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294 CHAPTER 8 • PRoduCT And sERviCE dEvEloPmEnT And oRgAnisATion
many sectors of the garment and toy industries, for example. Sometimes, fast develop-
ment is the result of a rapidly changing technology base. Personal computers need to
be updated frequently because their underlying technology is constantly improving.
Sometimes all of these pressures are evident, as in many internet-based services, for
example. But no matter what pressures have motivated organisations to speed up their
development processes, many have discovered that fast development brings a number
of specific advantages:

● Early market launch – The most obvious advantage of an ability to develop products
and services speedily is that they can be introduced to the market earlier and thus
earn revenue for longer. Not only that, but if the product or service is the first of its
type into the market, initially it has a 100 per cent of the market share, and custom-
ers may subsequently be reluctant to move to a competitor. Moreover, new offerings
often can command price premiums.
● Starting development late – An alternative way of deploying a fast development advan-
tage is by starting the development process late rather than introducing a product
or service early. In some markets this has advantages, especially those where either
the nature of customer demand or the availability of technology is uncertain and
dynamic. In both cases, fast development allows design decisions to be made closer
to the point at which they are introduced to the market.
● Frequent market stimulation – Short development times allow the introduction of new
or updated products or services more frequently. With a given set of development
resourcing, if it takes 12 months to develop a new product and service, a company
can only introduce a new or updated offering every 12 months. A six-month devel-
opment process doubles their potential for making an impact in the market.
● More opportunities for innovation – In markets where the underlying ‘technology’ base
is moving fast, it may be important to have frequent opportunities to introduce
these new technologies as often as possible. Short development time with frequent
updates produces more windows of opportunity for this type of innovation.

dependability of product service development

Fast product and service development processes that cannot be relied on to deliver
innovations dependably are, in reality, not fast at all. Development schedule slippage
can extend development times, but worse, a lack of dependability adds to the uncer-
tainty surrounding the development process. Conversely, processes that are depend-
able give stability and minimise development uncertainty. Yet, this poses a problem for
most development processes. Unexpected technical difficulties, innovations that do
not work or have to be modified, suppliers who themselves do not deliver solutions on
time, customers or markets that change during the development process itself, and so
on, all contribute to an uncertain and sometimes ambiguous environment. Certainly
professional project management of the development process can help to reduce uncer-
tainty. At least, it should minimise the risk of internal disturbance to the development
process if effective project management can prevent (or give early warning of) missed
deadlines, detect bottlenecks and spot resource shortages. External disturbances to the
process, however, will remain. Again, these may be minimised through close liaison
with suppliers and effective market or environmental monitoring. Nevertheless, unex-
pected disruptions will always occur and the more innovative the development, the

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