ABSTRACT
Within a corporate environment, when the decision to develop a product is made—that is, at the start of the new product development stage, windows of marketing opportunities are identified, timelines are set, schedules are developed and the product development activities begin in earnest. Due to both market and investors’ expectations, there is a rush to meet deadlines and timelines. There is little time to explore technology options or to examine “what-if” scenarios. Explorations and what-if options belong to the fuzzy front end when there are no set expectation and schedules. Should a corporation ignore the need for this exploration period, the rush to market may cause oversights and mistakes that may lead to program delays. The expression, “there is no time to do it right but there is time to do it over,” might have its roots in this reality.
