Eight stages are involved in the new-product development process: idea generation, screening, concept

development and testing, marketing strategy development, business analysis, product development, market testing,
and commercialization. The purpose of each stage is to determine whether the idea should be dropped or moved to
the next stage.
Marketing Strategy Development After testing and selecting a product concept for development, the new-product
manager must draft a three-part preliminary marketing-strategy plan for introducing the new product into the
market. The first part will describe the target markets size, structure, and behavior; the planned product
positioning; and the sales, market share, and profit goals sought in the first few years. The second part will outline
the planned price, distribution strategy, and marketing budget for the first year. The third part will describe the longrun sales and profit goals and marketing-mix strategy over time. This plan forms the basis for the business analysis
that is conducted before management makes a final decision on the new product.
Business Analysis In this stage, the company evaluates the proposed new products business attractiveness by
preparing sales, cost, and profit projections to determine whether these satisfy com pany objectives. If they do, the
product concept can move to the product-development stage. Note that this cannot be a static process: As new
information emerges, the business analysis must be revised and expanded accordingly

The fourth stage of NPD requires the product concept to be specified in greater detail so that production, marketing
and finance projections can be made. A marketing assessment will be the starting point. This will include:
Description of target markets.
Forecast of sales volume.
Indication of product positioning.
Judgement of likely competitor reactions.
Calculation of potential sales losses from existing products as customers switch to the new product (known as
cannibalization).

 Specification of the new product features, including quality levels.

Assessment of achievable price levels.
The distribution strategy.
Statement of promotional requirements.
A financial statement will follow. Based on the marketing assessment, calculations can be made to project:
Sales value.
Variable costs of production.
Incremental fixed costs.
The contribution and profitability of the new product.

"Business Analysis is the task of understanding business change needs, assessing the business impact of those
changes, capturing, analysing and documenting requirements and supporting the communication and delivery
of requirements with relevant stakeholders."
If you had a plot of land and wanted to build a house, we hope that you would first engage the services of an architect. The architect would ask you questions
what is your budget, what style of house, how many bedrooms, how much parking or garage space you need, etc. The architect would then draw up plans which
they would agree with you before approaching builders to understand the cost of building the house. Once the build was underway the architect would monitor the
build to make sure the house was built according to your needs. Occasionally problems might arise requiring the plans to be revised, or, you might want to make
some modifications to the plans which would need to be agreed with the builder.
Being a business analyst is a bit like being an architect but instead of building a house, we are developing or updating a computer system. A business analyst
takes responsibility for talking to the business users of the computer system to understand their needs. Instead of producing plans, the business analyst produces
'requirements' which clearly state the business needs and align with business processes. The requirements are then used by the IT team or an external supplier to

build or modify the system. While the system is being built the business analyst is on hand to deal with issues and questions, and to support the business in
implementing the required changes to make effective use of the new system.
The business analyst role is often seen as a communication bridge between IT and the business stakeholders. Business analysts must be great verbal and written
communicators, tactful diplomats, problem solvers, thinkers and analysers - with the ability to engage with stakeholders to understand and respond to their needs
in rapidly changing business environments. This can often involve dealing with very senior stakeholders and can often involve challenging and questioning to
ensure that value for money is achieved from IT developments.
A business analyst does not need to have an IT background although it can help to have some basic understanding of how IT systems work. Some business
analysts come from a technical or programming background but they will often come from within the business itself - having a detailed knowledge of the business
domain can be equally useful (if not more so!