Small batches will help you improve time to market, read the difference between the traditional and non-traditional approach to product development below.
Traditional approach to product development (Batches of major activities)
In a traditional phased-and-gated system, each phase is a batch of activities that has to be completed in order to produce a set of deliverables. These deliverables are reviewed in a batch at a gate. Here are some other examples of batches:
Reinertsen explains the problem is that the batch is held up until the longest activity in the batch is done. The bigger the batch, the more likely it is that work will be held up waiting for the batch to complete [1].
Non-traditional approach to product development: ExPD (Small batches of activities)
In contrast, Exploratory PD (ExPD) emphasizes agility and flexibility. The project team gains speed by breaking up the resolution of project uncertainties into small batches of activities.
Executing product development activities in small batches increases speed in several ways:
Interested in hearing more about improving time to market? Read this case study:
https://www.strategy2market.com/case-study-improving-the-product-development-system-and-time-to-market/. Also feel free to learn more about ExPD at www.exploratorypd.com
[1]. Donald G. Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development FLOW (Redondo Beach, CA: Celeritas Publishing, 2009), Chapter 5.
[2] ibid
Strategy 2 Market helps companies increase growth and decrease product development complexity. www.strategy2market.com
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