Reducing development time and cost through effective project management

The more complex a development effort, the more difficult it is to reduce or control the project´s schedule and cost. The use of concurrent engineering in the development cycle only exacerbates the problem by increasing the number of departments and people involved at any point in the development effort. Breakdowns in the process can have devastating effects on the project schedule and double or even triple the development cost. Here, the author describes how these project elements can be effectively controlled using proven project management techniques. A number of companies involved in complex development efforts have been able to greatly reduce both development time and cost by applying these techniques