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Phases	Discovery	Development	Commercialization

Knowledge Areas	Technology and IP	Strategy and Planning	Process, Execution and Metrics
	People, Teams and Culture	Customer and Market Research	Co-Development and Alliances

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Purpose and Background
Product development and management is part of virtually every organization and is the subject of study in many universities. With such diverse application, the status of product development and management as a recognized profession varies considerably. Consensus on a core body of knowledge is the first step. PDMA, through the New Product Development Professional certification program, serves to improve the level of professional practice. Recognizing a core body of knowledge supports certification of professionals and is central to furthering the practice. Achieving consensus by the profession on a core body of knowledge is a strategic pillar identified by the PDMA Board of Directors as crucial for the evolution of product development and management toward a professional status.

What is the PDMA body of knowledge and what are the benefits?
The PDMA Body of Knowledge (PDMA-BOK) organizes, distills, and provides ready access to the continuously evolving core knowledge needed and used by product development and management professionals and their organizations. The Body of Knowledge will start with the basics and rapidly grow as the PDMA community at large adds to it. It provides the following important benefits to the PDMA community:

1. Generally agreed to definitions and summaries of important concepts, tools, methodologies, processes, etc. promote better use and more widespread adoption of practices that improve effectiveness
2. Access to "best of" related reference information around key topic areas minimizes time needed to search for deeper information
3. Further promotes continuous learning Linkage to latest writing, presentations, and discussion forums
4. Provides a way to learn about leading edge concepts and innovations in the application of current and new practices.

What is the scope for the body of knowledge?
The body of knowledge includes all aspects of product development and management across the entire lifecycle from strategy and opportunity generation through launch and on to product iteration and renewal

Product Development Management - Strategy setting, planning, organizing, resourcing, prioritizing, researching, scheduling, renewing, recycling, retiring, enabling, supporting, measuring, improving, collaborating, etc. for products and services, portfolios, and a company's whole product development program

Product Development Operations - Generating, defining, designing, testing, validating, prototyping, modeling, building, developing, provisioning, sourcing, maintaining, changing, etc. It does not include areas of product and operations management not directly associated with product development such as managing ongoing promotion, advertising, branding, pricing, distribution, customer support, etc. (but does address these as related to new product development).

Specifically, what can be found?
The body of knowledge is a growing, dynamic work. The first release covers glossary definitions, processes, organization approaches, practices, tools, methodologies, academic research, and metrics, along with helpful references to obtain more information. Future releases could include case examples from conferences and discussion forums.

Who is developing the body of knowledge and how can I participate?
The PDMA Body of Knowledge Team has included over 30 volunteer Product Development Professionals (NPDPs) from a broad cross-section of companies in the creation of this first release. We are soliciting additions and expansions on this from the PDMA community at large. You can share your knowledge of Product Development by submitting and article via our submission tool by clicking here (PDMA WIKI).

How is the Body of Knowledge organized?
The architecture or organization scheme for the PDMA-BOK provides a foundation upon which to capture and build knowledge in product development. It encompasses three macro phases of the total product life cycle including the front end (discovery), the middle (development), and the back end (commercialization). For each phase, knowledge is organized around six key topic areas, as shown below. These three phases and six knowledge areas are then displayed in a six by three matrix comprised of eighteen cells.

Other Enablers & Emerging Topics - Any topic that does not generally fall into the above topics, probably an emerging area of knowledge that will develop into a row (co-development might have started here 4 years ago). Note that information systems that support and automate aspects of product innovation, development, and growth would be subsumed into the appropriate row above but knowledge about system selection and implementation overall might go in this row. The articles that are contained in each cell are also labeled with a level. The "level" pertains to either the Business / Portfolio Level or the Project / Product Level.

The following definitions will provide you with a better understanding of what each phase and knowledge area covers.

THREE PHASES

Discovery Phase
This first phase is primarily about discovery. It covers the entire process of searching for and identifying opportunities - whether market-based or technology-based - and all of the planning and strategy to accomplish this. It requires the identification of customer needs, problems, and benefits, and the conceptual features that are envisioned for the products it wishes to build. It ends with the publication of a formal product specifications document.

