Product Management 101: managing requirements, priorities and roadmaps...Austin ProductCamp June 2008.

1. Priorities and Roadmaps
Guiding the Successful Business
Pat Scherer patscherer@sbcglobal.net
June 14, 2008
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2. m
Gather
Prioritize
Assign
R– E– L – E-A – S – E- S
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3. Gather Where do your
requirements come
from?
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4. Gather Where do your
requirements come
from?
Who? Accountable sources
Why? How much? Reward for delivery.
What is required? Not how it should be implemented.
When? Window of opportunity.
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5. Organize
Gather • By product/service
• By parts affected
• Duplicates, alternative and
conflicting requirements
Document
• Source
• Opportunity
• Time constraints
• Dependencies
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6. Gather Anticipate where the
opportunity will be,
not where it’s been.
“World-class marketects approach their task from a
perspective of time that distinguishes them from those
less skilled.
Instead of listening to what customers want now, they
extrapolate multiple streams of data, including current
requests, to envision what customers will want 18 to 24
months in the future.”
– Luke Hohman, Beyond Software Architecture
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7. Prioritize What goals spell
success for your
business?
If your company vision is to dominate a market by growing a loyal customer base,
why would you use ROI as your sole criteria for prioritizing requirements?
Market
Leader
ROI
LTV Niche
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8. Process
Prioritize • Create a prioritized list
• Revalidate opportunity
• Review with stakeholders
Ranking Systems
• Break ties
• Separate tactical urgency from strategic importance
• ABC, A1, weighted numeric…
Document new information surfaced during
prioritization discussions.
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9. Assign Roadmaps
How far out should you plan?
Delivery
channels
Product Release
size and cycles
complexity
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10. Assign Enterprise
Execution
Product Line Organization
Product Releases
Framework
Architecture
Iterate Iterate
Requirements
Roadmap Iterate Release
(3 mo)
Iterate
Measurement
AB
C D
Plan Harden
Design Build
Release Iterate
and Ship
(2 wks)
Req Test
Framework
Adapted with permission from work by R. Ritthaler, BMC Corp. 10

11. Process
Assign • Estimate resources
• Assign to releases
• Adjust for dependencies/risk
• Review with stakeholders
• Manage change
Release Content
• Top priority “must haves”
Document • Best effort additions
• Assumptions
• Task breakdown
• Schedule and assignments
• Risk (unknowns/size/complexity)
• ROIs, as needed, for prioritization/pricing
© Copyright 2008 Pat Scherer 11

12. m
Gather
Prioritize
Assign
R– E– L – E-A – S – E- S
© Copyright 2008 Pat Scherer 12