Anthony F . Hutchings Steve T . Knox Creating Products Customers Demand

his article presents a re-engineering case study of the product requirements definition process at Digital Equipment Corporation. Based on cross-functional teams working in direct partnership with customers, the re-engineered process was designed to ensure customer satisfaction and business readiness before a line of code is written, an electronic circuit designed, or a service defined. Several insights gained throughout the re-engineering experience had significant implications for effective cross-functional team performance. These insights addressed issues concerning the attainment of cultural change, as Digital sought to move from a technology-centric view of product development to a customer-centric view. Most important among these insights were the concept of “whole products,” which had the effect of broadening the requirements definition scope to include requirements for marketing messages, pricing, and packaging, as well as deployment and service scenarios; and a shift in thinking about “process”, moving away from process as a series of sequenced procedures that, when executed, will deterministically yield desired results toward a view of process as a map of the product development terrain, serving as a guide through peaks and valleys to the final destination. As one of the software engineering managers remarked during an early pilot effort, “The right process is the one we invent.”