This chapter proposes the use of agile methodology in designing the innovation management system in young academic institutes. Technology innovations from most universities and research institutes originate out of chaos. As a result, it is difficult to associate structure to its management. While there have been many social science research methodology based studies on this subject under the broad umbrella of “Innovation and Technology Management”, there is usually an absence of well defined process to help young academic institutions to manage their intellectual property better. There is a strongly desired need to associate a clearly articulated structure for translation of ideas into technology innovations that will help young academic institutes to inculcate research in students and faculties and would help identify the best commercial application of technology innovations. Agile methodologies are best suited to be adopted in the academic scenario as rapidly changing environment of academic institutes can be easily handled using agile methodology. The aim of this chapter is to produce an evolutionary advance practical innovation management process for academic institutes out of this chaos to inculcate research in students and faculties using agile methodologies.
TopInnovation Management Process
The term innovation comes from latin word innovare, which means ‘to make something new’. The element of newness can be found in various definition of innovation which has been introduced into the literature. Khandwalla (1985), states that organizations are deemed excellent because of their uniqueness, their pioneering spirit and innovation. At different stages the excellence is something that makes the institution distinct than others. It is not necessary that all the institutions achieve excellence on all the dimensions of excellence but each institution achieves excellence in its core areas of performance. The parameters for excellence can be derived from the deployment of processes to achieve predefined objectives. The plans are implemented to achieve excellence at every stage of implementation and regular monitoring and feedback contributes a lot in achieving the excellence (Steen Hoyrup, 2012).
Innovation management is the management of innovation processes. It refers both to product and organizational innovation. Innovation management includes a set of tools that allow managers and engineers to cooperate with a common understanding of processes and goals. Innovation management allows the organization to respond to external or internal opportunities, and use its creativity to introduce new ideas, processes or products. It is not relegated to R&D; it involves workers at every level in contributing creatively to a company's product development, manufacturing and marketing.
By utilizing innovation management tools, management can trigger and deploy the creative capabilities of the work force for the continuous development of a company. Common tools include brainstorming, virtual prototyping, product lifecycle management, idea management, TRIZ, Phase–gate model, project management, product line planning and portfolio management. The process can be viewed as an evolutionary integration of organization, technology and market by iterating series of activities: search, select, implement and capture.