Steven Eppinger

About

Steven Eppinger is Professor of Management Science and Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, where he holds the General Motors Leaders for Global Operations Chair. His teaching spans interdisciplinary courses both online and on campus, focusing on product design and innovation, engineering project management, and product management. He has developed an interdisciplinary product development course that involves collaboration among graduate students from engineering, management, and industrial design programs. Eppinger is coauthor of the widely used textbook 'Product Design and Development,' now in its eighth edition, which has been translated into several languages and adopted by numerous universities worldwide. His research is applied to improving complex technical project management, with recent work emphasizing the application of agile software development methods across various industries. His prior research underpins the book 'Design Structure Matrix Methods and Applications.' Eppinger's scholarly contributions span project management, systems engineering, product development, and product management, making him one of the most widely cited scholars in engineering design and technical management disciplines. He has served in leadership roles at MIT, including Deputy Dean of the Sloan School and chairing several interdisciplinary master's programs. Eppinger received his SB, SM, and ScD degrees from MIT's Department of…

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Software engineering
• Process management
• Engineering management
• Business
• Systems engineering
• Knowledge management
• Operating system
• Management science

Selected publications

• PRODUCT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

  2018-03-15 · 5552 citations

  otherSenior author

  This text presents a set of product development techniques aimed at bringing together the marketing, design, and manufacturing functions of the enterprise. The integrative methods facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.

  PublisherDOI

• Technology readiness levels: Shortcomings and improvement opportunities

  Systems Engineering · 2020 · 155 citations

  Abstract The technology readiness level (TRL) scale was developed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the 1970s as a standardized technology maturity assessment tool for use in complex system development. Today, TRL assessments are used to make multimillion‐dollar decisions at NASA and beyond, yet anecdotal evidence suggests that there are challenges associated with TRL use in practice. In this paper, we systematically uncover the practitioners' view, first via 19 inte…

  PublisherDOI

• Technology readiness levels at 40: A study of state-of-the-art use, challenges, and opportunities

  2015-08-01 · 118 citations

  article

  The technology readiness level (TRL) scale was introduced by NASA in the 1970s as a tool for assessing the maturity of technologies during complex system development. TRL data have been used to make multi-million dollar technology management decisions in programs such as NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover. This scale is now a de facto standard used for technology assessment and oversight in many industries, from power systems to consumer electronics. Low TRLs have been associated with significantly red…

  PublisherDOI

• Information Flow Through Stages of Complex Engineering Design Projects: A Dynamic Network Analysis Approach

  IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management · 2015-10-16 · 71 citations

  articleOpen access

  The pattern of information flow through the network of interdependent design activities is thought to be an important determinant of engineering design process results. A previously unexplored aspect of such patterns relates to the temporal dynamics of information transfer between activities as those activities are implemented through the network of people executing the project. To address this gap, we develop a dynamic modeling method that integrates both the network of people and the network o…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Survey of Technology Readiness Level Users

  INCOSE International Symposium · 2016-07-01 · 37 citations

  articleCorresponding

  Abstract The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) method, used to assess the maturity of a technology, has been applied in different industries for over 40 years. TRLs assist engineers in managing risks, communicating development progress and specifying deliverables. As TRLs have been adopted in more industries, the original scope of TRL application has expanded and challenges in use have emerged. Little is known about the TRL user community and its opinions of the method, or of the method's practic…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Daniel E. Whitney

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  23 shared

• Nitin Joglekar

  Boston University

  20 shared

• Tyson R. Browning

  Texas Christian University

  18 shared

• Craig M. Rowles

  NEI Corporation (United States)

  16 shared

• Manuel E. Sosa

  11 shared

• Alison Olechowski

  11 shared

• Andhikaputra Rahardjo

  10 shared

• Katja Hölttä‐Otto

  10 shared

Awards & honors

• 2024 OMEGA RHO Distinguished Lecture
• Design Society Fellow (2023)
• Runner Up for the POMS Wickham Skinner Award for Best Paper…
• 2015 Distinguished Speaker Award from INFORMS Technology, In…
• PICMET Medal of Excellence Award

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