Towards a Reference Framework for Software Product Management
Inge van de Weerd, Sjaak Brinkkemper, Richard Nieuwenhuis, Johan Versendaal, Lex Bijlsma
Department of Information and Computing Sciences
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
{i.vandeweerd, s.brinkkemper, rnieuwen, j.versendaal, a.bijlsma}@cs.uu.nl
Abstract
In the last decade, software product management has
received much practical attention, though research in this
area is still scattered. In this paper, we present a
reference framework for software product management,
in which the key process areas, namely portfolio
management, product roadmapping, release planning and
requirements management, are identified, as well as the
stakeholders and their relations. With this reference
framework, we provide a structure for a body of
knowledge for software product management.
1. Product management
Software is more and more developed and
commercialized as a standard product. In companies
specializing in software products, the role of product
manager has emerged over the last years, and appears to
be of strategic value, but complex to execute. The product
manager is responsible for managing requirements,
defining releases, and defining products in a context
where many internal and external stakeholders are
involved [11]. The domain of product management has
been established, especially in technical sectors with
physical products, since the industrial revolution in the
19
th
century [15]. Only relatively recently, also software
product management has received attention in product
software companies like Microsoft [9] and Alcatel [10],
and, to a lesser extent, in scientific literature, e.g. [15].
Although several of the existing product management
practices can be applied in software product management,
specific challenges can be identified in software product
management. Software products differ from other
products in the fact that the manufacturing and
distributing of extra copies do not require extra costs for
the company [8]. Also, existing software products can be
changed easily, and sold software products can be
updated by using patches or release updates. There is also
a downside to these advantages. The organization of
requirements and the tracking of changes in the design are
very complex. Also, due to the ease of making changes,
the release frequency is relatively high in comparison
with non-software products. Finally, the product manager
has a lot of responsibilities regarding the product
functionality, but has not the management authority over
the development team, so decision making requires
consent of many players. We therefore claim that there is
a need for an integration of research efforts in this key
domain.
Knowledge on software product management for
research and educational purposes is very fragmented.
There lacks an integrated body of knowledge, as exists
for example in software development [3]. The goal of this
paper is to provide a structure for a body of knowledge
for software product management, by providing a
reference framework based on an overview of state-of-
the-art literature, and industrial case studies.
In the next section we elaborate on the rationale for
the reference framework, and the research method we
have applied to develop it. Then, in section 3, we discuss
the basic structure of the reference framework. The four
process areas are elaborated on in section 4. The final
section describes our conclusions and future research.
2. Rationale and research method
Reference frameworks have proven to be beneficial
for research and practice in many fields. We mention the
ISO/OSI layers for the layering of network services [13]
or the ANSI/SPARC 3-schema architecture for database
management systems [22]. The need for a reference
framework for software product management is found in
the desire to get an understanding of its complete domain.
Varying research contributions and developments in the
software industry can be positioned in it to interpret their
consequences in a uniform context. Furthermore, such a
reference framework also provides a starting point for:
- Definition of key terms and the identification of open
research questions;
- Education of product managers and competence
building;
- Development of improved, integrated tool support;
The research method we have applied for the conception
of the reference framework is the following:
1. Field interviews and discussions with experienced
product managers;
2. Literature review on both non-software product
management and software product management;
3. Creation of a draft reference framework;
14th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'06)
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