From experience: Balancing the product development process: Achieving product and cycle-time excellence in high-technology industries

Most companies' product development process (PDP) is inefficient and slow. Consequently, products are often late-to-market, over cost and not well-aligned with customer's needs. Because it involves all levels of the organization and crosses all functional boundaries, the PDP is very difficult to control. Unbalanced control is at the root of many of the symptoms of a troubled PDP. Michael T. Anthony and Jonathan McKay investigate the four primary unbalanced PDP behaviors exhibited by organizations and present four balancing mechanisms to correct these flaws. In their view, a balanced PDP contains a structured development methodology and project reviews at specific, high-impact points that involves top management appropriately while still allowing empowerment of the project teams.