Extended Model of Managing Risk in New Product Development Projects

The aim of this research was to study new product development (NDP) projects-related risks and the literature in this field, as well as to develop a specific extendedmodel of managing risks in npd projects, which will consider the nature of npd projects. Data were collected with the help of the developed questionnaire, and project managers with several years of experience in the field of NPD projects were included. The data and hypotheses were tested with the use of statistical methods. Results of the study show that for NPD projects, it seems to be crucial to plan risks in the early stages of the project, especially focused on the definition of the technical requirements for the product and the related clear project objectives. Poorly defined technical requirements for the product present an important risk related with the design uncertainty of the product. The more imprecise the technical requirements for the product before the project starts, the higher is the design uncertainty of the product after its development. Unclear project objectives have a significant effect on the time-delay of NPD projects. The more imprecisely the project objectives are defined before the project starts, the greater is the time-delay on the NPD project.