Abstract
New product development (NPD) is one of the important operations for the sustainable company, and the performance of NPD is a very serious concern for the company profit making. Properly evaluating NPD project performance could greatly benefit the NPD process. During NPD, design changes from inside or outside of the project team will have great influences on the project performance. The negative influences of those changes on performance could be reduced through proper project management actions. This thesis performs a case study analyzing operating data and the influencing factors in different NPD projects to provide reference for future NPD project practices. The main outcomes of the study include the need for the combined considerations on the source and content of design change, the project type, and the stage of project while researching the relationship between design change and project performance. In addition, properly implementing project management actions including communication and coordination, knowledge and problem solving, and organization management abilities could reduce the negative influences of the design change on project performance during NPD.