Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 142). / Before companies started competing on Internet time, most companies involved in software product development carried out the different phases of the product development sequentially. If, during the later stages of product development (ex: coding), the company came across new information or the user needs changed then these changes would be incorporated into the next version of the product otherwise risk shipping the product late. Rapid innovation in the technological areas and the Internet has created very dynamic environment in all walks of life. In this environment, the user needs are changing very rapidly resulting in new challenges for the companies and its product development managers. They have to respond to the changing needs of the users very quickly either with rapid product releases and/or incorporating the changes into product under development. To achieve this, companies need a product development strategy that allows them to incorporate changes at any stage in the product development without affecting their time-to-market. This thesis focuses on strategies for rapid and flexible software product development. This research will study systematically the range of approaches that producers of software and hardware use for product development. / by Sharma Upadhyayula. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-62). / The purpose of this research is to provide an academic study to facilitate and improve the establishment and running of Expression Business Unit in Microsoft's Developer Division. This business unit was created in 2005 to help Microsoft expand into the computer-aided designer market. New business creation within the existing business is commonly called corporate entrepreneurship. This thesis will review the literatures in this area and use the Expression business as a case study.This thesis documents the efforts of a company starting a new business based on the research in business, organization and product. The principle study areas of this project are (1) How to collect market data, conduct market research and competitive strategy analysis for a new business (2) Build a business plan for a corporate venture (3) How to organize an effective corporate venture (4) The similarities and differences between start a start-up company and start a new venture in an established firm.Most of materials used in this thesis are from the author's personal involvement, internal Microsoft presentations, the author's interviews and meetings with key stakeholders involved in this new Business Unit. This project uses academic research to identify the existing theories and practices on corporate venturing. Through the research, this project also details the problems raised in the planning phase.In the end, the author will propose improvements to the current business planning. The improvement is built on top of the existing business and product planning framework, with the intents to enhance Expression venture's product and market areas. Also several areas requires further study have been outlined. / by Yaming Wang. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-148). / The identification of the different factors impacting a software start-up company's decision to pursue an alliance, acquisition, IPO or venture capital to sustain growth is the main objective of this research study. First and foremost on a software start-up company's list of reasons to pursue and engage in alliances is to leverage the incumbent's tangible and intangible assets. Other factors impacting their decision to leverage alliances include the opportunity to enhance stability and profitability and the opportunity to acquire key customers. Another key factor that encourages start-up company alliance or strategic partnership formation is the need for the start-up company to establish platform leadership. Like the pursuit of alliances, foremost on a software start-up company's list of reasons to pursue and engage in acquisitions is to leverage the incumbent's or the acquirer's tangible and intangible assets. Other factors impacting their decision to get acquired include the boost such an acquisition will provide in helping them establish platform leadership. Acquisitions are also pursued by start-up companies when the founders want to exit. Start-up companies also pursue to get acquired to survive, when no other option are available. Lastly, they would opt to get acquired to penetrate new markets. Given optimal economic conditions, IPOs capture the best liquidity and valuation. It is advantageous versus getting acquired in that one gets to sustain growth while retaining control of the software start-up company. Software start-up companies seek venture capital funding for a number of factors. This includes getting help in business development, leveraging the VC network, obtaining a certification effect, diversifying net worth and reducing risk, and pursuing and engaging in alliances successfully. / (cont.) There is no one universal paradigm to help a software start-up company determine when it is best to pursue an alliance, an acquisition, an IPO or venture capital. A myriad of factors specific to one's situation impacts the decision to choose the right growth strategy. To make the most informed decision, the executive team must consider all these factors. / by Sergio D. Ybanez. / 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. 215-218). / This thesis has the main purpose of presenting the Development and Validation phase of the product development system from the point of view of an emerging and growing product development organization, denoting the obstacles and challenges presented over the operation path or testing organizations as the evolve with solution alternatives from the industry and academia. Through the study and analysis of a multinational company of the automotive industry, it was possible to build a framework of study among regions analyzing the test and development operation of engineering organizations at four levels of growth and responsibility. By combining experience and knowledge from leaders and heroes from these regions, with the knowledge and insights from academia and literature; this study is intended to serve as a guide for a testing organization facing the challenge of growing and acquiring greater responsibility. Today's global scenario demand excellence in execution, reducing time and resources in the development of products, being test and development the most resource consuming activities within a generic product development process but at the same time critical and unavoidable. Through a systems engineering approach, the main challenges and improvement opportunities for the development and validation entities at the Ford of Mexico Product Development Organization are documented, with the purpose of creating awareness and proposing the elements fixing a path that would ensure the success for the company as a whole. This path sets the steps for further work in the deployment of a well defined and lean testing system. / by Jose Antonio Almazan Lopez. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, February 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-109). / by Ambrose Kam. