Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-83). / Over the years, scholars studying technology-based innovation have uncovered patterns of success and failure. Many of the lessons learned from these observations can serve as powerful guidelines for leaders of industry as they guide their firms into new markets or help defend against emerging challengers. Most of the studies to date, however, have been based on research in manufactured product industries, while relatively little has been done to understand technology and innovation in service industries. The initial motivation behind this thesis was to interpret established principles of innovation in the context of services-based industries. In proposing this topic, I assumed that certain aspects of product-based principles also describe patterns in service industries. My research revealed that some principles apply to both sectors. Others need to be extended. Still others apply selectively, depending on the nature of the service that is being examined. In the process of synthesizing the lessons learned from my literature review and the case studies I examined, Professor James Utterback pointed me to the convergence of product and services and the role of product platforms in this paradigm. What emerged was the idea of a technology delivery platform and throughout the latter parts of this thesis, I explore different implications of this concept. / by Regan Wong. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-84). / by Arjun V. Bhutkar. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-79). / by Timothy D. Root. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-75). / Software defects (colloquially known as "bugs") have a major impact on the market acceptance and profitability of computer systems. Sun Microsystems markets both hardware and software for a wide variety of customer needs. The integration of hardware and software is a key core capability for Sun. Minimizing the quantity and impact of software defects on this integration during new product development is essential to execution of a timely and high-quality product. To analyze the effect of software defects on the product development cycle for a midrange computer system, I have used a particular computer platform, the Productl server, as a case study. The objective of this work was to use Sun's extensive database of software defects as a source for data-mining in order to draw conclusions about the types of software defects that tend to occur during new product development and early production ramp. I also interviewed key players on the Productl development team for more insight into the causes and impacts of software defects for this platform. Some of the major themes that resulted from this study include: The impact of defects is not necessarily proportional to their quantity. Some types of defects have a much higher cost to fix due to customer impact, time needed to fix, or the wide distribution of the software in which they are embedded. Software Requirements need to be vetted extensively before production of new code. This is especially critical for platform-specific requirements. The confluence of new features, new software structure and new hardware can lead to a greater density of software defects. The higher number of defects associated with the new System Controller code supports this conclusion. Current Limitations of Defect Data Mining: Automated extraction / (cont.) of information is most efficient when it can be applied to numbers and short text strings. However, the evaluation of software defects for root cause cannot be easily summarized in a few words or numbers. Therefore, an intelligent classification methodology for root causes of software defects, to be included in Sun's defect database, would be extremely useful to increase the utility of the database for institutional learning. Software Defect Data Mining seems to be underutilized at Sun. I have barely touched the surface of the information that can be extracted from our "BugDB" defect database. This data resource is rich with history. We should extract and analyze this type of data frequently. / by Lisa A. Curhan. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2009. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-52). / A nation's ability to innovate is paramount for its success and survival among other nations. But capitalizing on these innovations and bringing them to the marketplace are what gives a nation its competitive edge and provide sustainable growth over time in this highly dynamic global economy. In the United States' complex innovation ecosystem, small businesses and entrepreneurs play a crucial role in innovating new technologies and commercializing them. Indeed many of the nation's large, successful and innovative firms started out as small entrepreneurial firms. Microsoft, Intel, AMD, FedEx, Qualcomm, Adobe are examples to these firms. These small entrepreneurial firms with new ideas need to garner fair amount of funding before they can bring their ideas into the marketplace. However for entrepreneurial companies with science based innovative ideas, due to the unproven nature of these ideas and the lack of sufficient public information, there exist knowledge asymmetries. Therefore possibility of getting direct venture capital and/or angel investment becomes very slim for these firms unless the idea's commercial potential is obviously clear or a customer is already available. To address this early stage financing gap and to increase private sector commercialization of innovations, the Federal government offers funding through its three phase private-public partnership innovation program, called Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. / (cont.) The purpose of this study is to investigate the existence of any correlations between commercialization of SBIR funded projects, specifically Phase II programs, and various characteristics of the involved entities in attempt to enhance commercialization performance of an SBIR funded company. We hope that the results of this study will be practical in defining commercialization strategies to achieve faster and stronger capitalization on R&D investment for both the awarded company and the federal government and hence the tax payers. / by Teoman E. Ustun. