Jussi Pihlajamaa

Assessment of quality and maturity level of R&D

Abstract The strategic importance of R&D will be emphasised even more in the future. Continuous improvement of the effectiveness of R&D requires an adequate and comprehensive assessment and measurement system. The present method for assessing the quality and maturity of R&D examines R&D from six viewpoints: R&D as part of business strategy, R&D as part of product and technology strategy, strategic implementation of R&D, R&D as a business section, R&D outputs, and implementation of R&D-projects. Procedures in each of the six viewpoints are assessed and scored by five maturity levels. The quality maturity method (QMM) method has been lightly tested in about 50 companies which have had development projects in national technology programmes. The deeper piloting of the method is under way or will begin in six companies and two research institutes. The testing of the preliminary QMM method in pilot-companies has shown that the viewpoints used in the assessment describe factors pertaining to the quality and maturity of R&D quite well, and they indicate central development needs. Development needs mainly concentrate on the development of procedure definitions and/or the development of practical implementation based on existing definitions. Future research will test the applicability of the method to different types of companies and analyse the background variables (such as the nature of R&D in organisation). The real challenge in improving the effectiveness of R&D is linking the project-level R&D objective to company-level business strategies. Effectively collected feedback information from R&D-projects should be utilised in strategic planning, and the desired objectives for R&D should be defined clearly in the strategies.

Measurement of the quality and maturity of the innovation process: methodology and case of a medium sized Finnish company

Continuous improvement of the effectiveness of R&D requires an adequate and comprehensive assessment and measurement system. The present method, quality and maturity method (QMM), for assessing the quality and maturity of R&D, examines R&D from six viewpoints: R&D as part of business strategy, R&D as part of product and technology strategy, strategic implementation of R&D, R&D as a business section, R&D outputs, and implementation of R&D projects. Procedures for each of the six viewpoints are assessed and scored by five maturity levels. The verifying of the preliminary QMM method in four pilot companies has shown that the viewpoints used in the assessment describe factors pertaining to the quality and maturity of R&D quite well, and indicate central development needs.