Real Pain - Product Launches Off the Rails

By Ken Westray, PE, NPDP

In the last several weeks there have been some amazing disappointing missed product launch deadlines. The public relations people have made a fortune spinning bad news into good. However when you read between the lines of the stories people’s careers has been damaged, people have lost their jobs, and stock prices have taken a dip.
Microsoft pushes new Office into 2007 Following on the heels of the announcement of the delay of Windows Vista, Microsoft has announced the delayed release of the latest MS Office version to 2007. The plan is to have a joint release of both the new operating and application systems in 2007.

Last but not least is an extract from the announcement, which the delay is really about doing greater good. Microsoft’s PR firm says "simply an indication of our desire to provide an easy retail experience.”

Sony delays launch PlayStation 3 Last week, Sony announced that it was delaying the launch of the PlayStation 3 games from spring to November.

Toshiba postponed HD-DVD Toshiba Corp. said Friday it has postponed the release of high-definition DVD players in the United States until April, a month later than planned, so that it can synchronize the sales with title releases from Hollywood studies. Toshiba’s PR firm says “part of our plan to provide a great movie experience.”

Whale has trouble flying Airbus A380 delays The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner is outselling the Airbus A350. In the long-range market, the two- engine Boeing 777 has the lead over the poorly selling four-engine A340. And the new Airbus A380, a 555-passenger behemoth so big it is being called the Whale, has had developmental delays.

10 Gigabit network processor delayed Camarillo-based semiconductor maker Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. has decided to delay release of its 10 gigabit-per-second network processor, claiming the market is too weak for the device right now. While later (Vitesse) today announced the appointment of Dr. Chi Fai Ho to CTO and Paul Browne to vice president of engineering for Vitesse’s Ethernet Products Division.

Sun Microsystems misses another launch date Sun Microsystems launched more than a dozen new products at a press event in San Francisco this week but missing from the pack was an anticipated high- end release of its application server software. The enterprise release isn't among the products on tap for this quarter, however, and a Sun official at this week's event declined to offer a new release date. Information on Sun's Web site pegs the product for release in "Summer 2003." "We're very interested in making sure the product hits the market well. The first experience developers have with it must be a really good one, so for the sake of ensuring quality or performance we'll say, do you make a date or do you take a few more weeks to get it right," said Anil Gadre, vice president, Sun software business management and marketing.

Editor Notes: I cannot imagine having a new product development project being behind several years from a launch date. It leaves me with the feeling that the original launch date was established for a political reason and had nothing to do with a good project/program management plan. It is interesting that hidden in the article about the delay of Windows Vista is a statement that the breakthrough features have been scaled back and some testers say the version is now a yawner. The classic project management triple constraint (scope, time, money) model says something has to change or give when a project plan deviates. In this case it sounds like a complete breakdown of new product project management. During development of a new product there can be a discovery phase where the unknown has to be determined. However it is a very bad practice to initiate product launch activities before the product development is finished. PDMA’s definition of Alpha testing includes that the objective is to prove that the product WORKS, nothing more or less. It is a shame how many times these new product development lessons have to be relearned and relearned. It is easier to do new product development right the first time than to redo and redo.

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