Software Product Management Audit

Software Product Management Audit

Content: - Software Product Management - The SPM Audit - The SPM Audit Process

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- The Auditor

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A Software Product Management Audit looks at a company’s capability to actively manage its software products towards economic success.

It provides the roadmap for an optimization of the organization and relevant processes ensuring a competitive market position now and in the future.

Software Product Management Audit

Software Product Management Software Product Management (SPM) is the gearbox between the various functions in a software company. Solid SPM is a cornerstone in winning and maintaining a position as global market leader.

SPM represents an enterprise or business unit in strategy formulation and its operational realization. SPM includes work with requirements, release definitions, product release lifecycles, the creation and interpretation of product strategies, balancing long-term technology push with shorter-term market-pull, and assuring a winning business case by selecting the right requirements for realization at an appropriate price. SPM coordinates all units within the company that are relevant for the success of the product in its’ lifetime.

The SPM Audit The SPM Audit is a review of a company’s current software product management processes, documentation and interactions with the other organizational functions and its’ ability to build and maintain a competitive product position in the market.

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The outcome of the SPM Audit is a status report and an optimization action plan.

The Audit Report is presented at a 1-day workshop starting with a review of the findings and options for optimization and concludes with the facilitation of an action planning process.

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Software Product Management Audit

The SPM Audit Process1 1

Audit Planning Meeting 2

Material Review 3

Interviews 4

Workshop 5

Execution

The SPM Audit is based on a review of available documentation of processes, organization and deliverables plus a series of on-site interviews with stakeholders. The SPM Audit follows the principles of the Maturity Model developed at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands (I.v.d.Weerd, W. Bekkers, S. Brinkkemper: Developing a Maturity Matrix for Software Product Management, Utrecht University Technical Report, 2009).

Client involvement and time line The SPM Audit requires the participation of current software product manager(s), executive management, R&D management, sales management, marketing management and service/ consulting management. Each function must be available for a 2-hour interview.

The SPM Audit can normally be performed within 4 calendar weeks.

The Auditor The SPM Audit is performed by Hans-Bernd Kittlaus, an internationally renowned expert on SPM. He has been working as trainer and consultant for software organizations such as Lycos, Deutsche Telecom and SimCorp. Hans-Bernd Kittlaus was previously head of SPM and development units of IBM. He is a board member of ISPMA, and has published numerous articles and books, e.g. “Software Product Management and Pricing� (Springer, 2009).

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Hans-Bernd Kittlaus

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Execution of the action plan defined at the workshop is not within in the scope of the audit.

TBK-SPMFS-001