In addition, the linkage between product development projects and corporate strategy is often poor. This can be seen, for example, as problems in managing the multi-project environment.

Approach

With the aid of the LUCOS-method, the company identifies:

objects of control (what should be controlled),
goals (where to steer the object),
metrics (how to monitor progress), and
control mechanisms (by which means to control).

The tools support the usage of the method both during the start-up and usage phases. The visualization tool, for instance, presents the state of product development and the achievement of goals from different perspectives. The LUCOS-approach investigates controllability at four levels in the company:

the strategic level
the process level
the project level
the individual level

For each level, objects of control, goals, metrics and control mechanisms are defined. The goals at the different levels should be interrelated: the corporate strategy should be communicated from the strategic level, through the process and project levels down to the individual level.

Schedule and Funding

LUCOS is a three-year project (1997 - 2000). The project is funded by TEKES (65%) and participating companies (35%).