Project Management

Anything relating to basic project management, including the triangle of constraints (scope, budget, time)

Integrating Agile with Stage-Gate® – How New Agile-Scrum Methods Lead to Faster and Better Innovation

Recent experiences show that Agile project-management methods can be used in the innovation process and has a great potential to reduce development time and increase the success rate of new products. The article briefly outlines how an Agile method, such as Scrum, can be used within a structured innovation process with milestones and decision points, such as Stage-Gate®, and what benefits it provides to both manufacturers and service-providers.

Ideascale2021-12-20T16:53:54-08:00August 9th, 2016|Categories: Strategies|Tags: Agile, agile innovation, Agile-Stage-Gate Hybrid Model, case study, fuzzy front end of innovation, in-depth article, innovation method, innovation process, innovation tool, innovation toolbox, lean, methodology, Product Development, product innovation, project management, project planning, scrum, speed of innovation, stage gate, Success|

Multi-tasking – The Challenge of Intermediaries in SME Support for Innovation

In view of creating more competitive regions and industry sectors, innovation capabilities of SMEs play a central role. SMEs are strong economic drivers in many countries, and their ability to innovate will determine the health of national and regional economies in the future. A key support for SMEs in their innovation efforts are public innovation support programmes.

Ideascale2021-12-07T15:58:16-08:00August 8th, 2016|Categories: Strategies, Support for SMEs|Tags: Change Management, coaching, Competition, consulting, development, in-depth article, innovation consulting, Innovation Management, innovation networks, innovation program processes, intermediaries, learning program, market study, multi-tasking, multitasking, network, networking, public innovation, public policy, SME, smes, survey|

Innovation: Knowing Where to Begin

Let me see if this situation sounds familiar: you’ve promised your boss that you’ll generate at least one percent growth over last year. You’ve been racking your brain with ideas about how to improve your product or develop a new offering or finding new efficiencies which will help your margins, but the few ideas that you’ve come up with haven’t had legs and pages keep coming off the calendar.

Rob Hoehn2019-10-15T15:22:10-07:00April 12th, 2016|Categories: Idea Management, Open Innovation, Organization & Culture|Tags: Communication, Creativity, Crowdsourcing, front end of innovation, IdeaScale, Innovation Strategy, leadership, objectives, Open Innovation, planning, project planning|

10 Best Board Practices on Innovation Governance – How Proactive is your Board?

All global business and technology trends point in the same direction: there is a need for more proactive and far-sighted management of innovation. Innovation for business reinforcement and growth – and for transformation in particular – are, of course, the prime responsibility of top management. Innovation governance – a holistic approach to steering, promoting and sustaining innovation – is thus becoming a new management imperative.

Ideascale2021-12-07T15:26:37-08:00October 19th, 2015|Categories: Leadership, Strategies|Tags: Best Practices, company-wide innovation, decision making, goal setting, in-depth article, innovation champion, Innovation Culture, innovation governance, Innovation Leadership, Innovation Management, Innovation Strategy, Jean-Philippe Deschamps, Organization|

7 Things to Do Before Starting Any Project

Everyone plans tasks in different ways, but the largest, most complicated projects have tried-and-tested methodologies that help break processes down and ensure that stakeholders and different departments are clear about which tasks need to be completed by whom and by what time. This article breaks project planning down into seven key tasks that have to be completed before work begins to give the project the best possible chance of coming in on time and on budget.

Ideascale2021-11-16T13:26:13-08:00March 9th, 2015|Categories: Organization & Culture|Tags: gantt chart, online learning, Product Development, project management, project planning, project scope, resource allocation|

Outside / Inside Innovation: Combining Open Innovation with Employee Networks to Drive Success

As business leaders seek additional impact from Innovation Programs, new ways to leverage and scale existing resources are being explored. One approach is to link externally sourced ideas with networks of innovation-minded employees, to generate additional business impact.

Ideascale2022-01-24T16:48:31-08:00February 19th, 2015|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Leadership, Open Innovation|Tags: collaborative innovation, Communication, download, employee network, employee networks, in-depth article, Innovation Strategy, innovation training, innovtaion network, Open Innovation, report, strategy, training program, whitepaper|

6 Mind Mapping Uses for Personal Productivity

With the increase of, and dramatic improvement in, mind mapping software and its emergence as a value-adding toolkit conveniently available for use on our computers, laptops, tablets, etc. signifies that mind-mapping can be used within an every-day working environment. Jamie MacDonald takes a closer look at six uses for mind mapping in business situations that most of us engage in on a frequent basis.

Ideascale2021-12-06T07:43:09-08:00December 23rd, 2014|Categories: Idea Management, Strategies|Tags: Ideation, innovation, innovation management software, mind mapping, Product Development, productivity, project management, software|

Innovation Governance: Why Should Top Management Care?

In its research report “CEO Challenge 2014, ”[1] The Conference Board lists the ten most important challenges facing CEOs in 2014. Innovation ranks N°3 in this survey of 1,020 responses, on a par with operational excellence. Innovation was the N°1 issue in 2012, and in 2014 it is still the N°1 challenge in China. This article (in a series of seven) looks at the theme of innovation governance from a top management angle.

