Integration of technology roadmapping and project portfolio management to improve the front-end of NPD process

Abstract

Although front-end activities are critical to the success of NPD, they are in fact almost ineffective in practice because the existing methods were developed for stand-alone applications. A bibliographical review showed that technology roadmapping (TRM) and project portfolio management (PPM) are stand out methods for the front-end of NPD. This finding motivated the research question of our work: Can the integration of TRM and PPM contribute to improve the frontend of NPD? Hence, this paper evaluates the potential of this integration based on a case study at a high-tech company. The TRM applied here is based on the T-Plan developed at the University of Cambridge, and a sequence of steps and tools are proposed for PPM based on a synthesis of the findings of numerous authors. In this specific case, the front-end of NPD benefited from the integration. The set of product proposals were aligned with business and technological strategies, providing synchronization between market trends, NPD and new technology. Project portfolio management provides feedback for technology roadmapping. Therefore, the integration of NPD front-end methods appears to constitute a productive field of research and should be considered by hightech companies.