Teradyne Corporation: The Jaguar Project

Jack O’Brien looked at the clock in his car; it was 7:38 a.m. and he knew he would need some luck

to get to his 8:00 a.m. meeting at Teradyne’s Harrison Avenue headquarters on time. Traffic on

Boston’s Central artery choked amidst the lingering construction from the interminable “Big Dig.”

O’Brien was looking forward to today’s meeting with Teradyne senior executives to reflect on the

lessons learned from the Jaguar project, which O’Brien had led for more than three years. The project

had been one of the most important efforts in Teradyne’s 45-year-history. It had set out to create an

entirely new semiconductor test-system platform. The resulting Ultra Flex system, designed to be

flexible enough to allow customers to test a full range of semiconductor devices, was critical to the

success of Teradyne’s new competitive strategy.

The Jaguar project had marked a culmination of sorts in Teradyne’s eight-year effort to improve

its product development process. The Jaguar team had used a number of project management

practices, including intensive up-front project planning, formalized tools for tracking project

progress, and a more structured development process. Most aspects of the Jaguar project went

exceedingly well. All of the major hardware, for instance, had been developed in record time, and

with minimal deviation from the plan. The product had met the vast majority of its target

specifications. Yet, at the same time, software, a major component of the program, had run badly

behind schedule and was still not completed. In addition, total development costs came in 35%

higher than initially budgeted. While some members of the Jaguar team embraced the project

management tools, others strongly resisted, or simply ignored them. O’Brien explained:

We used