BA 290A-2 and ME290P, Fall 1998

BA 290A-2 and ME290P
Fall 1998

Managing the New Product Development Process: Design Theory and Methodology

GENERAL INFORMATION

Teaching Staff:

Prof. Alice Agogino, Room 5136 Etcheverry Hall, 2-6450, aagogino@me.Berkeley.EDU

Dr. Sara L. Beckman, Room F575 Haas School, 2-1058, beckman@haas.Berkeley.EDU

Technical Assistant: Youhao Jing yjing@best.me.Berkeley.EDU

Class Meetings:

Event	Day	Time	U CB Location
Class	W F	11:00 am-12:30 pm	110 Cheit Hall
Occasional Labs	M	11:00 am-12:30 pm	Mac Lab 3116 Etcheverry Hall
Office Hours (Beckman)	W	12:30 - 2:00 pm	F575 Haas
Office Hours (Agogino)	W	3:00 - 5:00 pm	5136 Etcheverry Hall

Course Objectives:

This course is one of five core courses of the Management of Technology program at the University of California, Berkeley. It is considered an operationally focused course, as it aims to develop the interdisciplinary skills required for successful product development in today's competitive marketplace. Engineering and Business students join forces on small product development teams to step through the new product development process in detail, learning about the available tools and techniques to execute each process step along the way. Each student brings his or her own disciplinary perspective to the team effort, and must learn to synthesize that perspective with those of the other students in the group to develop a sound, marketable product. Students can expect to depart the semester understanding new product development processes as well as useful tools, techniques and organizational structures that support new product development practice.

Expectations:

This is a three-unit graduate course. Accordingly, we have designed the course to demand approximately 12 hours per week of your time. We expect that each student will prepare for and attend all of the class sessions and will participate fully on a project team. This is particularly critical, as a number of the class sessions are "labs" during which we will expect you to work with your team on your development project. We have tried to smooth the workload for the course so that it will remain relatively constant throughout the semester, and all requirements are clearly spelled out in this syllabus so that you can readily plan ahead.

Academic Integrity:

We encourage full group and class collaboration on all aspects of this course. It is almost impossible to share too much information in product development. We do expect that all team members will contribute substantially to the project efforts, although some students will choose to devote themselves to the projects beyond what is required for the course. Students will be asked to critique and contribute to the development projects of others in the class in a cooperative, supportive environment, and will be asked to submit critiques of their own group and group members during the course of the semester.

Reading Materials:

The primary reading material for the class is the textbook Product Design and Development written by Karl Ulrich and Steve Eppinger. This book is a very basic text that provides a step by step view of how new product development processes are to be conducted. A course reading packet supplementing the book is also available for purchase through University Copies at the Haas School of Business.

Grading:

Your course grade will be determined as follows:

25% on the quality of your preparation for and participation in class discussions

10% on the quality of your individual assignment solutions

35% on the quality of your team's work on project-related assignments

30% on the quality of your team's final project presentation

During the semester, we will periodically ask for individual assessments of the contributions made by members of your team to the team project. These assessments will be considered in preparing your final team grade.

Class Preparation and Participation:

Reading assignments and questions to guide your thinking about these assignments are given in the class schedule for each class session. We expect you to come to class prepared to discuss the readings and the suggested questions. In any given class session, a handful of students may be called upon specifically to speak to the readings and questions about them. If you have prepared according to the syllabus, you will have no problem responding when called upon. Your individual class participation grade will be based upon your in-class remarks during discussions, and will be judged by the faculty.

Individual Assignments:

We have periodically assigned exercises at the back of the chapters. The syllabus makes clear which of these are to be turned in. The others are intended simply to prepare you for class discussion.

Projects:

The goal of this exercise is to learn principles and methodologies of product development in a realistic context. Most product development professionals work under tremendous time pressure and do not have an opportunity to reflect on the development process. In this course, the stress level will be low enough to allow time to experiment and learn. A detailed description of the project work appears at the end of this syllabus. You will be asked to form project teams of 4 to 5 students, including a mix of Engineering and Business students. (We have experimented with all-Engineer and all-MBA student groups, and have found that they are not as effective as the mixed groups.) You will have ample opportunity during the first two weeks of class to scope out the possible projects and get to know potential teammates.