Innovation Project means a document proposing implementation methods of innovation activity programs, resulting in creation of new or significantly improved products, technologies, processes and services.

Innovation is the new way of doing something should be substantially different from the way it was done before rather than a small incremental change such as with continuous improvement activities. The ultimate goal of innovation is to create hopefully long-lasting additional value for the company, the users, and the deliverable itself. Innovation can be viewed as the conversion of an idea into cash or a cash equivalent. While the goal of successful innovation is to add value, the effect can be negative or even destructive if it results in poor team morale, an unfavorable cultural change, or a radical departure from existing ways of doing work.

The failure of an innovation project can lead to demoralizing the organization and causing talented people to be risk avoiders in the future rather than risk takers. Thus it's the core responsibility of project managers to handle innovation projects carefully. Not all project managers are capable of managing projects involving innovation. Thus to properly handle innovation projects the project managers should understand some major points such as:-

• Specific innovation tools and decision-making techniques may be necessary to carry innovation projects.
• It may be impossible to prepare a detailed schedule showing when innovation will actually occur.
• It may be impossible to determine a realistic budget for innovation.
• Innovation may not be possible and there comes a time when one must simply “give up.”
• The deliverable from the innovation project may not need extra “bells and whis- tles” that would make it too costly to users.

Since failure can be an inevitable part of many innovation projects. Thus greater the degree of innovation desired, the greater the need for effective risk management practices to be in place.