When Tom Furey finished spinning his dream of hope and glory for us that day in the cafeteria, th... more When Tom Furey finished spinning his dream of hope and glory for us that day in the cafeteria, the cavernous room didn't spontaneously erupt into a rally. Its walls didn't ring with cheering and chanting. There wasn't even any applause. Disciplines Disciplines
The importance of process in successful and effective technology and product development is widel... more The importance of process in successful and effective technology and product development is widely recognized in industry. Tools, such as Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and various metrics, have been developed and successfully used to guide and strategically plan R&D processes, allocate resources, and calibrate expectations. Similarly, one might hypothesize that academic research might also benefit from similar tools that would assist both researchers and funding organizations. A research assessment tool should: 1) facilitate planning and communication; 2) effectively gauge progress; and 3) accommodate and capture the diverse scope of academic research. However, the inherent open-endedness and exploratory nature of research makes it difficult to quantify or characterize research progress. This work aims to develop an academic research measurement process, embodied as a tool called Research Maturity Levels (RMLs), that divides research activities into four main components: 1) background knowledge, 2) problem and question formulation, 3) procedures and results, and 4) resources. Within each component, the RML guides researchers through a process of increasing maturity levels. Additionally, each component includes mechanisms to formalize iterations and "eureka" moments-when directions and plans may change based upon a new knowledge. Preliminary evaluation suggests that the tool has promise as a comprehensive measurement tool. It is hoped that this work will result in a tool that can facilitate planning, help to measure and communicate research progress, and encompass the diverse scope of academic research goals.
The purpose of this paper is to introduce patent litigation as a leading indicator of market grow... more The purpose of this paper is to introduce patent litigation as a leading indicator of market growth. We model the intensity of patent litigation and the market growth for the personal computer and cellular phone market in the US. By means of these analytic models, we show that patent litigation is a leading indicator to market growth. We are also able to very precisely delineate discrete stages of the product’s market life cycle and demarcate the time when life-cycle transitions are about to take place. We close this paper with a discussion on new lines of patent research that are potentially useful for managerial practice and for investment decisions. 2
Accepted by......................................................................................... more Accepted by........................................................................................................................
Finding common modules across products for platforming a product family or to find a common modul... more Finding common modules across products for platforming a product family or to find a common module for joint development with a partner can be challenging. At the moment there are no repeatable methods for grouping functions into modules and for choosing from different module candidates to form a good platform. We have developed a five-step algorithm that accomplishes this task of grouping and creating a dendrogram. The algorithm is based on a metric, distance function, which we define in the paper. The salient features of this algorithm are: it applies to modularization among simple as well as complex systems; it addresses the synthesis issue by a method that creates a hierarchy of modules, it does not rely on qualitative ordinal measures; it does not rely on non-repeatable heuristics, and it can be implemented and executed in a computer. The algorithm is applied on a group of four products: an intraoral camera, electronic pipette, pencil sharpener, and a fruit/veggie peeler.
This chapter introduces the extant decision theories. Whereas the literature segments the field i... more This chapter introduces the extant decision theories. Whereas the literature segments the field into the Normative, Descriptive, and Prescriptive theories, we identify a fourth. That is the Declarative strand of decision-making. We discuss all four strands of research and praxis. We locate our prescriptive paradigm in the Prescriptive segment. We discuss the question of what is a good decision and a good process. We will close this question in Chap. 10 after we have had the opportunity to illustrate the use of the machinery of our prescriptive paradigm in the main body of the book.
Global, dynamic, and competitive business environment has increased the complexity in product, se... more Global, dynamic, and competitive business environment has increased the complexity in product, service, operational processes and human side. Much engineering effort goes into reducing systems complexity. We argue that the real issue is reducing complicatedness. This is an ...
1998 Nagano Winter Olympics: Stakeholders in T Architecture.Section11.7 (pages 254-260) in System Architecture by E. Crawley, B.Cameron,, D. Selva. 2016. Pearson
This chapter introduces the extant decision theories. Whereas the literature segments the field i... more This chapter introduces the extant decision theories. Whereas the literature segments the field into the Normative, Descriptive, and Prescriptive theories, we identify a fourth. That is the Declarative strand of decision-making. We discuss all four strands of research and praxis. We locate our prescriptive paradigm in the Prescriptive segment. We discuss the question of what is a good decision and a good process. We will close this question in Chap. 10 after we have had the opportunity to illustrate the use of the machinery of our prescriptive paradigm in the main body of the book.
Confidence Interval for Parameter n in a Binomial Distribution
Page 1. CRM 86-265/January 1987 CONFIDENCE INTERVAL FOR PARAMETER n IN A BINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION Vi... more Page 1. CRM 86-265/January 1987 CONFIDENCE INTERVAL FOR PARAMETER n IN A BINOMIAL DISTRIBUTION Victor KT Tang Ronald B.Sindler Page 2. APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE; DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED Copyright CNA Corporation/Scanned October 2003 ...
