Design Process Planning by Management of Milestones and Options with a Design Attainment Model

In order to enhance competitiveness of a product, a design project should perform an innovative design toward its higher quality and performance. However, innovative design involves many risks because of lack of knowledge or experience, e.g. to not finish a task in the predicted time. Milestone management is necessary for accommodating such risks. Even if an innovative design is targeted at the beginning, it is possible that a project manager will change the strategy to a conservative design in order to prioritise risk reduction over the challenge. A manager should plan a design process by assessing a risk of the design, and should decide to switch the strategy at the appropriate milestone while checking progress of the design if necessary.