Aligning the Business Roadmap to Technology Roadmap for Managing the New Product Development Project

Abstract

The new product development (NPD) project has been considered a challenging task in management practice. In project planning, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is one of the fundamental tools, but the terms ”product” and ”activity” are frequently confused and results in inefficiency in the support of project management tasks. By clarifying the nature of project planning and execution, an integrated method for WBS planning has been developed in this research. It includes the product-oriented WBS (P-WBS), the activity-oriented WBS (A-WBS), and the contract-out WBS (C-WBS). The technology roadmap is used to transform the P-WBS into the A-WBS. Using the proposed integrated WBS planning model as the basis, a Project Management Strategic Alignment Model (PMSAM) has been constructed to align strategic management to project management. Finally, the successful application of this methodology to develop a project for the re-host of a full scope training simulator of a nuclear power plant in Taiwan is illustrated.