Project Proposal

Project Proposal

BUS 375

Summary of project

Successful invention and innovation have become a significant driver for survival, revenue growth as well as competitive margins (Gemünden, 2015). The ability to bring creativity ahead of the competition faster and efficiently has become increasingly critical. An effective and efficient launch of product needs coordination and integration among multiple functional areas that include the design of the product, procurements, planning, production as well as sales and marketing. Furthermore, product development must be delivered through innovation and virtual networks that collaborate and partners with the business environment to provide a quality product that meets the customers’ expectations in the market. This project shall evaluate the project management intersection of development and launching of a new product to the potential customers. New product development is a significant activity for McDonald Company since it offers future business opportunities for the business entity (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). The development the new product would enable the company to increase its competition levels and rapidly change the market environment.

Three (3) project goals and three (3) project objectives

The goals of the product development project would be:

On the other the objectives of the project is to;

• To create new products that can satisfy the needs and demands of the existing customers as well as the potential buyers (Pons, 2008). The company also intends to improve the product performance with a goal of creating a product that offers our customers’ performance benefits that our competitors cannot match.
• Secondly, another crucial product development goal for our company is a quality improvement, especially for the products that the customers perceive as costly or unreliable to maintain (Gemünden, 2015). The quality improvement is an essential product development goal since the company intends to meet specific quality standards requested by the customers. The company plans to improve the reliability of the products by reducing product maintenance costs or using stronger materials to increase the durability of the product.
• The other goal of this product development project is to improve the marketing performance of the existing products by increasing the share of the current markets and improving customer retention.

Critical customer(s) and at least two (2) stakeholders for the project.

• The purpose of product development project is to increase, cultivate, and maintain the market share of the company by satisfying the demands of our clients.
• Secondly, the project would enable the company to increase its competition levels and rapidly change the market environment.
• The company also intends to offer quality products and services that would meet the expectations of our customers.

The project targets the loyal customers as well as the potential buyers of the existing products and the newly developed products (Gemünden, 2015). The customers are the primary audience that the product development project intends to address as they are a significant part of the prosperity and success of the business entity. The clients are responsible for the purchasing of the company’s services and products, and therefore if the firm cannot meet their demands, expectations, and needs, there would be a loss of the customers that would mean reduced performance of organization due to lack of funds to run its daily operations. Others stakeholders would include the suppliers and the investors. The business intends to attract more investors by producing quality products (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). The suppliers would be directly involved as they are responsible for offering quality raw material in time for the production of quality goods.

Three (3) key milestones and /or deliverables for the project.

Despite the instinctive idea of being the first in innovation, other measurable milestones and deliverables are possible for the company getting into the market first with creative services as well as goods. Such deliverables include:

High-level timeline that includes vital tasks and deadlines.

• Offering qualify goods and services on time to meet the demands of our clients.
• Introducing or launching new products that are less costly and are cost friendly to the pockets of the consumers.
• Improving the existing products to enhance the reliability of the products by reducing product maintenance costs or using stronger materials to increase the durability of the product.

Estimated project’s overall cost and any essential staffing and non-staffing resources needed.

The company intends to train the current staff to assist in the process of development of the new product (Gemünden, 2015). In the situation where specialists are required, the company shall outsource expertise and additional personnel to assist its existing staff.

• Cost Estimation

Project’s most significant challenge and recommendation for addressing the problem in question.

New product development involves financial, technical, and marketing risks (Gemünden, 2015). It, therefore, demands that executive manager make decisions under uncertainty as well as collecting adequate information before and during the new product development project. Thus, for valuable decision making, effective planning and control are essential. Since the resources of the organization are scarce, the company will have to choose specific products for development and abandon the others (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). This is a capital rationing problem. The problem of capital rationing is helped by having effective project planning and life-cycle estimates risks and costs.

References

Gemünden, H. G. (2015). Success factors of global new product development programs, the definition of project success, knowledge sharing, and special issues of project management journal®. Project Management Journal, 46(1), 2-11.

Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Pons, D. (2008). Project management for new product development. Project management journal, 39(2), 82-97.