Problems have been building at Columbus Instruments, Inc. $($CIC$)($not its real name$)$ for several years now with the new product development process. The last six high$-$visibility projects were either scrapped outright after excessive cost and schedule overruns or$,$ once released to the marketplace, were commercial disasters. The company estimates that in the past two years, it has squandered more than $$15$ million on poorly developed or failed projects.