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 98). / The Smart Mobile device industry is witnessing rapid growth with the increased convergence of voice-centric mobile phones and data-centric personal digital assistant systems. Improving capabilities in device hardware have allowed development of complex user interfaces, multimedia and communication capabilities on these devices. Modem Mobile Operating Systems manage this complexity in the mobile device by administering hardware resources and providing a platform for development of new consumer and enterprise applications. This thesis studies the architecture, design goals and services offered by the three major mobile operating systems - Palm OS, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile.The Mobile Operating Systems studied in this thesis differ in their architectures, services and programming interfaces offered to application software developers, independent hardware vendors and OEM licensees. Their design reflects the OS vendor's strategy toward the mobile platform which is decipherable based on a study of the OS architecture and application programming interface. Three conclusions are made based on this study each of them suggests a strategy that the vendor has attempted to use to gain platform leadership through product architecture and degree of openness of interfaces. / by Ashok Chakravarthy Mandala. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 148-151). / High-technology, new-economy firms seem to operate under different rules than their old-economy counterparts. The fast pace of disruptive invention, rapid product development cycles, short product market life and intense, frequently unanticipated competition drive technology strategies. Organizational growth and tight labor markets for talented employees influence technology capacity and capabilities. Valuation and profitability measurements seem to violate long-standing financial trends. All these reinforce a perception that these firms represent a radical departure from the stoic, traditional organization. This thesis explores the product development and organizational history of a leading high technology firm, Sun Microsystems. Using a model based upon the organizational life cycle and principles of systems architecture, we capture the common and unique characteristics of how the firm is dealing with changing markets, technology, complexity and growth. The study tests the hypothesis that, while Sun competes in a fast-paced arena, many problems experienced during periods of rapid growth are, in fact, endemic to any organization under similar circumstances. As this hypothesis holds, we look at current technology and process initiatives in the company to assess whether they are appropriately addressing the right issues. / by Steven W. Klosterman. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2002. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-91). / by Freddie Douglas, III. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-110). / The development of complex, safety-critical systems for aero-engine control is subject to the, often competing, demands for higher safety and reduced development cost. Although the commercial aerospace industry has a general good safety record, and has placed much emphasis on process improvement within a strong safety culture, there continues to be a large number of design and requirements errors found during development and after entry into service. 'The thesis assesses current system safety practice within the aero engine control system industry, including international standards, and reviews the current practice against the research at MIT by Professor Nancy Leveson. The thesis focuses in particular on software safety as this is the area that has proven most challenging and most likely to experience high costs. The particular research topics reviewed are Intent Specifications, the System Theoretic Accident Modeling and Processes (STAMP) technique, and requirements completeness criteria. Research shows that many problems arise from requirements and design errors rather than component failures. Several example incidents from an engine company are reviewed and these show a pattern of common problems which could have been caught by the use of more comprehensive requirements completeness checks and by the use of Intent Specifications. In particular, assumptions are not currently documented in the specifications but are kept separately, and the need to identify assumptions is not emphasized enough in existing processes. / (cont.) It is concluded that the existing development process has significant room for improvement in the coordination between the safety assessment and system development processes. In particular, more could be done by the use of requirements completeness checks, software hazard analysis, the adoption of the Intent Specification approach and in the use of the STAMP models. / by Malvern J. Atherton. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-80). / This thesis aims at developing a practical method to adjust product development metrics, which will enable effective management of the product development (PD) process. A set of good metrics is crucial to the success of a product, as metrics direct the development process by driving the actions and decisions of the PD team members which in turn define the product. Emphasizing or "weighting" certain metrics more than others can make the difference between success and failure. Through empirical exploration of metrics we seek to determine the weights, and the impact of different metrics on product success. Unlike its use in the engineering literature, the management use of the term "metric" includes both quantitative and qualitative measures which the PD team members can influence through their efforts. The theory used to determine the correct weight of a metric has its roots in the principles of Agency Theory and has been developed by "engineering" the theory to obtain two key parameters which define the weight of a metric. These two parameters are "leverage" and "risk discount factor" (RDF). Leverage is the amount by which a metric can impact the profitability of a product and RDF takes into account the inherent risk averse nature of the PD team members that influence their decisions. In order to evaluate the PD metrics and their weights within a firm, data was collected for a set of metrics across 17 programs at Ford Motor Company. The values for each metric were assigned based on information obtained through program documentation and interviews with multiple team members across various functions within the organization. Different success measures were collected and the impact and leverage of each metric was determined through empirical exploration of the various relationships. The key findings to date include: * Cronbach's Alpha for metrics regrouped using factor analysis average 0.7 demonstrating internal reliability. * Customer satisfaction correlates significantly with the rigor of the PD process, and internal coordination and communication between the core team and the other members of the value chain. * Time to market shows consistent correlation with profit and profit residuals. " The calculated weights suggest higher emphasis on capturing manufacturing need and using robust design practices, technology, and differentiation will increase profitability. " The measured RDF does not change the relative weightings of the metrics as obtained through the leverage calculation. / by Arpita Majumder. / S.M.