Measuring Speed-to-Market is a pre-requisite for managing Speed-to-Market.
You must have clear definitions for the critical time points of a project
These include, but are not limited to, project start and project end
Ensure they are applied consistently.
There are many ways to define the critical time points of a project, so it is important to select definitions that are appropriate for:
your business; and,
the types of product development projects you undertake.
The following are examples provided for illustration:
Project start – the project starts when funding is provided, or when the team is assigned.
Project end – The project is completed when it is sent to manufacturing, or a formal product launch is complete and it is ready for sale, or when the product development team is disbanded.
Use the same definitions of the start and the end of a project over time
This is so that changes in the product development processes can be evaluated.
While all projects should be measured by the same criteria it is important to recognize that you should not compare measures for dissimilar project types.
For example, you should not compare a brand-new product that requires creation of new material or new technology to a change in an existing product that going to be introduced to a new market with a different format.
Beyond these more obvious measurements you should consider what else may need to be measured.
Consider measuring anything that takes time or could impact the time it takes to complete a project.
Examples are:
Project delays
Effect of work schedules and or worker holidays
The number of projects each team member is working on
