New Product Development Processes for ICT-for-Development Projects

The potential applicability of established new product development processes to information and communications technology (ICT)-for-development projects is investigated. The demand for ICT solutions to serve numerous societal information needs in developing regions of the world is increasing rapidly. A number of methods and practices have been used by organizations to develop and deliver such ICT solutions, but a need exists to formalize product development processes for use in the ICT-for-development context. Existing literature on product development in the ICT-for-development context is explored to derive a theoretical model that may be suitable for addressing product development process problems encountered in such projects. An ICT-for-development project to disseminate government information to rural communities with limited literacy is evaluated against the derived theoretical model in a case study. The project was carried out by the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), a government agency in South Africa. The presence and positive effect of certain established product development practices is identified, while the absence or unsatisfactory execution of other established practices are assessed for their contribution to decreased levels of product success.