Introduction to an agile framework for the management of technology transfer projects

Abstract

Technology transfer offices play a valuable role in protecting and commercialising intellectual property developed at universities, for social and economic benefit around the world. University College London (UCL) Business Ltd is a technology transfer office that commercialises technology arising from the world-renowned research at UCL.PRINCE2 and agile approaches are amongst the popular choices of project management methodologies, however current frameworks are rigid and do not work very well within the technology transfer space, specifically in the biotechnology sector, due to the unpredictable nature of the projects. More organisations are adopting a flexible approach to delivering projects and becoming more agile in their management style. In a translational environment specifically, having a flexible response to change is highly encouraged. Current agile frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban, work extremely well within the IT and engineering-based projects, however for technology transfer projects (TTPs) they are slightly out of scope or too rigid in their methodology. An alternative agile framework is proposed to better suit the biotechnology sector and academic-research environment. This focuses on the breakdown of the project plan in separate work-packages, to manage the deliverables in separate development cycles using a system that splits the management into three gears based on the type of work and the length of time required to reach the deliverables within the project plan. This allows for the management of projects in stages against the original project plan, which in turn de-risks the project in stages. This framework is proposed as an alternative project management tool for biotechnology TTPs within a technology transfer office as well as the biotechnology industry.