Project Communication for Successfull Product Development : Developing a Project Overview at ITT W&WW

Abstract: The majority of companies working with new product development today are using a product development process. Although very helpful, a process will not guarantee successful product development. One of the most important aspects to consider in projects and product development is communication - how project members exchange information with one another. Successful product development is hard to achieve without efficient project communication. This master thesis is based on the previously mentioned background. The questions to be answered are: What problems exist within product development projects? How are these related to communication? How can communication be improved to solve them? To answer these questions, a case study at the product development company ITT Water and Waste Water was carried out. By conducting 37 interviews, data regarding the company’s communication and development process has been collected. In addition, theories regarding project development and communication are researched. Together, theses constitute the basis for the thesis analysis. The empirical research showed that there indeed exist problems in the case company’s development process: a lack of project evaluation, too development times, a lack of market orientation, and decisions being made without sufficient information. The later two where found closely dependent on communication. Further research showed that introducing a project overview would solve these problems. As a final conclusion, a layout of the proposed project overview was introduced. Even though insufficient communication is not believed to be the only cause for the identified problems, the authors believe that the project overview would in part solve them. Since there are large similarities in how product development is carried out at different companies, the findings are most likely transferable to other organizations.