Some are in an active mode of continuous improvement. Others are taking what they have learned from structuring product development and applying similar ideas and discipline to new business initiatives, applied research, or manufacturing process improvements. Development of a major new chemical process or discovery of a useful new molecule and its properties can take years, sometimes even decades. Simple reformulation or applications development projects may take only weeks. There are so many differences in project objectives that it seems daunting to try to compare them.
Good data are hard to acquire.
Some companies, believing they can't get the numbers they need, don't even try. The relationship between effort expended and results achieved seems impossible to sort out at times. So many intervening factors affect project success that one wonders how to interpret the data anyway. Measurement and careful interpretation of the results may be difficult, but the effort is worthwhile. Here is a list of useful performance measures.