Managing research projects

You've organized your R&D department and want to set up a research project management system that takes into account the high level of uncertainty inherent in R&D.

You'll need to :

• Give a general meaning to all projects: indicate what the company expects from the R&D team in terms of results.

• Finding funding for R&D and projects: R&D is often considered costly, even though it is one of the upstream activities involved in value creation.

• Set up a system for evaluating the results of your R&D, in the knowledge that traditional quality approaches are not very effective.

• Protecting and promoting innovation: knowing that you have to deal with the need to open up to the outside world.

• Manage activities: set up monitoring tools that avoid simple expense accounting and tracking of deadlines.

Your aim will then be to help challenge Von Braun's provocative adage: "50% of your R&D expenditure is useful [...] but I don't know which 50%". You need to transform R&D projects into R, D&I (I for innovation) projects, integrating research into a broader process of creating products, processes and services, and creating value.