Process of Development, Design, and Validation of Apple - Case Study Example

Apple Computers Apple has virtually the same process of developing their computers and how their iphone apps are designedand validated. These products have been strong sources of fascination for decades given that it tends to defy long-held conventions of how it ought to work organizations as large as this. This article will delve into each aspect involved in this process of development, design and validation in detail. Every Apple product hung in this frame for it to qualify as one of the product line (Benjamin, 2007). Each product at Apple begins with design, be it the computers of the iphone apps. The initial step is to treat all designers as royalty at Apple. The entire products must conform to the company’s mission, which is a polar opposite of how things are done in other companies. Rather than the design turning to being beholden to the finance or manufacturing department, it entirely conforms to the requirements guided by the design department. No designer at Apple is in contact with Apple’s fiancé department at any one time and they are considered as unlimited as pertains to manufacturing practicality or cost of the required materials (Benjamin, 2007). The womb of apple products is the Industrial Design studio, where the initial generation and only accessed by a smaller group of Apple’s employees (Goldsworthy, 2012). Start-ups are formed. Every time a new product is decided on, teams are segregated and organized from the entire company through agreements of secrecy and physical barriers at some point. Some sections in the development section are cordoned off or may be locked to create room for these developers working on sensitive projects, which creates as start-up within the company which is responsible in the execution team that frees them from any reporting structure present in big companies (Goldsworthy, 2012). ANPP, Apple New Products Process is the nest phase within the design, growth, development and validation of Apple computers and iphone apps. Immediately the product design begins, ANPP is implemented. ANPP is a document entitled with setting every step toward the development process in each product and in detail (Yarmosh, 2010, 2011). This concept is not original at Apple but was initially applied in this company while developing Macintosh. Its task is to map the stages involved in creation and is responsible for completion. It defines who works at what stage or when they are expected to submit completed work. Product review, the executive team must meet every Monday to revisit each product that Apple has in process. This is easy to achieve because Apple always has few products in the production pipeline at any one time. Those which are not covered that day are moved to the following Monday which means that none of the products, that including hardware modules and for the Iphone apps, exceed more than two weeks before key decisions are reached. Apple adopts EPM, engineering program manager. When a product is already in design, there are two responsible persons who must be enlisted to render it into fruition. EPM and GSM, global supply manager, has the former possessing total control in the product process and has so much power that they refer to it as the EPM mafia. These positions are sat by executives who spend a good deal of their time overseas in China overseeing the process of production. There is collaboration between the program manager and the supply manager but amidst of tension as they must always make decisions that work best for the product (Miller, 2012). When products are done, they are designed, built and retested. Not every production has been completed without leaks that suggest versions-to-be of Apple products such as iphone that or apps that are sometime never seen released. These leaks are most likely from China’s factory workers who are paid to deliver prototypes to journalists or bloggers. It is true that every time Apple completes building its products, the products are redesigned and later send it to the manufacturing process once more which could explain the many versions that consumers may see leaked. This process works on 4-6 weeks duration and eventually ends with rounding together the Apple factory workers responsible. EPM is required to return the beta device or app to Cupertino for comments and examination and then get back to the factory to continue overseeing the next product iterations. This implies that several versions of any product may have been completed and not simply partially prototyped. This however is quite an expensive way of developing Apple products, which is how high standards are at Apple. Packaging is undertaken in the marketing building rooms which are entirely dedicated this task. Security offered here can only be matched to that offered in the department dedicated in design or new products. There was this one time it was mentioned that just before launching a new iPod, there was that employee who had to spend hours each day for several months tasked with opening hundreds of boxes prototypes within an order aimed at experiencing and refining the un-boxing process. That is how far apple can go in their perfection while thousands of tests are done one each app before releasing it to the general public (Yarmosh, 2010, 2011). Rules of the road control the launch of each product. Every product launch has an underlying action plan known as the Rule of the Road, a secretive document listing each significant milestone in product development to the launch date. All milestones are annotated with directly responsible individual, DRI, who are charged with making that product or app