SPM Lecture 1 - Introduction

Software Product Management Introduction

Lecture 1

Sjaak Brinkkemper

Garm Lucassen

3 September 2015

• Garm Lucassen, MSc.

• PhD Student

• Background: IS, MBI, PhD SPM/SA

• Solves all problems

• BBG 5.85

• Prof.dr. Sjaak Brinkkemper

• Lecturer

• Leads O&I group with 35 researchers

• Does not email

• BBG 5.82

Lecturers

Agenda

• Introduction to Software Product Management

• SPM competence model

• Course Schedule and Assignments

• Practical matter

Agenda





SPM is about Software Products

• Differentiate from: – Tailor-made software (large ICT service companies such as

CMG, ATOS-Origin, CGEY, …)

– Embedded software (consumer electronics, office machinery: Philips, Oce, ASML, …)

• Open Source software is also a software product

What is a software product ?

Software

product

Tailor-made

software

Number of

copies

What is being

sold?

Device

Software

One Multiple

Embedded

software Microprogram

Cloud software

Packaged software

A software product is...

• A packaged configuration of software components, or a software-based service with auxiliary materials, which is released for and traded in a specific market

• Examples: – ERP software

– Bookkeeping package

– Operating systems

– Search-engine

– Computer-aided-design

– Software development environments

What is Software Product Management?

Software product management (SPM) is the discipline that governs a software product

over its whole life cycle, from its inception to customer delivery, in order to generate the biggest possible value to the business.

Ebert (2009)

What is a product manager?

“A product manager is a ‘mini CEO’ representing the enterprise or business unit in strategy definition and operational execution.”

Ebert (2007)

Product manager

Development

Marketing

Sales and Distribution

Evolution and Service

Software

Customers

Revenue

Use !Goals

Requi-

rements

Ideas

Predict

Feedback and Learning

Select

Product Management:

- manage a product from

inception to phase-out

- maximize business value

Project manager

Development

Marketing



Software

Customers

Revenue

Use !Goals

Requi-

rements

Ideas

Predict

Feedband and Learning

Select

Project Management:

- deliver a product release

- meet time, budget, and

quality requirements

Marketing manager

Development

Marketing



Software

Customers

Revenue

Use !Goals

Requi-

rements

Ideas

Predict

Feedband and Learning

Select

Marketing Management:

- determine how to sell a

product

- ensure business success

Collaborative management

• Ebert (2007):

– “a product manager leads and manages one or several products from the inception to the phase-out in order to maximize business value”

– “a project manager determines how to best execute a project or contract”

– “a marketing manager determines how to sell a product or service”

SPM and the life cycle

Ebert (2007)

Origins of SPM

• 19th century: manufacturing industry

• Procter & Gamble (1931): 2 languishing soap products were strengthened by assigning dedicated product managers to each.

• Last decades: Microsoft, Sony-Ericsson, SAP

What’s so special about software and SPM?

• Negligible lifecycle cost

• High release frequency

• Complex requirements organization & tracking

• Product manager has many responsibilities but little authority over development

• Interaction with many stakeholders

• Planning for the future

The poor product manager…

Board Market

Sales

Development

Partners Customers

R&D

Agenda





Competence model for SPM

Competence: the ability to do something well, measured against a standard, especially ability acquired through experience or training

• Why a competence model?

– To aid product managers in their work

– To structure education in SPM

– To structure research in SPM

• Based on deliverable structure of a product software company

Deliverable structure

Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Portfolio: The complete set of products of a company


Portfolio: The complete set of products of a company

http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/


Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Product: A packaged configuration targeted to a specific market

Product: A packaged configuration targeted to a specific market


Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Release: A formalized sellable version

Release: A formalized sellable version


Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Requirement: Wish for a future product feature

Requirement: Wish for a future product feature

Model levels

Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Portfolio

Product 2

Release 1.1

Requirement 2

Product k

Release 2.0

Requirement n

Product 1

Release 1.0

Requirement 1 …

…

…

…

Portfolio Management

Product Planning

Release Planning

Requirements Management

Deliverable structure Business function

Deliverable structure leads to business functions

Responsibility for business function implies accountability for deliverables

SPM Competence Model

Stakeholders

SPM functions

Requirements management (1)


• “to deal with the content and administrative data of each individual requirement”

• 3 processes

– Requirement gathering

– Requirements identification

– Requirements organizing


• Requirements gathering techniques

• Market requirements vs. product requirements

• Functional requirements, quality requirements & constraints

• Linking requirements, dependability, traceability

Example requirements

Release planning (1)


• “to deal with the set of requirements of each release”

• 6 processes

– Requirements prioritization

– Release definition

– Release definition validation

– Scope change management

– Build validation

– Release preparation


• Prioritization techniques

• Business case / ROI estimation to validate release definition

• Communicating the new launch

Product planning (1)


• “to deal with the different releases each product has”

