I'm curious if anyone has any good materials to share regarding the management of R&D projects (both successes and cautionary tales, big companies and small).<p>Thanks!
Not directly management books. I work in an R&D lab myself and two books I found useful in thinking about the structure and evaluation of projects:<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11797471-the-idea-factory" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11797471-the-idea-factor...</a><p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/530415.The_Art_of_Doing_Science_and_Engineering?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=98KCmZmdNu&rank=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/530415.The_Art_of_Doing_...</a>
Peopleware[0]<p>If you lead any kind of team in IT it is required reading. It will make you a bit sad though: it was written in 1987 presenting common problems and solutions to said problems. We're still struggling to get the solutions implemented today.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67825.Peopleware" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67825.Peopleware</a>
Much less true science there. Two biographies worth reading. One is about aircraft R&D, the other a computer. Both fall on the R side of R&D.<p><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/skunk-works-leo-janos/1124718130" rel="nofollow">https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/skunk-works-leo-janos/11247...</a><p><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soul-of-a-new-machine-tracy-kidder/1001868164" rel="nofollow">https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soul-of-a-new-machine-tracy...</a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month</a> is a classic for a reason, on this exact topic.
Great question, I've taken some of these books down to read later.<p>I was fascinated by The Pentagon Wars [0]. Arguably US Military is one of the biggest bureaucracies that spends tons of money on R&D projects. Apart from describing the issues with the projects themselves, the author describes how structuring the incentives could potentially pervert the process of developing new tech. I really loved it.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pentagon-Wars-Reformers-Challenge-Guard/dp/1612516009" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Pentagon-Wars-Reformers-Challenge-Gua...</a>
I have a completed outline for an Applied Research Management book following the old Scott Meyers format.<p>Of course, I am <i>slowly</i> working on the writing phase.<p>Hit me up by email if you would like to pick over the outline.