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-97). / For the automotive industry, to be competitive in the market place has to devise many strategies. Some of the prominent strategies include and are not limited to, reduction of development costs by moving in-house work to its suppliers, reduction of PD cycle time by mimicking some of the industry's successful PD processes. Some companies are also devising some complex strategies like Zero-Prototype development using computer aided prototyping and testing, currently prevalent in the aerospace and naval industries, and more recently making a move into the Lean PD systems and processes to avoid waste and increase efficiency. However, to introduce such lean PD systems, with reduced PD cycle time, into a complex organization with many internally developed IT systems, processes and tools is a huge challenge. The organization needs to adapt to these lean environments not just structurally but also culturally. To design a lean PD organization (system) the decision makers have to foresee and understand how the system of systems may react to the change before they are implemented and/or executed. In the past couple of decades IT systems have been a primary enabler for PD work flow processes. / (cont.) However, IT systems are so engraved in some PD organizations that they have turned into an engineering process mechanism. Also, some of the IT systems have served more than their life expectancy and in some cases cannot be decommissioned because these systems are so tightly coupled with the business processes. An understanding of the internal system dynamics of these deeply engraved IT systems in the PD life cycle will help the automotive industry executives (decision makers) and IT systems architects to make the right decision when designing and deploying the new PD systems or processes. This study provides an overview of how IT tools have evolved in the automotive industry. Extensive research was conducted to understand the different system dynamics tools used in industry - specifically in automotive product development and the software development areas. The study concludes with an explanation of how system dynamics tools can be used as a program planning and management tool. / by Sashi K. Somavarapu. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, June 2009. / "September 2008." Title page has the copyright date of 1994. / Includes bibliographical references. / Islamic Finance is a banking sector which caters to the Muslim population's banking needs by complying with the Islamic financial law. In this research some of the most prevalent financial products in Islamic Finance are surveyed and various forms of Islamic asset securitizations (Sukuks) are studied. Two issues of Islamic asset securitizations (Sukuks) are analyzed in detail. This analysis involves determining how well Sukuks serve the needs of Islamic Finance customers and also their shortcomings. In order to develop more customer-need centric financial products in Islamic Finance a new product development template is proposed. This template is a step-by-step process of developing Islamic financial products and is derived from the best practices of product development in the engineering domain. This methodology aims to formalize and improve the product development process in Islamic Finance. As an illustration of the proposed template, a new product is developed for Islamic Finance using this template. This example illustrates how religious restrictions in Islamic Finance dictate the form and substance of financial products during their development. / by Muhammad Rehan Tahir. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 81). / In this thesis I will explore the controversial topic of reverse engineering, illustrating with case examples drawn from the data storage industry. I will explore intellectual property rights issues including, users' fair-use provisions that permit reverse engineering. I will also explore the nature of the practice via several types of analyses including: the costs and benefits of reverse engineering; the practical limitations of reverse engineering; and a layered approach to reverse engineering as it applies to complex systems. I will conclude with a discussion of innovation and its relationship to reverse engineering / by Cenkhan Kodak. / 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. 67-68). / Modeling credit risk using Structural and Reduced Form models has been a popular and apropos topic of research. This work makes an attempt to better understand correlations in firm default. A review of contemporary research reveals several models with varying degrees of assumptions around firm default and how they relate to macroeconomic variables. More recent literature also makes use of a doubly stochastic assumption which in essence holds that given a certain path of covariates the default probabilities of two similar firms is independent. We explore empirical evidence which points to correlated defaults conditional on various explanatory covariates. Given the strong similarities in underlying firm structure and relationship to macro-economic environment, it can be hypothesized that there exist correlations in default behavior among similar firms. / by Sreeram Thirukkonda. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-107). / The automobile industry is at a critical point in the development of in-vehicle entertainment and information features. The consumer electronics industry is changing dramatically in the areas of entertainment through audio and video playback, personal efficiency tools, and wireless communications. Equally as significant is the rapid development and feature migration that is occurring between four of the major mobile device categories; mobile phones, smart phones, PDA's, and media players. With this convergence occurring, automakers are finding it more difficult to satisfy the needs of consumers with respect to these new capabilities.In order for the automakers to establish a solution, a new framework needs to be established. The automakers are unable to satisfy this market desire through traditional technology delivery strategies, especially given the fast changing and complex interface that currently exists in this market space.This thesis establishes the framework used to identify and critically evaluate an external platform strategy for the purpose of satisfying the above need. The thesis draws upon leading literature to provide key attributes of successful external platform implementations. The first aspect of the framework established involves ensuring the need for an external platform through complexity and development clockspeed incompatibilities. The second section of the framework involves the evaluation of the architectural attributes that lead to external platform success. Finally, the stakeholders are identified and roles are established.The next phase of the analysis involves the evaluation of two prominent solution proposals using the established framework. These include the standards-based solution model that was developed at Automotive Multimedia Interface Collaboration (AMI-C), and the more recent commercial operating system proposal. / (cont) These proposals are evaluated to determine if a specific proposal is better suited to capture the mobility market interface in the automobile than another. The analysis and framework provided it this thesis provides a basis for further tactical evaluation by the automakers that wish to meet the needs of the mobility market. / by Kevin Baughey. / S.M.