The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

5.8. Resource Managers

NPD process models identify the need to manage the NPD resources, which include skilled people, physical equipment, market analysis capabilities, field-testing opportunities, first customer contacts, and so forth. Best practice suggests that the sum of these resources be viewed as a pipeline, and the shape of this pipeline be characterized by the resources presently available to the NPD effort. The flow in the pipeline is the portfolio of the development projects currently underway. A resource manager is therefore tasked with pushing as many projects through the available pipe as quickly as possible. This task is often called "pipeline management."

NOTE

The resource managers own the effective deployment of people and physical resources.

Resource managers work as a team. Their leader is the process sponsor, and they hold frequent meetings and maintain specific lines of communications to keep them in constant touch with the pipeline. This team is an active owner of the project assignments. Resource managers also are typically project leaders or gatekeepers because all three roles need to be in touch with the realities of available resources.