A monitoring framework for ongoing R&D project termination decision

The paper critically analyses the key issues faced by project professionals in manufacturing industries in Beijing when they terminate ongoing R&D projects. A large-scale survey was carried out on the basis of questionnaires related termination decision of R&D projects undertaken by industrial firms in Beijing, and discriminant analysis was performed for processing the collected data. The results are that several factors having high and significant discriminating strength for the success or failure of R&D project are identified. On the basis of the stepwise discriminant analysis, a monitoring framework is developed. The proposed model can comprehensively and dynamically measure the change of attractiveness of an ongoing R&D project. At the same time, the authors make clear how to set the threshold for success probability in which all of key variables are inserted for making termination decision in detail. The model presented here has several distinct advantages. For example, it is relatively simple to use, and can comprehensively measure the risk facing an ongoing R&D project.