Gerwin, D. & Barrowman, N.J. (2002). An Evaluation of Research on Integrated Product Development.Management Science, 48(7), 938-953.

Format: Peer-reviewed article

Type: Research — Non-experimental

Experience level of reader: Fundamental

Annotation: A literature review and meta analysis explored factors related to integrated product development and their impact on development time and product failure rates. Factors explored included tools and formal methods; product definitions (incremental versus breakthrough innovations); organizational context; teaming; and interactions with task uncertainty.

Setting(s) to which the reported activities/findings are relevant: Large business, Small business (less than 500 employees), University

Knowledge user(s) to whom the piece of literature may be relevant: Manufacturers, Researchers

Knowledge user level addressed by the literature: Organization

This article uses the Commercial Devices and Services version of the NtK Model

• Utilization of tools and formal methods for integrated product development, such as integrated technical tools, and standardized new product development processes can improve project performance by reducing failures and improving development time.
  Meta analysis of 6 studies
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Tip 1.3

• Assigning broad tasks, as opposed to specialized tasks does not reduce development time significantly.
  Meta analysis of 4 studies
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 3.1, Step 4.1

• Project performance will increase for teams that have a heavyweight leader with a great deal of organizational influence.
  Meta analysis of 4 studies
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 3.1, Step 4.1

• Use of cross functional teams decreases development time, but does not necessarily impact goal failure rates.
  Meta analysis of 5 studies
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 3.1, Step 4.1

• Incremental technological developments, as opposed to breakthrough developments, reduces development time but does not reduce the goal/failure rate.
  Meta analysis of 9 studies
  Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 1.5