IPD Study Note: How Many Project Plans Should You Create in R&D Management?

#IPD’s concept originates from the PACE theory of the US PRTM company; after IBM’s adoption, IPD has become a systematic engineering framework covering product development ideas, models, and tools.

The IPD process is clearly divided into six phases—Concept, Planning, Development, Verification, Release, and Lifecycle—with well‑defined decision‑review points that focus on business aspects such as market positioning and profitability rather than pure technical reviews.

Each decision point follows consistent evaluation criteria, and only when the required work is completed can the project move to the next gate.

For newly appointed project managers handling their first large project, a common mistake is to try to list every detail in a single master plan. The recommended approach is to decompose the project into smaller tasks and create separate, detailed sub‑plans for each.

This way, the master plan only needs to provide an overview of the sub‑plans, avoiding an unwieldy document that is difficult to follow in practice.

Advanced planning software can easily combine these sub‑plans into a comprehensive overview or a program‑level plan, facilitating better coordination without overwhelming the team.