R&D and collaboration

Product projects (R&D)

Every product idea goes through the stages: Concept → Feasibility → Pilot → Validation → Launch.

Who can create product projects and raise engineering changes: Owner, Admin, Engineering and Warehouse. Stage decisions (Gate review) are made only by Owner, Admin and Engineering. R&D spend is booked by Finance, Admin or Owner.

1. New product project: the product idea, lead, budget and target launch.
2. Gate review: write the decision and the evidence ("What was proven at this stage?"), then Pass to next stage. The decision is required. Tick Stop the project instead to stop the project. Every decision is kept as history.
3. Book spend: record R&D spend paid from the bank, compared against the budget.

Projects that have launched or stopped cannot be changed.

Engineering changes

Click Raise engineering change: the item affected, the change and the reason, then Send for approval. Engineering changes are approved by Engineering, Admin or Owner in Approvals. Once approved, click Release to put it into effect. A change that has not been approved cannot be released.

Collaboration

The Collaboration module:

• New announcement: an announcement for the whole company. Owners and admins can keep it at the top (tick Pin to the top).
• New task: a task with an owner and a due date. Tick it to mark it done. Only mine shows just your tasks. Tasks past their due date are marked Overdue.

Every role, including Viewer, can create announcements and tasks.