An IT Tool for Managing the Product Development Process

Michail Kagioglou1, Song Wu2, Ghassan Aouad3, Angela Lee4, Racel Cooper5 & Andrew Fleming6

1Senior Research Fellow, Centre Manager, University of Salford, Salford Centre for Research and Innovation (SCRI) in the Built and Human Environment, Meadow Road, Salford, M7 1NU. UK. Tel: +44 (0)161 295 3855, Fax: +44 (0)161 295 4587, Email: [email protected]
2Research Fellow, University of Salford, School of Construction and Property Management, Meadow Road, Salford, M7 1NU. UK. Tel: +44 (0)161 295 5855, Fax: +44 (0)161 295 5011, Email: [email protected]
3Professor of IT and Construction Management, University of Salford, School of Construction and Property Management, Meadow Road, Salford, M7 1NU. UK. Tel: +44 (0)161 295 5176, Fax: +44 (0)161 295 5011, Email: [email protected]
4Research Fellow, University of Salford, School of Construction and Property Management, Meadow Road, Salford, M7 1NU. UK. Tel: +44 (0)161 295 5855, Fax: +44 (0)161 295 5011, Email: [email protected]
5Professor of Design Management, University of Salford, School of Art and Design, Centenary Building, Peru Street, Salford, M3 6EQ. UK. Tel: +44 (0)161 295 6146, Fax: +44 (0)161 295 6174, Email: [email protected]
6Research Fellow, University of Salford, School of Construction and Property Management, Meadow Road, Salford, M7 1NU. UK. Tel: +44 (0)161 295 5855, Fax: +44 (0)161 295 5011, Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Throughout the last two decades a number of improved product development processes have been suggested that illustrate and clearly define the nature, scope and holistic representation of the issues involved in understanding and managing the product development process (PDP). The degree to which they have actually added value in the industry, even when lean principles have been incorporated, has been debated by many authors. Many agree that one of the main reasons for the above is that those processes/models are rarely implemented fully or the integrity of the embedded philosophy has been diluted through wrong adaptation. One such model of an improved PDP is the Process Protocol. This paper presents how the development of an IT tool can enable the easy and fast adaptation of the Process Protocol Model without loosing the integrity of the holistic approach and without diluting the Philosophies on which it was based. The IT tool adopts the Process Protocol model as a template with enough information that makes it appropriate but flexible enough to allow individual company innovations to be part of the model in a nonprescriptive nature.

Keywords

PDP, process management, process modeling, IT

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Reference

Kagioglou, M. , Wu, S. , Aouad, G. , Lee, A. , Cooper, R. & Fleming, A. 2003. An IT Tool for Managing the Product Development Process, 11th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , -. doi.org/

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