2. The PD process is phased so that visibility is easily maintained and comprehensible. The end of each phase provides a reasonable business Go/No-Go milestone should the business case become eroded beyond reclamation for any reason.
   
   
3. The red $ figure between each phase is an experiential figure-of-merit that characterizes the amount of project investment in all of the previous stages. As you can see, the farther along in a project, the greater the money invested. That is why a project needs to have problems solved as early as possible to prevent costly re-spin and to be scrapped or alterable as soon as possible, should there be a business reason to do so.
   
   A general guideline to keep in mind is that 85% of a project's funding is committed (not necessarily spent) within the first 15% of the project effort.¹ This guideline came from a study that was done for large projects, but it's still generally applicable to most PD programs. This is why it's critical to have experienced people involved in the initial funding appraisal.
   
   
4. The figure shows where maximum mitigation of each of the WOEs needs to occur (arguably) for maximum benefit. Notice that the pre-production, production startup and production stages have minimal information input. This means that most everything needs to be decided and agreed to before these highest-investment stages begin. Production, to be quick, efficient and of high quality, must proceed with minimal perturbation and maximum control.
   
   
5. Stages 2 and 3 are where most of the innovation and input occurs, since these are when the project and product are mapped out, defined and gauged to the sometimes imprecise requirements generated in the previous phases. It's in these two phases where the very latest information needs to be appraised and employed before the production phases begin.
   
   
6. Risk and change can, and most likely will, occur to some extent in each phase. So, be prepared with contingency plans.

With that bit of detail about the PD process in hand, we can now answer the two questions that started all this.

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¹ The Perpetual Enterprise Machine: seven keys to corporate renewal through successful product and process development, by H. Kent Bowen, 1994