The boiled frog syndrome : on the inability to make changes when schedules keep slipping in NPD projects

To better understand the factors that determine NPD performance, we conducted a longitudinal process study of one firm’s attempt to develop a new product. Our extensive analysis of data suggests that escalation of commitment is caused by the tendency of project management to shift the burden, where short-term symptomatic fixes of problems are preferred over fundamental solutions. Our data reveals that performance problems caused by an understaffed team were fixed by slipping schedules, where the fundamental solution would require an increased budget to hire more staff. Because the final project due date was fixed, slipping schedules reduced the likelihood of timely completion of the project. However, this was such a slow and gradual process, that the team did not notice it until it was too late.