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 The end of the year is upon us. This is a great time to evaluate how things have gone - product launches and project completion. This month's featured article provides tools to be help product and project managers reach success with Earned Value Management (EVM) .
In our popular feature, Ask the NPD Coach, we look at a common question on similarities of project management with product management in the Q&A from the NPDP Discussion Forum.
And we wrap up with this month's recommended reading to help you manage your NPD projects more effectively.
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Measure Success
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Earned Value Management for Projects
It happens all the time, across the globe, covering every imaginable industry. The project is finished (or not) and the team celebrates with a lovely dinner party. In a very few cases, the project leader conducts a lessons-learned or post-launch review. Rarely does the discussion consider if the project was successful.
Of course, finishing the project and stamping it "Complete"  could be a knock-down, drag-out fight. The number one root cause of missed project completion dates is poor estimating, derived from a poor understanding of customer requirements or stakeholder interests. Missed sales or bad market timing of new product launches can often be traced to the beginning of a project - planning and execution. Earlier in this series, these problems have been addressed with The Four Warning Signs of Trouble Projects and Project Post-Launch Reviews.One of the more important issues is keeping your new product development (NPD) projects on track throughout the many stages.
GNPS Premier members can log-on to get their own copy of How Do You Measure Success? Earned Value Management for Projects and download for FREE (first year membership is only $60 so you save $47 on an annual subscription!). Non-members can Download Now (in pdf) for only $8.95, including sales tax to learn from this in-depth tutorial on earned value management.
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Recommended Reading
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Book of Forms
by Cynthia Stackpole Snyder
 Earned value management is just one useful technique from project management that is easily transferred to the world of innovation. Check out this useful book for a set of templates and forms to download and use in your next project!
Come join us at the Innovator's Book Club (a Linked In book club) where we are currently reading, reviewing and discussing "Playing to Win". This book is AG Lafley's latest offering on the insights of strategy for Procter and Gamble.
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