Project Management - The Traveling Product Manager

Various studies ? and common sense ? indicate that involving customers increases the likelihood that your product will meet customer requirements (I hope these studies weren't funded with my tax dollars!)

Although the above statement sounds exceedingly obvious, the fact of the matter is many software projects lack customer input. Consider the following example:

Week 0: Red, our friendly project mangler, is in charge of the next release of his organization's flagship product. For the past 3 months, Product Management has been meeting with existing and potential customers to determine which incremental features should be added to the existing release. After gathering those requirements, the one and only Product Manager wrote an SRS (Software Requirements Specification) that has now been handed over to Red.

Week 1: After reviewing the SRS, Product Development's first cut of the project estimates it will take between 30 to 34 person-months to meet all of the requirements. Red's budget only accounts for 25 person-months.

Week 2: Red's top priority is to scrub the requirements. Unfortunately, the Product Manager, who just ramped up a hard 3 months, took a well-deserved vacation. He'll be back in 1 week. To get his team going, Red decides to prioritize the requirements himself and cut a few features that he doesn't feel are necessary.

Week 3: Another week has gone by and the Product Manager is back from his vacation, well rested. After spending most of the day going through his inbox, he stumbles across an email from Red informing him that the I18N feature will not make it in this release given the budget constraints. The Product Manager is fuming. "This feature has been committed to a customer and MUST be in the product!" On this note, he leaves for Europe to meet with a huge potential customer.

Week 4: Red is still over budget, and needs to add I18N back in the product. The Product Manager made it very clear that I18N was expected by a customer, but didn't explain which other features were of lesser priority. Red hopes that he can settle everything when the Product Manager comes back from Europe early next week.

Week 5: Our Product Manager was scheduled to come back from Europe this week, but a major sales opportunity presented itself in Brazil, so he's off once more. Since the project has already used up 16 person-months, Red desperately needs to determine which features are not going to make it in the product. He asks around for feedback, and everyone has a different opinion. Red therefore decides to loosen some of the requirements related to performance. "The system might not respond quickly, but at least all of the features will work."

Week 6: The Product Manager comes back from Brazil. He finally gets to meet with Red and the rest of the R&D team. He informs them that it's critical the system meets the performance requirements. However, the Reporting and the SSO features, which were respectively sized at 2 and 3 person-months each, are not required in this release of the product and can be rescheduled for the next release. The lead developers working on these features inform them they were both were completed a week ago.

I don't think I need to describe the rest of this project. But in case you haven't guessed, it was late and over budget.

If you were to ask this Product Manager whether or not he involved the customer in the project, his answer would be "Absolutely! I spent 3 months gathering requirements and writing an SRS." But where was the customer feedback when the SRS needed to be scrubbed? And where was the Product Manager when Red and the R&D team needed questions answered regarding the list of features?

In a Hundred Words or Less

Gathering feedback to write your SRS is a great start to involving the customer in your project, but you can't stop there. If your user input stops when Product Management prints out the SRS, you're in trouble!

Involving the customer means having the customer or his proxy (e.g. the Product Manager) available at all times. If you truly believe that involving customers increases the likelihood that your product will meet customer requirements, make sure they are involved throughout the project, not just in the Definition phase.

Luc Richard is professional speaker and author with over 10 years of experience managing the development of software applications. He can be reached via The Project Mangler (http://www.projectmangler.com).

Flight Management Announces First Agency Agreement
MarketWatch - 4 hours ago
Functioning as a central agency for a large, diverse group of carefully screened carriers, Flight Management expects to quickly secure its position as an ...
National Storm Continues Recovery with Second Quarter Results MarketWatch
all 17 news articles

RTT News
Assurant to Acquire GE Consumer & Industrial's Warranty Management ...
MarketWatch - 22 hours ago
for Assurant to acquire GE's Warranty Management Group (WMG) business, a unit that markets and sells extended warranties and service contracts for major ...
Assurant announces acquisition of GE Consumer & Industrial's ... Trading Markets (press release)
Assurant to Acquire GE's Warranty Management Group - quick facts RTT News
Assurant signs warranty accord with GE unit The Associated Press
Wall Street Journal - Trading Markets (press release)all 92 news articles

Babson Executive Education's Retail Management Program Helps ...
MarketWatch - 46 minutes ago
Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its ...

The Southern Ledger
Hot spots: News from around the world
Chicago Sun-Times, United States - 9 hours ago
NEW ORLEANS -- A Federal Emergency Management official says Hurricane Gustav evacuees whose homes remain uninhabitable -- because of power outages, ...
FEMA may cover hotel costs for hurricane evacuees The Associated Press
FEMA to cover hotels for those with damaged homes Houston Chronicle
FEMA fields complaints as evacuees return to Big Easy USA Today
NBC13.com - KTALall 448 news articles

Earthtimes (press release)
Dow Falls 344.65 As Hedge Funds
Wall Street Journal - 14 hours ago
Part of the nervousness about hedge funds stems from a decision this week by Ospraie Management, one of the biggest players in commodities, ...
Ospraie Management to close flagship fund BusinessWeek
Lehman Brothers and the Cost of Multitasking Wall Street Journal Blogs
Ospraie Management closes main hedge fund guardian.co.uk
Bloomberg - Hedge Fund Netall 314 news articles

Business management theorist, Hammer, dies
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY - 5 hours ago
Michael Hammer, the author of several seminal books on business management who applied his theories to the non-profit world, died Wednesday night. ...
Management Author Hammer Dies Wall Street Journal
all 2 news articles

Questcor Strengthens Management Team's Manufacturing and ...
MarketWatch - 7 hours ago
announced today that it has recently expanded its management team with the appointment of Timothy O'Neill, Ph.D., Vice President, Contract Manufacturing, ...

Rivermine Hosts FREE Aberdeen Group Webinar on Telecom Expense ...
MarketWatch - 5 hours ago
... new strategies for reducing wireless and wireline spend including: -- How an organization can become a Best-in-Class telecom expense management leader; ...

Univar Selects Acorn's Profitability and Cost Management Solution
MarketWatch - 9 hours ago
... Systems today jointly announced the selection of Acorn Systems' Performance Analyzer, the market leading profitability and cost management solution. ...

RTT News
US non-manufacturing sector grew in August
Reliable Plant Magazine, OK - 4 hours ago
The report was issued September 4 by Anthony Nieves, CPM, CFPM, chair of the Institute for Supply Management Non-Manufacturing Business Survey Committee; ...
Service sector grows CNNMoney.com
US service sector expands slightly in Aug - ISM guardian.co.uk
US Service Industries Unexpectedly Grew in August (Update1) Bloomberg
The Associated Press - Forbesall 407 news articles

Wind Chimes and more...

Windchimes for great gifts!

Innovation Management ? how will we make the go or kill decisions?