to the final entity. It this document was to be lost or revealed to the wrong individuals, immediate firing occurs, which is clearly stated in the document itself. As seen from above, the development of apple computers and iphone apps design and validation in this breakdown, it is evident that Apple is involved in decision making that makes these processes more expensive yet less efficient so as to produce recurring and seriously better products. Some of these are steps that should not pay nearly the dividends done although they consistently do not disappoint. Good deals of companies are hidebound in their traditional way of operation or are too complex in making their products compared to the mysterious apple format. Apple’s devotion and accountability toward ‘good products first’ has an alluring simplicity. This framework in terms of their financial success over the last 10 years could be attributed to the planed the development of apple computers and iphone apps design and validation processes that well above standards (Jobs, 2011). According to Manktelow, hypothetico-deductive method is a model generalized in science where science is stated to involve hypothesis and theory formulation from where specific occurrences may be deduced and eventually also explained or predicted. The hypothetico-deductive, as a model in scientific explanation and discovery is advanced to form an alternative the Baconian ‘inductive method’ where basic accumulation of instances that give rise to generalization. The hypothetico-deductive model is based on the basic idea that instead of accumulating facts, all hypotheses are essential in science research as the root to propose generalization and the empirical testing (Manktelow, 2010). This method involves some major traditional steps to observe subjects directed to offer elaboration on areas under study which allow researchers to produce testable to realistic hypothesis. All hypotheses ought to be falsifiable from recognized scientific ways although the can never the entirely confirmed from the basic fact that refined research methodologies sometime disprove them later. Therefore, the researcher has to generate a number of initial predictions subject to possible proving or disproval through the experimental processes where the predictions should be inherently testable for this hypothetico-deductive method to be achieved. This explains why this method has to relay on initial predictions (Manktelow, 2010). You find that very few of these hypotheses where the research was thorough turn to be completely incorrect noting that they offer improved directions for futuristic research (Manktelow, 2010). The growth and the development of Apple’s computer and iPhone has seen the development of apple 1,2,3, Lisa, Macintosh, NeXT amongst other later and improved versions of the same. The hypothetico-deductive method was used by most researchers and developers at Apple where they developed prototype that were testable under their set standard and within hypothesized function to be achieved. Those that failed the validation after design were redesigned. The products that successfully met the expectations were developed and improved to better versions. Each success left data that assisted the researchers at Apple to predict or with an idea of what the next version should look like or how it ought to function. Take the apple 11 prototype version for instance; Woz brought it to the market in 1976 only to be made public the year that followed. Most of the projects such as Macintosh’s were prone to dismissal only to be accepted after intense research. Xerox Parc and Robert Noyce played a major role in the career of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs assumed a role as a history teacher followed by appreciation for Jobs entrepreneurial forbears, rare in the Silicon Valley, the only place known to care to a great extent for the new. Noyce was a mentor to Steve Jobs besides having graduated their relationship to a familial level as a source of advice too. He was the lead founder behind Fair child Semiconductor also co-founded Intel. This was quite presumptuous. Noyce therefore, cannot be ignored toward the rapid development in the works of Steve Jobs toward the realization of a strong product line of apple computers and iPhone apps. Just as a flashback, Apple and Steve Jobs did not even invent the crucial aspects of the early Macs, graphical user interface and a mouse. However, Macs played the role of their popularization and Xerox PARC XRX from Palo Alto created these. It is from here that Steve Jobs borrowed or call it ‘theft’ behind his brilliance to recognize that the mouse and graphical user interface would make it easier accessibility of computers to the masses (Goldsworthy, 2012). It is in this fact that Xerox PARC XRX must be recognized for their role in the work of Steve Jobs (Isaacson, 2011). Reference Benjamin, L. T. (2007). A brief history of modern psychology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.. Debra, P. (2010). Business Analysis Techniques:72 Essential Tools for Success. Bedfordshire: BCS Goldsworthy, S. (2012). Steve Jobs. New York, NY: AV² by Weigl. Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster. Jobs, S., & Beahm, G. W. (2011). I, Steve Steve Jobs, in his own words. Chicago, Ill.: B2 Books. Manktelow, K., & Over, D. (2010). The Science of Reason a Festschrift for Jonathan St. BT Evans.. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis. Miller, M., & Madruga, C. P. (2012). Pinterest. Madrid: Ediciones Anaya Multimedia. Yarmosh, K. (2010, 2011). App savvy: turning ideas into iPad and iPhone apps customers really want. Beijing: OReilly. Read More