"Accelerating the Design-Build-Test Cycle for Effective New Product Development" discusses the competitive advantages a firm may gain by developing high quality products rapidly, which includes market shares and margins. This may be done by accelerating the iterative design-test-build cycle, as well as limiting the number of cycles needed, by appropriate communication channels and advanced design tools. Four models of communication are; Serial/Batch, Early Start in the Dark, Early Involvement, and Integrated Problem Solving. The choices firms make regarding communication between upstream and downstream groups and how to link the actual work in time shapes the nature of cross-functional integration of the development process and the success of the project. Give an example of a product development project that would be suited for each of these communication models. Also consider documentation costs. Consider that, though necessary communication of utmost importance, unnecessary communication is a waste of resources.

Questions

What are advantages due to developing high quality products rapidly for a firm?

What is meant by ‘framing the problem’?

What can be done to minimize the number of design-build-test cycles?

Which model of communication requires the least resources?

Which model of communication may result in more costly mistakes?