The research literature and industry best-practices report a vast number of enabling factors that... more The research literature and industry best-practices report a vast number of enabling factors that contribute to successful product development (PD). Collectively this body of work also establishes the causal linkages between these enabling factors and overall success in PD. But what specific factors will produce what specific outcomes are vague and ambiguous. To address this apparent void, we find distinct sets of PD enabling factors that are statistically accurate predictors of the specific project outcomes of profit, market share, customer satisfaction, organizational effectiveness, and product quality. We are also motivated to help organizations improve their PD. To that end, we develop a diagnostic tool using the factors that predict our five PD outcomes. The tool is used to pinpoint weaknesses and focus improvements to achieve specific desired outcomes. Results of in situ testing of the tool are reported in this article. The guiding principles of this work are specificity and actionability: specific enabling factors that can produce specific results, and an actionable diagnostic-tool that practitioners can use to improve the practice and results of their PD projects.
Technology, Government, Business, and Universities: The Innovation Ecosystem The purpose of this ... more Technology, Government, Business, and Universities: The Innovation Ecosystem The purpose of this presentation is to present an overview of the roles of the government, business enterprises, and universities in the promotion and creation of innovation. Our approach is to present key concepts, principles, methods, tools and use illustrative examples from research and executive practice. We begin by defining "innovation". We argue that innovation is both a process and an output. From a process perspective, innovation is an emergent property of a complex social-technical system composed of government, business enterprises, and universities. The behavior of this system is the result of policies engineered by the government. We illustrate this point with examples of various macro economies, e.g. Chile. Using these examples we illustrate effective government policies. Next we discuss innovation as an output from business enterprises. We focus on enterprise level methods and tools for innovation. They are: business model transformation, business process reengineering, inventive problem solving, analysis of customer requirements, technology roadmapping, and knowledge management. Consistent with our practice, we illustrate the use of these methods and tools in detail. Next, we touch on the role of universities. For universities to promote innovation, we identify six research paths, three research strategies, and two goals. We cite a few examples from MIT. We present a key role of universities: to create interpretation spaces for researchers, government, and business where new innovative knowledge and ideas can be explored and generated in an environment of strong mutual trust. Innovation is impossible without decisive executives who are committed to action. Therefore, we present a detailed discussion of a new prescriptive approach that take a fresh look at decision-making for executives and policy makers. Finally, we distill from all of the above a set of principles that help unlock innovation. Finally we distill from all of the above a set of principles that help to unlock innovation. What is Innovation? An idea or practice, or material artifact perceived to be relevant by the unit of adoption. 1 Blades of a pair of scissors; one is the recognition of an economic and market need and the other involves technical knowledge. 2 ... application of ideas that are new to the firm, whether embodied in products, processes, services, or in work organisation, management or marketing systems. 3 Innovation is a product of the interaction between necessity and chance, order and disorder, continuity and discontinuity. 4 The effort to create purposeful, focused change in an enterprise's economic and social potential. 5
Global, dynamic, and competitive business environment has increased the complexity in product, se... more Global, dynamic, and competitive business environment has increased the complexity in product, service, operational processes and human side. Much engineering effort goes into reducing systems complexity. We argue that the real issue is reducing complicatedness. This is
This chapter introduces the motivations of executive-decision synthesis and narrates our systemat... more This chapter introduces the motivations of executive-decision synthesis and narrates our systematic prescriptive paradigm for their robust design. The locus of our prescriptive paradigm is at the intersection of messy complex systems, engineering design and executive decisions. Synthesis of robust executive decisions draws from these three fields and their sociotechnical methods as illustrated by the Figure below. Our domain of interest is executive management decisions in organizations. Our prescriptive paradigm is grounded on The Sciences of the Artificial.
This chapter is an introduction to Part III, the third step in our presentation of our paradigm a... more This chapter is an introduction to Part III, the third step in our presentation of our paradigm and prescriptive methodology. This first chapter of Part III is our first real business-enterprise case study executed in the field. Whereas in Part II, we used the ADI system dynamics model as a surrogate to verify functionality, we now go to field in the real word to verify efficacy. Functionality and efficacy demonstrate that our methodology works.
Guidelines for a Decision Support Method Adapted to NPD Processes, 2007
We take an engineering design approach to a problem of the artificial corporate decision-analysis... more We take an engineering design approach to a problem of the artificial corporate decision-analysis under uncertainty. We use Design of Experiments (DOE) to understand the behaviour of systems within which decisions are made and to estimate the consequences of alternative decisions. The experiments are a systematically constructed class of gedanken (thought) experiments comparable to “what if” studies, but organized to span the entire space of controllable and uncontrollable options. We therefore develop a debiasing protocol to forecast and elicit data. We consider the composite organization, their knowledge, data bases, formal and informal procedures as a measurement system. We use Gage theory from Measurement System Analysis (MSA) to analyze the quality of the data, the measurement system, and its results. We report on an in situ company experiment. Results support the statistical validity and managerial efficacy of our method. Method-evaluation criteria also indicate the validity o...
Verifying Functionality: Maximizing Annual Operating Income (AOI)
Executive Decision Synthesis
This chapter is another verification simulation using the same ADI surrogate except for a differe... more This chapter is another verification simulation using the same ADI surrogate except for a different executive decision—to maximize annual operating income (AOI). This a decision to deal with internal operations. The goal is to demonstrate to the industry and its employees that the executive managers of the firm and competent and are able to run ADI. Best effort has been made to attach the data for the simulations as appendices and all the calculations are shown and illustrated.
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