A key to delivering Innovation with Certainty is effective planning at the beginning of the project. RBC Product Development's process focuses on characterizing your product, your development project, and the deliverable transfer process accurately and completely so there are no surprises when surprises become expensive—after the beginning of the project.

These efforts focus up-front on complete definition, project priorities (i.e. time-to-market, cost-of-goods, development cost, etc.) and risk identification to ensure that your development project executes smoothly and efficiently.

The primary targets of project characterization include:

• Customer requirements – Has the product been completely defined?
• Project requirements – Has the project (tools, communication, etc.) been completely defined?
• Transfer requirements – Is it clear how the project outputs will integrate into the Client's systems?
• Scope estimate – Does everyone understand the project milestones, the necessary resources, and the fixed and labor costs?