Software Product Management. Published by Christof Ebert (2012)

Transcription

1 Software Product Management Published by Christof Ebert (2012)

2 Introduction Software provides features and function in daily use and makes the world go round. Software and IT move on a fast highway (Time) For that reason, we see many companies that failed due to overemphasizing technology and not sufficiently implementing a sound business strategy. Apple Nokia The manager claimed that the lack of product management is the primary reason for their loss of market shares Many studies reveal that we focus too much on on technology and features in the software business, and not enough on value and products. Microsoft Good Product Management Google

3 Introduction % Project Standish Group s Chaos Report annually surveys information technology and software projects. They found that: - 32% of the projects finished on time and within budget, - 24% were cancelled before delivery, - the remaining projects, which finished late or over budget, they only delivered a fraction of the planned functionality. Project on time Deleted before Delivery Over-Budget or Finished after the end Poor product management causes: Insufficient project planning Changes in requirements and in project scope Configuration problems and defects

4 Software product management foundations Product management The discipline and business process that governs a product/service from inception to the market/costumer delivery to generate the biggest possible vale for the business. Product Is a deliverable that delivers a value and an experience to its users Composition of: Systems Solutions Materials Services delivered

5 Software product management foundations PRODUCT MANAGER =He is the owner of the life-cycle of the process. He has to: have good systems perspective to judge on value proposition and properties; balance the resources: projects, people, politics; Road maps, requirements, milestone reviews and business case; Its preparation is very technical (especially engineers). A bad requirements analysis is typically the first sign of a product management failure. The difficulty of its role is to understand the needs, missed deadlines, budget errors and failures of business opportunities.

6 His role is often confused with that of the project manager and marketing manager. PROJECT = is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a product/service. The difference between the project and product management is in the attention on the realization of a specific product in time, budget and quality, while the product manager points to the market success and the evolution of this product and its subsequent versions, related services, and so on. Product Manager and Projects Strategy Research Concept Development Market entry & Development Service Evolution The figure provides an overview of a product life cycle. It highlights the differences between the management of a project and the management of a product. Product management scope

7 Product management Asks what to make and how to make it Ensures it will make business sense Understands how it fits costumer needs as a solution Defines roadmap. Determines what to innovate or kill Responsible of the value chain of product Leads team during the life cycle Product marketing Ask how to sell it Ensures it will make market and costumer business sense Understands market architecture and factors who influenced it Understand costumer needs Communicates content Drive project plan for sales and marketing Project management Ask how to best execute a project Ensures that project is executed as defined by team Controls technical details, risks and resolves conflicts Business responsibility for commercial project Select the best processes for the fit of the business model Manage and organize team, suppliers The figure shows these three key roles and responsibilities. We should note that these organizations often face battles of responsibility and have a lack of ownership for the results.

8 four plus one best practices to optimize product management Leadership and teamwork installation of a core team. In a project there are some internal stakeholder who contribute to the realization of a needs or an idea The first thing is to formally create a core team with the product, marketing, and project responsible for each product (release) and make them fully responsible for the success. The core team conducts the product development in all its parts. Managing risks and uncertainty ensures the life cycle of the product which has to be standardize. Often, the requirements changes are agreed in meetings without checking the feasibility and technical decisions, and without considering the business case and impacts downstream. The requirements can never be complete; they shall be considered as a state evolving. The cycle must be clear and stable in order to handle more projects and constraints. Mastering stakeholder needs evaluation of needs and requirements. There is a VISION (= translate in objectives and business requirements ). Linked to the requirements there is the PROJECT PLAN. Obviously, during the project some problems income; this problems must be identified and resolved by FEASIBILITY STUDIES. Business Objectives + Accountability it generates a project portfolio. Roadmaps were done for the control of: mix of resources, project and services that have to be the focus for the product manager. Skills of the manager: leadership and wise choices.

9 Growing the product management competence Often we are faced with organizations where product managers complain about the lack of empowerment and remain to observe it. This could be due to a lack of skills, creating a vicious cycle of bad position. To get a real cultural change, we strongly recommend a qualified training for all product managers throughout the organization. Changes in management and a closed working promote a product manager growth. This management of individualized and targeted skills strengthens the product manager and helps him to do the mission. The equation is simple: competence and leadership in rendering of better products, increases motivation and improves overall performance. The framework SPM ( was shaped by working with hundreds of product managers around the world in different industries.

10 Table of competence and How to increase the competence of a product Manager Fig. 4 shows the Reference framework of product management in a simplified format. Working with many companies and product managers with experience, we have identified 38 skills. 1. Behave like an embedded CEO 2. Drive strategy in order to perceive the value chain to the customer 3. Be enthusiastic on your own product 4. Understand the market, the portfolio and costumers 5. Measure your contribution on sales and profits 6. Periodically check assumptions such as business cases 7. Take risks and manage them 8. Foster teamwork based on lean processes 9. Insist on discipline 10. Be professional as a team manager

11 The Business Value Does better SPM mean better business performance? Root cause analysis due for: balanced portfolios in order to strangle new products; insufficient management of new releases and service efforts; Lack of vision that caused continuous change of requirements; Only 20% of companies provide 79% of the products on time. We found that if we have requirements change rate of over 20%, we have a lower productivity. While the average sends only the 51% of the projects in time. Same thing for productivity and performance. For that reason some studies have found: + PRODUCT MANAGEMENT = + BUSINESS IMPACT translated as better Business Performance Now we look at a case application SPM in an ICT company.

12 ICT CASE Location: North America, Europe and Asia; Products: components in telecommunication networks; Vision of the manager: create a winning product and business case and to deliver value to the costumer; Only with an orchestrated approach towards defining a competence profile for product managers did aligning their roles and responsibilities versus other roles in the same organization (e.g., marketing manager, project manager, regional sales) trigger more consistent and effective behaviors. Time for have better performance: months; 3 distinct phases: 1. Establish foundations We aligned the new role elements to other related roles, such as marketing manager or project manager, on the one hand, and we benchmarked with other companies to formally establishing the role, on the other hand. 2. Prepare and Pilot more templates, self-assessment tools, training materials, and hands-on success stories for the enrichment of the standard product life. 3. Deploy progress measurements for monitoring and deficiency identification.

13 Good SPM makes the difference between a winning product and a set of features; Is it worth spending the necessary effort and excellent skills on SPM! The practices mean more ownership, leadership, and motivation in product development teams and at their interfaces. With the Apple and Microsoft success in product management, SPM has more attention!

14 OUTLOOK: WHERE IS THE SPM HEADING? SPM TRENDS: Influenced and determined by EXTERNAL TRENDS (demand for value, fashion, individualism, competition, economic and ecologic behaviors, security and stability ) that impact our society and buyers behaviors as individual needs. Innovation with market solution: products include service, evolution, integration of business, and the like. For that, the costumer isn t interested in features, but in his needs. Value creation with costumers: costumers are part of the value creation. Innovative market rules and business models: it is important to develop customer and user needs continuously from scratch and innovate how their current and prospective customers can further improve their own business. Quality focus: it start from product concept. The quality is important to generate value to the costumer. Supplier networks and ecosystems: the concept of supply chain will be replaced by adaptive supply network. The success depends on the creation of communities and business models from suppliers and costumers. Agility to manage uncertainties: it is important to find the problem, and also a solution for that, in the less time possible. Effective knowledge management: important for understand the market and what it wants.

15 Thanks for the attention Filippo Tessaro