Concurrent collaboration in research and development

Integration is the essence of current research and development (R&D) activity in many organizations. Integration can be established in various ways depending on the type, size and intricacy in organizational functions and products. Nevertheless, research and development (R&D) has become an inevitable function in most manufacturing companies in order to develop their own product niches for their survival in the prevailing highly completion market environment. Research and development functions are fundamental drivers of value creation in technology based enterprises. Of creating and maintaining a vibrant R&D environment, organizations individually or collectively need to incorporate virtual R&D team. A virtual R\&D team can introduce new product in less lead time than by conventional R\&D working. Therefore, how to increase the possibility of having more successful R\&D is a critical issue for enterprises. This paper examines the current approach of collaboration in R\&D issues from the perspective of their impact on virtual R\&D team in enterprises and compares the findings with the other concepts of concurrent collaboration. By reviewing literature and theories, the paper firstly presents the definition and characteristics of virtual R&D teams. A comparison of different types of virtual R&D teams along with the strengths and limitations of the preceding studies in this area are also presented. It is observed that most of the research activities encourage and support virtual R\&D teams applicable to enterprises. Distinctive benefits of establishing virtual R&D team have been enumerated and demand future attention has been indicated in the paper

Virtual teams for new product development: an innovative experience for R&D engineers

New interaction tools such as internet allow companies to gain valuable input from research and development (R\&D) engineers via virtual teams. Consequently, engineers also get more expertise in diminutive time frames. Virtual R\&D teams present the key impetus to the technology acquisition process. The present knowledge-economy era is characterized by short product life-cycles. Virtual R&D teams may reduce time-to-market, make available a large pool of new product know-how and provide greater flexibilities, which are the key success factors in a competitive market. This comprehensive review contains almost 100 references and covers the recent literature with emphasis on the topic. The review has focused on authentic and reputed publications and extracts the results. This article presents the type of virtual teams and their main features and explains how virtual R&D team can play a prominent role in developing new products. The article is evolved future study guideline and also illustrates how to apply virtual interaction tools and integrate engineers into the innovation process. Management of virtual R&D teams in new product development (NPD) processes in an innovative, effective and efficient is of a high importance, but the issue has been poorly addressed in the previous studies. Findings show that virtual R&D team provides valuable input for new product development and R&D engineers are able to attain virtual experience

Strategies to Control Internal Factors Affecting Information Systems Projects in Puerto Rico

Many project managers and business leaders lack effective strategies to control internal factors that affect information systems (IS) projects, which may impede leadership\u27s ability to respond to market changes. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies used by 6 purposefully selected project managers who successfully implemented information system development (ISD) projects by controlling the internal factors that affected different ISD project phases in Puerto Rico\u27s telecommunication service industry. The framework that guided this study was coordination theory. The data collection process included semistructured interviews and project documentation including business requirements, project charters, project plans, and lessons learned which also served as resources for member checking and validation to strengthen the trustworthiness of the study. Analysis of the data occurred following Yin\u27s 5 analytical steps of validating, coding, interpreting, summarizing, and generating themes. The 5 themes that emerged were top management support, clear requirements, communication, project plan, and lessons learned. Each theme corresponded to a phase of the project life cycle. Top management support and clear requirements were the top critical factors (TCF) in the initiating and planning phases. Communication and project plan were the TCF in the executing, monitoring, and controlling phases. Lessons learned were the TCF in the closing phase of the project. Implications for social change include helping IS project managers successfully implement IS projects, providing innovative services to customers, and improving an organization\u27s position so it can provide jobs and economic stability in the region in which it operates

Project Quality of Offshore Virtual Teams Engaged in Software Requirements Analysis: An Exploratory Comparative Study

The off-shore software development companies in countries such as India use a global delivery model in which initial requirement analysis phase of software projects get executed at client locations to leverage frequent and deep interaction between user and developer teams. Subsequent phases such as design, coding and testing are completed at off-shore locations. Emerging trends indicate an increasing interest in off-shoring even requirements analysis phase using computer mediated communication. We conducted an exploratory research study involving students from Management Development Institute (MDI), India and Marquette University (MU), USA to determine quality of such off-shored requirements analysis projects. Our findings suggest that project quality of teams engaged in pure off-shore mode is comparable to that of teams engaged in collocated mode. However, the effect of controls such as user project monitoring on the quality of off-shored projects needs to be studied further

Information and Communications Technology Strategies for Improving Global Virtual Teams\u27 Success Rates

Ineffective strategies to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) to support global virtual teams (GVTs) have adversely affected organizations\u27 performance. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the effective strategies participating GVT managers in 2 organizations in the United States used to integrate ICT to support teams\u27 success. The population comprised managers in New York with at least 3 years of service integrating successful strategies in ICT to support GVT success. Transformational leadership theory was used as the conceptual framework for this study. The data collection process included asking 4 participants semistructured interview questions as well as reviewing archival data from the organizations. Data analysis using mind mapping analysis resulted in 5 major themes: forms of communication, redundancy, inclusion, accessibility, and infrastructure. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential to create economic opportunities in developed and underdeveloped countries by incorporating or adapting some or all these strategies to improve efficiencies using ICT to support the success of GVTs. Improving GVT success rates could enable organizations to maintain and grow jobs benefiting employees, families, and communities

Key Success Factors for 5G Technology Commercialization in Telecommunication Company Case Study of an Established XYZ Company in Indonesia

Abstract. Technology commercialization is the long process to bring technology from the research domain into the commercialization area to end-users with monetizing purposes. This study analyzes critical success factors for 5G technology commercialization in an established company in Indonesia. By defining the most significant factors, a company can strategize the most effective investments to important factors only and avoid other less meaningful areas. 5G is approaching fast, and some of the major early adopters Mobile Network Operators (MNO) have already deployed 5G within this year. However, some other MNOs or telecom companies, in general, remain skeptical, considering the wide range of new business cases, the readiness of industries, and twice significant capital investment compare to predecessor technology 4G. This study is based on interpretivism philosophy and uses Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews, observation, and deductive scenario planning as the methodology. Use cases, innovation ecosystem, and technology complementary are found to be the key success factors for 5G commercialization in an established company. The novelty of this study is to identify the key success factors for technology commercialization specific for the 5G technology context in Indonesia. Three axes deductive scenario planning using critical success factors as the uncertainties are considered as the originality of this study.Keywords:  Key success factors, technology commercialization, established company, 5

Virtual Teams for New Product Development – An Innovative Experience for R&D Engineers

New interaction tools such as internet allow companies to gain valuable input from research and development (R&D) engineers via virtual teams. Consequently, engineers also get more expertise in diminutive time frames. Virtual R&D teams present the key impetus to the technology acquisition process. The present knowledge-economy era is characterized by short product life-cycles. Virtual R&D teams may reduce time-to-market, make available a large pool of new product know-how and provide greater flexibilities, which are the key success factors in a competitive market. This comprehensive review contains almost 100 references and covers the recent literature with emphasis on the topic. The review has focused on authentic and reputed publications and extracts the results. This article presents the type of virtual teams and their main features and explains how virtual R&D team can play a prominent role in developing new products. The article is evolved future study guideline and also illustrates how to apply virtual interaction tools and integrate engineers into the innovation process. Management of virtual R&D teams in new product development (NPD) processes in an innovative, effective and efficient is of a high importance, but the issue has been poorly addressed in the previous studies. Findings show that virtual R&D team provides valuable input for new product development and R&D engineers are able to attain virtual experience.Virtual R&D Teams, New Product Development, Virtual Experience, R&D Engineers