Learn About the Product Development Process MOBA Products Go Through

What does it take to develop a new product and how does MOBA's project management process look?

This article is about learning the essential steps of a successful product development process and a glance inside MOBA's Project Management.

The overall scope of MOBA's Project Management is to lead and guide all involved customers and different departments inside MOBA through the "jungle" of steps and tasks it takes to complete a MOBA Product Development Process.

How do you define the "Product Development Process"?
The process describes all phases of a product, from the first idea to the finished product.
In Detail:
- Customer requirement/ idea
- Requirement specification
- Offer
- Target specification
- Development
- Prototype Phase
- Serial product

At the beginning of the Product Development Process, there is only an idea for a new product. The next step is to set up the requirement specification.

That means we have to answer the question: “What does the customer need?” “What problem do we solve?” (= Requirement specification, or customer specification).

After that, we have to ask ourselves: “Are we able to do that?”
References include:
- Quality & environmental requirements
- Legal requirements (laws, directives, standards, etc.)
- Process requirements
- Feasibility studies (if necessary)
- etc.…

If we can fulfill the requirements and the customer accepts our first proposal, then the official starting point for the MOBA Project Management (PM) is given.

Once a project begins, the PM is generating a so-called target specification.
The target specification describes in detail how MOBA plans to meet the customer requirements in the requirement specification. This specification has to be approved by both parties (MOBA and customer).

The next step is planning the project, checking the availability of the required resources and then, with a kick-off, the project is running.
In the different development stages, documents like:
- Circuit diagrams,
- Layouts,
- Software,
- Housings,
- etc.
are generated.

With the availability of the first prototypes, the device or system can be tested with all qualifications according to target specifications.
The next step includes testing together with the customer, with the goal of the final approval for the prototype.

In the next phase, the focus lays on transitioning over from prototype status to the subsequent series production.
References includes:
- Software approval
- Test environment for production
- Packing instructions
- Defining quality assurance measures for production
- Product documentation (user manual, manufacturing instruction and many more).

The final, last two steps consist of:
- Confirmation by customer that the development is complete and fulfills all requirements
- Recap and take-away for future projects.

After the project completion meeting and the handover to the product manager, the project turns into a product. Now the product manager is responsible for the further product support. The Project Manager's responsibility ends at this point, and he or she is available for new projects again.

This concludes part 1 of a series of articles in regards to MOBA's Project Management.
To be continued…