R&D management is the discipline of designing and leading R&D processes, managing R&D organizations, and ensuring smooth transfer of new know-how and technology to other groups or departments involved in innovation

Innovation

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

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Definitions

R&D management can be defined as where the tasks of innovation management

Innovation management

Innovation management is the discipline of managing processes in innovation. It can be used to develop both product and organizational innovation. Without proper processes, it is not possible for R&D to be efficient; innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to...

 (i.e., creating and commercializing inventions) meet the tasks of technology management

Technology Management

Technology Management is set of management disciplines that allows organizations to manage its technological fundamentals to create competitive advantage...

 (i.e., external and internal creation and retention of technological know-how). It covers activities such as basic research

Research

Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...

, fundamental research, technology development, advanced development, concept development, new product development, process development, prototyping, R&D portfolio management, technology transfer, etc., but generally is not considered to include technology licensing, innovation management, IP management, corporate venturing, incubation, etc. as those are sufficiently independent activities that can be carried out without the presence of a R&D function in a firm.

Management models

Few dedicated management models for R&D exist. Among the more popularized ones are Arthur D. Little's Third generation R&D management, the Development funnel, the Stage-Gate model

Stage-Gate model

A stage–gate model, also referred to as a phase–gate process, is a project management technique in which an initiative or project is divided into stages separated by gates. At each gate, the continuation of the process is decided by a manager or a steering committee...

 or Phase-Gate model product development, and Technology integration. All these models are concerned with improving R&D performance and result productivity, managing R&D as a process, and providing the R&D function with an environment in which the inherent technological and market uncertainties can be managed.

The Path to Developing Successful New Products a joint research by MIT & McKinsey & Co. points out three key practices that can play critical role in R&D Management: Talk to the customer, Nurture a project culture, Keep it focused.

R&D management tools

• Simultaneous engineering
• TRIZ
  TRIZ
  TRIZ is "a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature". It was developed by the Soviet inventor and science fiction author Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues, beginning in 1946...
  
  
• Voice of the customer
  Voice of the customer
  Voice of the customer is a term used in business and Information Technology to describe the in-depth process of capturing a customer's expectations, preferences and aversions...
  
  
• PACE
  PACE
  -Associations:* Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union* National PACE Association* Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence-Educational programs:...
  
  , Stage–gate model
• Technology intelligence
  Technology intelligence
  Technology Intelligence is an activity that enables companies to identify the technological opportunities and threats that could affect the future growth and survival of their business. It aims to capture and disseminate the technological information needed for strategic planning and decision making...
  
  

Associations and communities

Journals:

• R&D Management Journal
• Technovation

Associations and communities:

• RADMA, a R&D management society based in the UK
• IAMOT, the Int'l Association for the Management of Technology
• R&D and Innovation in China

See also

• New product development
  New product development
  In business and engineering, new product development is the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new product to market. A product is a set of benefits offered for exchange and can be tangible or intangible...
  
  
• R&D
• Innovation management
  Innovation management
  Innovation management is the discipline of managing processes in innovation. It can be used to develop both product and organizational innovation. Without proper processes, it is not possible for R&D to be efficient; innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to...
  
  
• Open innovation
  Open Innovation
  Although the idea and discussion about some consequences date back at least to the 60s, open innovation is a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough, a professor and executive director at the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, in his book Open Innovation: The new...
  
  
• Global R&D management
  Global R&D management
  Global R&D management is the discipline of designing and leading R&D processes globally, i.e. across borders, in multi-cultural and multi-lingual settings, and cutting across multiple time zones. In addition, managing R&D organizations, and ensuring smooth transfer of new know-how and technology to...
  
  
• Reverse innovation
  Reverse innovation
  Reverse innovation or trickle-up innovation is a term referring to an innovation seen first, or likely to be used first, in the developing world before spreading to the industrialized world. The term was introduced by Dartmouth professors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble and GE's Jeffrey R....
  
  
• Management of technology