Products and prototypes: What’s the difference?

Prototypes are intended to demonstrate or test an idea. Commercial Off-The-Shelf products are intended for ongoing profitable sales. Their quality requirements are different: the former should be as cheap as possible whilst meeting the need for an adequate Proof-of-Concept or Demonstrator; the latter should be fit-for-purpose, cost-effective and an attractive, reliable solution to real world needs. Selling a prototype as a product risks customer dissatisfaction, com-plaints, legal challenges and reputation damage. Often the proto¬type has to be re-written to meet product quality-level expectations. This paper reviews the quality properties required of a product ready for delivery. This follows the ISO/IEC 25010 Quality Model, then adds important missing elements that lie “behind the scenes” in customer support, product management, legal aspects and defensive programming. It draws on a lifetime’s experience working on software products, products containing software and Software as a Service, providing facilities to end users

Exploring the antecedents of dynamic capabilities in a software product company : Dynamic capabilities enabling adaptation to change

Firms operating in the software industry are constantly faced with new opportunities and threats that stem from the volatility of the market. Customer needs change and competing solutions come up in high frequency as software development practices have gotten better during the last decade. Companies need to obtain dynamic capabilities to address rapidly changing markets. This study examines how dynamic capabilities and their underlying microfoundations enable adaption to change in the environment. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study of Company X. Data was gathered using semi-structured interviews with employees in the area of product management. Furthermore, data from interviews were complemented with various documentation to understand the phenomenon better. The findings of this study show that sensing, seizing, and transforming dynamic capabilities deploy their underpinning microfoundations in ways that enable the company to sense opportunities and threats, address those findings, and transform its (intangible) resource base as required for handling change in the environment. The phenomenon results in three distinct outcomes that are represented as principles of agility: agility foundations, agility fostering culture and learning fast. This thesis contributes to the literature on dynamic capabilities, product management and agility. The dynamic capabilities literature has previously overlooked the software industry, and this study fills this gapOhjelmistoalalla toimivat yritykset kohtaavat jatkuvasti uusia mahdollisuuksia ja uhkia, jotka syntyvät markkinoiden epävakaudesta. Asiakastarpeet muuttuvat ja kilpailevia ratkaisuja syntyy paljon, sillä ohjelmistokehityskäytännöt ovat parantuneet viime vuosikymmenen ajan. Yrityksillä on oltava dynaamisia kyvykkyyksiä, jotta ne voivat vastata nopeasti muuttuviin markkinoihin. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan, miten dynaamiset kyvykkyydet ja niiden taustalla olevat mikroperustat mahdollistavat sopeutumisen ympäristön muutoksiin. Tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisena tapaustutkimuksena (Company X). Tiedot kerättiin puolistrukturoiduilla haastatteluilla, joita tehtiin tuotehallinnan työntekijöiden kanssa. Lisäksi haastatteluista saatuja tietoja täydennettiin erilaisilla asiakirjoilla, jotta tutkittava ilmiö ymmärrettäisiin paremmin. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että kolme dynaamista kyvykkyyttä havaitseminen (sensing), hallitseminen (seizing) ja muuntaminen (transforming), käyttävät perustana olevia mikroperustojaan tavoilla, joiden avulla yritys pystyy havaitsemaan mahdollisuuksia ja uhkia, puuttumaan näihin havaintoihin ja muuntamaan (aineetonta) resurssiperustaansa ympäristön muutosten hallinnan edellyttämällä tavalla. Ilmiö johtaa kolmeen eri lopputulokseen, jotka esitetään ketteryyden periaatteina: ketteryyden perusteet, ketteryyttä edistävä kulttuuri ja nopea oppiminen. Tämä tutkielma täydentää dynaamisia kyvykkyyksiä, tuotehallintaa ja ketteryyttä käsittelevää kirjallisuutta. Dynaamisten kyvykkyyksien kirjallisuudessa on aiemmin jätetty huomiotta ohjelmistoala, ja tämä tutkimus täyttää tämän aukon

Preliminary Results from the Software Product Management State-of-Practice Survey

Software product management (SPM) as a discipline includes many practices like product and release planning, market analysis, roadmapping, and product lifecycle management. Product management frameworks prescribe these practices but companies seldom adopt all of them. We conducted a state-of-practice survey with the aim to investigate how companies adopt SPM practices and how this practical experience fits together with the framework suggested by International Software Product Management Association (ISPMA). The results of this study showed that ISPMA SPM Framework describes core product management practices well but the impact of product management practices to the final product success remains ambiguous