Ideascale2019-10-15T15:17:34-07:00April 14th, 2014|Categories: Leadership, Strategies|Tags: Best Practices, company-wide innovation, culture, decision making, goal setting, in-depth article, innovation champion, Innovation Culture, innovation governance, Innovation Leadership, Innovation Management, Innovation Strategy, Organization|

Measuring Open Innovation – a Metrics-Based Management Toolkit for Successful Innovation Teams – Part 2

How to apply metrics to open innovation (OI)? That's the question we often get from our clients when they start to develop their open innovation capabilities. In order to provide an answer to this critical question, the following article will focus on the key findings of our Open Innovation KPI 2012 study. Based on this study, a metrics-based management toolkit has been developed, which provides the most relevant key performance indicators from the perspective of innovation managers, subject matter experts, and consultants.

Ideascale2020-03-30T12:11:26-07:00March 19th, 2014|Categories: Open Innovation, Strategies|Tags: challenge driven innovation, framework, ideation contests, in-depth article, innovation controlling, Innovation Management, innovation toolbox, KPI, measure innovation, measuring innovation, metrics, Open Innovation, performance measurement, project management, scorecard|

Measure the Maturity of Your Idea-to-Launch Process

We know that innovation capability is a critical driver of strategic growth targets. We also know that innovation success is not a one-time occurrence, but the result of an organization’s ability to conceive, develop and commercialize new products and services on a sustainable basis. In this article Dr. Scott J. Edgett discusses a model for measuring if your organization has a mature innovation process with well-internalized innovation capabilities.

Ideascale2019-11-28T09:23:37-08:00February 3rd, 2014|Categories: Strategies|Tags: benchmark study, company culture, idea to launch process, innovation, innovation lifecycle, innovation process, Innovation Strategy, launch process, market success, portfolio management, process, process capability, Product Development, product launches, project teams, stage gate, strategy, strengths and weaknesses|

Seven Steps to Creating a Successful Innovation Framework

Heidi Hattendorf, director of Innovation Development, Motorola Solutions takes a deep dive into how you can create an innovation framework at your company that will positively impact your business results and culture. The article describes seven steps that will help you implement an “inside out” approach to innovation at your company.

Ideascale2021-11-16T13:22:14-08:00January 27th, 2014|Categories: Idea Management, Organization & Culture|Tags: back end of innovation, Best Practices, case study, company culture, Employee Engagement, framework, innovation, Innovation Culture, innovation framework, Innovation Management, innovation platform, innovation success, inside out innovation, outside in innovation, results, strategy, targeted innovation, top-down innovation|

Imperatives for an Effective Innovation Governance System

In this article, the final in a series of six, Professor Jean-Philippe Deschamps, discusses the imperatives for an effective innovation governance system. Innovation performance is often not directly dependent on the type of governance model used. Rather, innovation performance reflects the strength of top management’s commitment and engagement, and the credibility, skills and energy of the actors who under take the governance mission.

Ideascale2019-10-15T15:16:43-07:00September 30th, 2013|Categories: Leadership, Strategies|Tags: Best Practices, company-wide innovation, decision making, goal setting, in-depth article, innovation champion, Innovation Culture, innovation governance, Innovation Leadership, Innovation Management, Innovation Strategy, strategy|

Why Product Lifecycle Management Should Be On Every Executive’s Agenda!

Product lifecycle management (PLM) initiatives often miss their true potential and make projects unnecessarily costly. Not understanding how to optimize these investments can have long-term effects on both the top and bottom line, while companies that realize how to use PLM as a competitive weapon can capture significant market advantages. In this article we give you insights into how to take an approach that addresses the true potential of a PLM investment.

Ideascale2020-03-30T12:08:48-07:00July 5th, 2013|Categories: Life Cycle Processes, Strategies|Tags: Best Practices, case study, frontloading, in-depth article, innovation life cycle processes, lean, PLM, Post-merger integration, Product Development, product lifecycle management, project management, R&D, risk avoidance|

Measuring Open Innovation – 3 Key Principles to Improve Your Innovation Measurement Practices– Part 1

Thanks to loads of compelling research studies and best practice cases in open innovation (OI) carried out over the last decade, several companies nowadays begin to embrace and partially apply the new principles and methods OI offers. However, when managing open innovation at the project level, even experienced managers still go blank at the question: how to assess, control, and measure the performance of these activities? In this series of articles, we will address the above issue by discussing a general framework for an open innovation performance measurement system (Part 1). Given this framework, a metricsbased management toolkit will be presented that provides a suite of key performance indicators (KPIs) for a specific set of OI methods that demonstrates the key results of our Open Innovation KPI 2012 Study (Part 2).

Ideascale2019-11-28T07:59:09-08:00June 14th, 2013|Categories: Enabling Factors, Open Innovation, Strategies|Tags: in-depth article, innovation controlling, Innovation Management, KPI, measure innovation, measuring innovation, Open Innovation, performance measurement, project management|

Governing Innovation in Practice – The Role of Top Management

What role does the C-Suite have in exercising the company’s innovation governance responsibilities? In this article, the last in a series of five, professor Jean-Philippe Deschamps, defines six domains that are essential to organize and mobilize for innovation. They will condition the way innovation will be carried out and sustained by the organization and hence belong to the prime innovation governance duties of the top management team.

Ideascale2021-12-05T17:01:52-08:00June 7th, 2013|Categories: Organization & Culture|Tags: Best Practices, c-suite, company-wide innovation, decision making, goal setting, in-depth article, innovation champion, Innovation Culture, innovation governance, Innovation Leadership, Innovation Management, Innovation Strategy, manager, organizational structure, top management|