THE PHASE - GATE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS TAKES TO THE WEB Richard

Successful companies of size (revenues exceeding $500 million) engaged in product development projects almost universally use some form of phase-gate development process. Introduced in the 1980s, this methodology has greatly enhanced the ability of companies to manage the rapidly growing complexities of the development cycle. However, the quest for continuous improvement has strained the manual application of phase-gate to its limits, and productivity improvements attributed to this successful methodology are leveling off for user companies. The application of information technology to the phase-gate process, especially the power of the Web to unite the efforts of hundreds or thousands of cross-functional resources while providing real-time intelligent data to decision-makers, promises to rejuvenate the phase-gate approach and provide the next wave of productivity improvements to industry. In fact, companies are already marrying the success of the phase-gate process and the power of the Web to further streamline their most strategic activity—product development.