The Practice of Management Science in R&D Project Management

Abstract

The results of an empirical study on the current usage of quantitative techniques for R&D project management in "Fortune 500" industrial firms are presented. A nonrandom sample of 40 respondents from 29 firms were selected to represent a mix of industrial sectors and geographic regions. The information was obtained via personal interview of R&D budget heads and some high level staff. Extensive demographic data on the respondent and his company were collected and related to familiarity and usage of project management techniques. Data were also collected on the perceived impact of techniques on project decision making, and any recent/planned changes in the cadre of techniques. Heavy use and high perceived impact of financial methods for project selection, selective use of network models, some dissatisfaction over the methods available for project scheduling and control, and no usage of mathematical programming models for R&D resource allocation were key findings. As a result, R&D managers must have a thorough understanding of the capital budgeting techniques used by their organizations. Also, the initial training for R&D managers in project management should provide a broad-based introduction to the available methods and techniques, while emphasizing organizational "fit" considerations. Finally, it is suggested that R&D managers enlist the support of management scientists in the development of decision support systems for R&D project management, especially for multi-project planning and control.research and development, project management, professional, OR/MS implementation

Project portfolio selection through decision support

“…However, they have largely failed to gain user acceptance (Mathieu and Gibson, 1993), and few modeling approaches, from a variety of optimization approaches that have been developed, are being utilized as aids to decision making in this area (Liberatore and Titus, 1983). …”

“…In order to increase the likelihood of user acceptability, we use a decision support approach to project portfolio selection (Bard et al, 1988; Liberatore and Titus, 1983). This approach is consistent with the recent shift of researcher interest from solving well-structured problems under often unrealistic assumptions, to developing decision support systems that support decision makers in capturing and making explicit their own actual preferences, interacting with them in several steps of decision making (Dyer et al, 1992).…”

Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis

“…However, a theme which recurs in the R&D prioritisation literature is -despite several detailed and published applications of implemented systems -that the advanced methods proposed in the literature are not …nding widespread application in …eld settings [95][96] [97]. The available empirical evidence on this point is rather out of date, and it could be that recent developments in organisational data and IT systems render these concerns obsolete.…”

A research on project maturity perception of techno-entrepreneurship firms

“…Liberatore and Titus emphasized that project managers should be informed about the methods and techniques that are used in the management of R&D projects and that will adapt to the organizational structure. (Liberatore and Titus, 1983;972). Katz and Allen have also shown how different applications seen in the use of force in matrix organization structures affect project performance (Katz and Allen, 1985, p. 85).…”