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Project Management

Collaboration that delivers

on-time and on-budget surprise free outcomes A Rewarding Project Experience

Project management is a key pillar of Xentronics’ commitment to better collaboration. We ensure all projects have a dedicated project manager who is not directly involved in the delivery of technical outputs and acts as your advocate. They collaborate closely with our client’s project lead, as well as users, suppliers, partners, and other project stakeholders to ensure to a smooth and enjoyable project experience for all.

What is project management in product development?

Project management for electronic product development involves the coordination of several specialist technical disciplines to manage cost and time constraints in line with stakeholder expectations. Below are just some of the key tasks that relate to project management, which we complete consistently.

Conduct planning and scoping

  • Choose the most suitable development approach for your project context and team skills, considering agile, waterfall, or a hybrid model.
  • Establish who is responsible for which parts of the project, define clear accountability and deliverables, and the correct method for corrective action when issues and nonconformities arise.
  • Estimation of timelines and costs will have been made during early proposal phases, but these are often based on incomplete information and will require a final review, update, and alignment with stakeholder expectations when the project initiates.
  • There are many project management tools available, and projects with multiple participants require careful setup, access, and ongoing use of these tools. Agree who is the lead project manager and the primary tools which are the source of truth. 
  • Risk management approaches range from informal discussions around key decision points to formal standards-based risk analysis and management with risk and issue registers. Agree the approach most suitable for your project. 
  • Sharing files and data can quickly become hard to manage if lots of parties are involved. Agree and establish information sharing mechanisms. This can include secure file sharing facilities, release processes, folder structures, and file naming conventions. 
  • Beyond information sharing, project collaboration spans everything from emails and chat groups to meeting minutes and formal reporting. Agree on the level and frequency of communication. 
  • There is usually a critical path that often orients around hardware prototyping and lead times for external suppliers. Proactive identification of this path and planning around it will ensure the fastest time to market. 
  • The core project management activities are scheduling and coordination of all tasks, particularly where there are dependencies and overlapping responsibilities. Schedules will always fluctuate and are never set-and-forget, so, they require maintenance.
  • Tracking progress of tasks against the schedule and ensuring deadlines are top-of-mind for all participants. This includes escalation pathways or contingent plans where tasks are at risk of missing deadlines.
  • Monitoring of expenditure against budget is another key task, and this may include managing changes to scope to where tasks threaten to overrun budget due to unanticipated complications.
  • Communicate with all stakeholders about any risks, issues, and changes to the scope or schedule.

  • Confirm that all project outcomes meet agreed specifications and client expectations before formal handover. This includes reviewing design documentation, testing evidence, and compliance records.

  • Establish clear procedures for transferring knowledge, documentation, and responsibilities to clients, end-users, or downstream teams. This avoids gaps and ensures continuity after project completion.

  • Conduct structured reviews to capture lessons learned, assess performance against scope, budget, and schedule, and identify areas for improvement in future projects.

  • Ensure all contracts, approvals, and acceptance criteria are finalised, with risks and outstanding issues documented and resolved where possible.

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Success factors for project management

We apply best practices in project management to every product development – from the most simple PCB design project, to large programs. Depending on the size and context of the project there are a range of ways project management methods can be adapted and success factors that matter.

  • Establish a shared glossary of terms and acronyms to prevent misunderstandings across various project disciplines.
  • Utilise visual aids such as diagrams to convey complex technical or design concepts effectively, ensuring shared comprehension.
  • Ensure timely responses to queries; delays in communication can significantly extend project timelines and create bottlenecks. If responses are too complex to articulate via text, phone calls and quick standup meetings (virtual or in-person) help expedite decisions.
  • Be as concise in all communications as possible, including meetings, providing necessary information efficiently without excessive detail. This avoids information overload and encourages timely responses.
  • Schedule regular face-to-face calls (virtual or in-person) to build trust and rapport among team members and avoid miscommunication. For critical milestones or complex problem-solving sessions prioritise in-person meetings.
  • Great project culture starts with adhering to the letter and spirit of all agreed-upon commitments, even amidst the inherent uncertainties of product development. Even in agile and open-ended engagements, there should always be agreed minimum deliverables.
  • Negotiate a clear budget schedule, which may range from smoothed equal monthly instalments, through to payment for expended time & materials or fixed price at agreed milestones. Regularly communicate any budget changes, remaining expenditure, or other financial risks – depending on what is agreed.
  • Manage change effectively, clearly outlining the implications of any scope alterations and securing approval before proceeding. If small and minor changes won’t have an impact on budget or timeline, don’t overcomplicate their acceptance.
  • Identify and track risks and potential issues early in the project lifecycle, addressing and mitigating them proactively to prevent unwelcome surprises later on. 
  • Be transparent regarding project status, issues, and all decisions, in order to build and preserve trust among all stakeholders.
  • Meetings for the sake of having a meeting should never happen. Ensure every meeting has an agenda and reason, specific decision points are taken, and action items to follow up on are shared with all attendees.
  • Limit attendance to only those actively speaking or making decisions; others can review the meeting notes for updates.
  • Appoint a meeting chair who is responsible for keeping discussions focused on agreed topics and managing time effectively for each agenda item.
  • Produce useful meeting notes that people will actually read, including information that informs subsequent actions, rather than just recording dialogue.
  • Appointing a dedicated project manager allows engineers to concentrate on their core technical responsibilities, enhancing efficiency and reducing distractions.
  • A dedicated project manager provides independent oversight, ensuring all project tasks, timelines, and resources are meticulously tracked and managed without conflicting interests.
  • Ensure the project manager has sufficient technical knowledge to understand and manage the tasks that need to be executed.