Development Phase
This second phase is primarily about realization. It covers the entire process of converting specifications into designs - whether for an individual product or a complete portfolio of products - and all of the processes to accomplish this. It usually requires detailed resource management, creative engineering and process design capabilities, and sophisticated information technology. It ends when the products or services achieve their first commercial availability.

Commercialization Phase
This third phase is primarily about fulfillment. It covers the entire process of new product introduction and the organization's management of its product and service portfolio as it attempts to fulfill its financial potential. It ends when the products or services have reached the end of their useful lifecycle and are to be considered as candidates for retirement, renewal, and regeneration. At this stage, the process begins anew with the undertaking of a new product development initiative, and a return to the Discovery Phase.

SIX KNOWLEDGE AREAS

Customer & Market Research - Anything having to do with bringing external insight into product innovation, development, and growth especially insight about customers (buyers and end users) but also information about channels, competitors, markets, alternatives, etc. This includes gathering and scanning for this information as well as processing, analysis, storage, and use. It includes going to outsiders for insight, validation, confirmation, and feedback. It also includes gleaning this insight from primary as well as secondary sources.

Technology and Intellectual Property - Anything having to do primarily with the invention, development, acquisition, licensing, and management of the technologies and IP that enable and become part of products. To the extent that commercialization of a technology means creating new products, then that would be dealt with by the larger BOK but topics such as planning technology commercialization would be in this row.

Strategy, Planning & Decision Making - Anything having to do primarily with strategies, plans, and decision making around product innovation, development, and growth. These would include strategies, plans, and decision making at the business level (as relates to product innovation, development, and growth), as well as for platforms, product lines or product families, and products. The focus is on business, platform, and product planning as opposed to planning for marketing, operations, customer support, etc. which would be captured in process, execution & metrics. Strategy, planning, and decision making for technologies would be included in technology and IP. This row would include strategy and planning around resource capacity and throughput management across multiple projects ("pipeline resource management") since resourcing is part of decision making.

People, Teams & Culture - Anything having to do primarily with the people side of product development across the lifecycle including organization/team structures, people management, skills development, culture, organization change management, human interaction, etc.

Co-development & Alliances - Anything having to do primarily with innovation, development, and growth activities that take place in unison with external partners of all sorts including customers, suppliers, service providers, and channels. This would include co-development or development chain strategy, partner management, co-development execution processes, co-development teams, etc. Even if the topic might fall into another row, if the focus is on this activity in a co-development context, it would go in this row primarily.

Process, Execution & Metrics - Anything having to do with the operational dimension of product innovation, development, and growth. This row would not include processes and tools for customer/market input, technology/IP management, strategy and planning, people management, and co-development. It would include processes and tools for requirements development and management, design, manufacturing, supply chain, (engineering) change management, channel management, pricing, positioning, promotion, financial management, and customer support. This row would include process and performance management in general including metrics and benchmarks for product innovation, development, and growth.

Other Enablers & Emerging Topics - Any topic that does not generally fall into the above topics, probably an emerging area of knowledge that will develop into a row (co-development might have started here 4 years ago). Not that information systems that support and automate aspects of product innovation, development, and growth would be subsumed into the appropriate row above but knowledge about system selection and implementation overall might go in this row. The articles that are contained in each cell are also labeled with a level. The "level" pertains to either the Business / Portfolio Level or the Project / Product Level.

LEVEL DEFINITIONS

Business / Portfolio Level
Knowledge, concepts and tools for new product development that does not directly pertain to the development of an individual project/product. Included are portfolio strategy and management, pipeline management, platform planning, risk management, market trend analysis, technology strategy, co-development strategy, IP management and licensing, the front-end innovation process and appropriate metrics among others.

Project / Product Level
This level is concerned with managing an individual development project/product to successful conclusion. Included are project planning, sales forecasting, product innovation charters, gated processes, front-end homework, marketing plan development and the many useful tools of market research such as voice of the customer, site visits, concept testing, product testing and market testing.