Herrmann, Jeffrey W.Product development organizations seek to create profitable product designs. This paper discusses how the decomposition of the profit maximization problem leads to traditional product development processes. Decomposition provides a framework that integrates the conceptual models of decision-based design and the traditional description of product development processes. This paper identifies the key reasons for decomposition and discusses why the decomposition varies among product development organizations.en-USNext-Generation Product Realization SystemsTechnical Report