Project Management - The Traveling Product ManagerLearn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Project Management - The Traveling Product Manager article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
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. Royalty Free Coaching Products. - Keep 100% of the profits by selling your own royalty free coaching products! Registry Cleaner And Optimizer. - Affiliates Promote us for Amazing conversion rates - From the Noadware.net team, #1 product of 2004-2005. Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 |
More Articles:1. Performance Appraisal - What IS The Point? From Blaming To Better Performance By Robert Bacal Probably the most misused and abused and disused management tool in history is the performance appraisal. It's the strangest thing. Ask managers or human resources staff whether they think performance appraisal is an important thing to do, and you'll find they usually agree. "Of course it is", is the common response. If you ask why it's important, they will tell you and tell you and tell you. But they don't tell you the right thing!The odd thing is that they often don't get done, and managers,… 2. Performance Appraisal - What IS The Point? From Blaming To Better Performance By Robert Bacal Probably the most misused and abused and disused management tool in history is the performance appraisal. It's the strangest thing. Ask managers or human resources staff whether they think performance appraisal is an important thing to do, and you'll find they usually agree. "Of course it is", is the common response. If you ask why it's important, they will tell you and tell you and tell you. But they don't tell you the right thing!The odd thing is that they often don't get done, and managers,… 3. Planning Your Recruiting Efforts Can Help You Find Great Employees By William Von Achen Today, companies have an ever-expanding list of options available to them when it comes to sourcing new employees, from advertising in newspapers and trade journals to powerful, cost-effective recruiting options available through the Internet. Unfortunately, the growth in the number of recruiting options available has made the competition for top candidates even more fierce.So how do you break out of the pack to find the people that you need? Like most other business activities, a successful… 4. Uncovering the Secrets to Effective Performance Management By Allan Mackintosh In many ways there are no secrets to implementing effective performance management. Performance Management is a process and a process which if implemented effectively should ensure that both employees and managers remain both productive and motivated.The actual process itself should hold no secrets. There are simply a number of steps to be considered within the Performance Management process these being as follows:1. Agree roles and responsibilities and the objectives and targets that go with … |
||||
