We’ve been busy these past few weeks. In addition to helping customers improve their businesses, we’ve been working on a product development challenge. The challenge involves producing a new system that enables remote control from a hazardous area for a tool located in a safe area. While for most this would be simple enough; however, the tricky part was with the human machine interface … specifically, providing enough features to enable the system to be serviceable, but still lean enough to make business sense.
Product development doesn’t always have to be difficult. In fact, if it’s done right, it can be enjoyable. The product development cycle we practice is proven and it’s exactly what we preach to our clients.
Regarding our recent challenge, we’ve completed the following processes so far:
- Business/mission analysis
- Stakeholder needs and requirements definition
- System requirements definition
- Architecture definition
- Design definition
Next processes in the coming days for us include:
- Implementation
- Integration
- Verification
- Transition
- Validation
- Operation
As well as fine-tuning details for:
- Maintenance
- Disposal
Print this list out and as a minimum, use it as a checklist the next time you’re doing development work and you’ll be less stressed. Compare it to your existing processes and see how they match up. You can learn more about these processes here.
For us, it’s been enjoyable dabbling in hands-on system design and manufacturing again: creating solutions where none existed before is just plain fun. And when you follow proven processes, you can be focused more on turning ideas into physical solutions and less on wasting money and going in circles.
If you need help developing a new product, enhancing an existing one, or you just want help getting things back on track, give us a call.
