TABLE OF CONTENTS "Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand."
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The SRM Survey revealed a number of common factors that led to successful introduction of new, innovative products. These factors, subsequently referred to as I-Factors, were found across industries and throughout phases and were insensitive to the size of the project or firm. This chapter discusses the first two I-Factors and their relationship to innovation, with a focus on decision management (DM), one of the key contributors to success across industries and phases. Other I-Factors are discussed in subsequent chapters. For easy reference, they have also been compiled in Appendix F.
The SRM Survey data provide conclusions in three major segments:
Decision-making efficiency
Innovation capitalization (linked to corporate policy)
Strategic risk/return understanding.
And so we focus on the first I-Factor in this chapter:
I-Factor 1: Any success, personal or business, is rooted in good decision making. Innovative decision making separates the wildly successful from the rest.
For example, the SRM Survey data show a reasonably strong link between solid business performance in the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry and the use of systems engineering requirements management tools and methods. The A&D industry is heavily dependent on a rigorous engineering method called systems engineering for requirements and system design definition. Systems engineering is geared toward the earlier phases, where extensive customer interaction produces a thorough, written set of project requirements. These requirements...