• 3 processes

– Roadmap intelligence

– Product roadmapping

– Core asset roadmapping


• Product roadmap A high-level sketch of where the company’s product(s) is/are going to give internal and external stakeholders the ability to plan accordingly

Portfolio management (1)


• “to deal with the products in the product portfolio”

• 3 processes

– Market analysis

– Product lifecycle management

– Partnering & contracting


SPM Competence model

Reference framework vs. Competence model

2010

2006

Product management

Release planning

Portfolio management

Scope change

management

Requirements

prioritization

Release

definition

Release

validation

release

definition

adaptations

release

content

Requirements management

market trends

bo

ard

req

ue

sts

Requirements

identificationproduct requirements

Requirements

organizing

Support

Sales &

marketing

Customer

Requirements

selection

prioritized

requirements

Product roadmapping

Product lifecycle

management

Research &

innovation

Market

Partner

companies

roadmap

Roadmap

constructionCore asset

identification

Theme

identification

Product line

identification

Market trend

identification trends

themes

scope

changes

market trends

customer

requests

customer &

prospect requests

validated release definition

bu

sin

ess c

ase

va

lida

tion

product lines

core assets

partner requests

Partnering &

contracting

Company board

ServicesDevelopment

product requirements list

va

lida

tion

change requests, bug fixes

va

lida

tion

Launch

preparation

launch

information

launch

preparation

package

launch preparation package

Requirements

gathering

requirements

product development strategy

trends

contracts

technology drivers

collaborations lifecycle decisions

roadmap

Agenda





Schedule

Assignments

• SPM Maturity consultancy assignment

• User Story practice assignment

• Presentation of highlights

• All assignments carried out in groups of two, decided by yourself

• Mail the names of a team to Garm Lucassen: [email protected]

• The deadlines are in the schedule

• Submit your work via Ephorus

• Feedback on all deliverables

• Final assignments are graded

• Do not miss the deadline! & Do not plagiarize!

SPM Maturity assignment

• In this assignment, an SPM assessment is carried out. This assessment is carried out by performing an interview with a product manager, via the Situational Assessment Method as described by Bekkers et al. (2010).

• Each group has to hand in the following separate deliverables: – Sep 10: Company description (max. 500 words)

– Sep 17: Interview plan (email dates of interviews)

– Sep 29: Draft Assessment results, analysis, and advice (max. 4000 words)

– Oct 6: Final SPconsultancy report (max. 4000 words)

Product managers

• Find your own company that develops and sells a software product

• We will provide some names

• At least 15 FTE’s

• Contact the product manager

• We have a letter for you to explain the purpose

• International students companies from your home country are

highly appreciated!

User Story Practice assignment (1/2)

• Second interview with product manager

• Focus on the description and quality analysis of the actual usage of user stories in the software company with respect to requirements management, release and sprint planning, and roadmapping

• Which stakeholders are involved in these activities? FLOW diagrams will be created.

• Also a quality analysis on a set of User Stories from the company will be performed using the AQUSA tool

US practice (2/2) • Test the US set on AQUSA (Lucassen et al., 2015)

Examination

• Four grades and two completions: – SR: SPM Maturity report (carried out in group)

– UR: User Story practice report (carried out in group)

– P: Presentation (carried out by both)

– E: Exam (carried out individually)

• Completion: – Finding Company

– Peer Review

• Final grade = 0.25*SR + 0.25*UR + 0.1*P + 0.4*E

• In order to pass the course, each grade (SR, UR, P and E) should be a 5.5 or higher. In case this condition is not met, your final mark is the lowest of the four grades.

• The deadlines of the assignments are strict, otherwise it would be unfair to class members who get their papers in on time. For every working day you are late, we deduct one point of your grade (of that deliverable).

Agenda





About you

• What is your MSc program?

• Who works in the software business?

• Any experience with SPM?

• Who did not register for the course?

Attitude and atmosphere

What about:

Apping

SMS-ing

FB-ing

Browsing

• For a speaker it is very annoying when some persons in the audience do other things

• Professional attitude as a knowledge worker

• Good class room atmosphere fosters learning experience

• We do our utmost to provide an interesting and instructive course

• Put your smartphone in airplane mode

Attendance

• Attendance is highly recommended

• However, it is mandatory:

– When there is a guest lecturer

– When your group is presenting

– When there is a peer review session

– In case we have an excursion to a company

Literature

• Draft lecture notes

• Presentation slides (with audio files)

• Scientific articles, published in journals or conference proceedings

• We will open a forum for commenting on the Draft lecture notes. Future textbook!

• BTW: we are looking for someone who is interested in arranging the SPM website with materials from previous years

Access to literature

• You need to be logged on to the university network, either by using a computer of the ICS department, or by logging in via VPN

Workshops

– Tuesdays: 11-13hrs

– Room BBG 023

– Explanation maturity matrix & assessment method

– Explanation user story analysis

– Necessary for assignments

– Be there!

Questions?

SPM Lecture 1 - Introduction

Education