Innovation Project Management, 2nd Edition

Introduction to Innovation Project Management

• Learning Objectives for Project Managers and Innovation Personnel
• To understand the differences between traditional and innovation project management
• To understand that there are new skills, responsibilities, and expectations for managing innovation activities
• To understand the strategic/business importance of innovation
• To understand the importance of measuring innovation business value

INTRODUCTION

“The future is a direction, not a destination.”

— Edwin Catmull

Over the past three decades, there has been a great deal of literature published on innovation and innovation management. Converting a creative idea into reality requires projects and some form of project management. Unfortunately, innovation projects may not be able to be managed effectively using the traditional project management philosophy we teach in our project management courses. Innovation varies from industry to industry, and even companies within the same industry cannot come to an agreement on how innovation project management should work. Part of the disagreement comes from the fact that there are several forms of innovation, each one with different characteristics and possibly requiring different tools.

It is inevitable that, over the next several years, professional organizations such as the Project Management Institute (PMI) will recognize the need ...