A Decision Support Tool to Improve the Likelihood of Successful Research Project Outcomes

Innovative research projects often fail, thus wasting resources without achieving project goals. Although some research project failures can be attributed to the inherent risks associated with conducting research, other failures are due to issues in the Innovation Process (IP). The IP describes the framework used to facilitate all phases of a research project, including concept solicitation, selection, management, and transition to application. This Praxis developed a decision support tool (DST) to aid the research portfolio manager (PM) in selecting the optimal IP that will maximize the likelihood of project success. To create this tool, nearly 500 research projects with varying levels of successful outcomes were analyzed to identify the factors critical to project success. Based on the correlation of IP factors and project success, a statistical model was trained and tested. This model was used as the basis of the DST, which enables the PM to input project IP factors and determine the predicted likelihood of project success. Simulated factor modifications demonstrated the DST’s ability to inform a PM of improved IP designs resulting in increased likelihood of project success. This validated tool will be especially useful to PMs that work in science and technology organizations and manage innovative research projects.

Author

• Merkle, Andrew Charles

Language

• en

Keyword

• stage-gate process
• Ordinal logistic regression
• innovation process
• research and development
• research transition
• IRAD

Date created

• 2021

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Engineering Management

Degree

• D.Engr.

Advisor

• Blackburn, Timothy

Committee Member(s)

• Etemadi, Amir
• Dimitriou, Aristos

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/hm50ts45h