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Why product companies should care about project management 

Project management is the biggest driver of delivering project on-time and on-budget, while reducing project uncertainty throughout all phases of the product life cycle. As a product developer, you need to play a leading role in making sure project management is valued for these reasons:

  • Everything related to the launch of your product needs to be managed, including market research, fundraising, establishing distribution channels, applying for grants, developing marketing collateral, packaging, manufacturing contracts and much more.
  • The diversity of things that need to be managed are usually outside the scope of any one product development services provider, although most can manage their own part of the project competently.
  • Companies often fail to appoint a programme manager to coordinate the project management efforts of multiple project participants, or assign it to a person whose primary skill is not project management and have it as a sideline responsibility.
  • Failed projects are not usually because of a lack of technical or business skill – purely due to poor monitoring, control, and management.
  • Many people ask suppliers to quote on their ideal product concept with a full wish list of features, which can lead to unexpectedly high project cost.
  • Identify essential features of your minimum viable product with nice-to-have features clearly separate. Ask for proposals to specify a range from the bare minimum to future roadmap versions.
  • Avoid scope creep by resisting the temptation to add “just one more thing” unless it is absolutely necessary. Ensure your project manager polices change management rigorously.   
  • Any “desirable” or “nice have” features and functions should only be included if they do not compromise the core parts of the project.

  • The project manager is responsible for ensuring that all communication flows smoothly between your internal team, developers/engineers, and any external stakeholders. They act as the anchor point so you always know where to go for clarity or updates.

  • By providing a single accountable contact, the project manager makes sure that goals, timelines, and deliverables are clearly defined and understood by everyone involved. This reduces the chance of confusion or conflicting instructions.

  • Having one main point of contact streamlines the decision process. The project manager ensures the right people are consulted, information is captured accurately, and decisions are actioned quickly to keep momentum.

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How collaboration delivers successful projects

Collaboration is both enabled and controlled through great project management. When collaboration can thrive, and all project stakeholders can give their own valuable input and perspective, the best and most successful outcomes are achieved. Here are some principles we advocate at Xentronics.

  • Great projects always have multiple streams of work concurrently happening – within the same parties/contributors, or between them. As such, to ensure collaboration is enabled and no one is blocked or inhibited by others, ongoing coordination is required.
  • In projects with multiple outsourcing partners operating in different technical, regulatory or commercial disciplines, each partner generally project manages their own work. However, an overall program lead needs to coordinate the project management work of each partner.
  • Different disciplines – e.g. hardware vs software teams – often have very different timelines and milestones. These need to be executed in a sequence which maximises efficiency for all involved.
  • Beware companies that say their lead engineers will self-manage their projects. It’s hard to step back and see how your work impacts others. 
  • A great project experience ultimately comes down to meeting or exceeding the expectations of what would be delivered. This is about getting the whole team aligned behind a clear purpose and vision of what the project will deliver.
  • As many things can change during a project, it’s important to manage expectations. Along with the “no surprises” rule, it’s important to be clear about how vision is translated to a practical execution.
  • Delivering a product is like building a house – it can be an unpleasant ordeal, a joyful experience, or anywhere in between. The key is to deal with the important issues effectively and quickly, and celebrate the wins along the way.
  • A great project culture will deliver benefits far beyond the small investments required to establish and maintain it. Outcomes around time, quality and cost all become much easier to achieve.
  • Start by agreeing shared values between all project participants. Shared values may include developing an outcome orientation, a commitment to flexibility and agility, being customer driven, striving for balanced approaches and more.
  • If issues or disagreements arise in a project, be alert for any indications of a negative blame culture emerging. Have non-confrontational resolution processes in place before they occur.
  • Celebrate successes regularly and recognise good work at every level.

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Frequently Asked Questions

on Project management for Product Development

Is it best to outsource project management or do it in-house?

This is a common question, and it always depends on what the scope of the project management is. 

When hiring external developers to design and build your product, you should always ensure they have a project manager themselves – otherwise, you will spend significant time managing them, holding them accountable, and monitoring their performance. 

When deciding who should manage the overall program/set of projects/multiple providers, this can often be done in-house as long as you have some technical and commercial experience. If not, you should consider a 3rd party project management provider, or, ask one of your trusted partners to manage all other suppliers/partners in the overall program as a part of their scope.

Project management costs depend on the size, complexity, and duration of the project. A general rule of thumb is 10% of the total engineering effort of the project, or, 3-4 hours per week for the entire duration of the project. As the amount of project management will scale and increase depending on the team size and complexity, it is not an overhead – rather, a necessary cost to ensure success, coordination, and on-time delivery of a project.

It’s critical that project managers have experience in the discipline they are managing, and enough knowledge to adequately understand the tasks of technical specialist they are leading. This ensures everyone is talking the same language, understands the roles, and risks can be identified as early as possible without requiring input from specialists every time. In product development, project managers should always be previous developers involved in bringing many successful projects to market. Experience can’t be beaten by theory.

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Our Capabilities

Learn more about our other capabilities that support our product development services

Project
Management

Systems
Engineering 

Electronics
Design

Embedded
Systems 

Software
Development

Product
Manufacturing