Software Product Management

Product management is of critical strategic value in many IT and software companies. However, it is also rather complex, since a product manager has many responsibilities covering requirements management, release definitions, and new product launches. 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. Also, software products can be changed or updated relatively easy by using patches or release updates. The downside of these advantages lies in the fact that due to the nature of software products, the requirements organization is highly complex. Furthermore, the release frequency is high, since the product can be altered easily. Finally, a software product manager has many responsibilities, but does not have the authority over the development team.

Because of these problems, we claim that it is necessary to integrate research efforts in this key domain. In a few (software) product management areas knowhow for research and educational purposes is available, but it is very fragmented. The domain is in need for an integrated body of knowledge, as exists in software development and project management. We aim to develop a body of knowledge for software product management, by providing a reference framework for all its activities and deliverables. This reference framework has been based on an extensive overview of state-of-the-art literature and on industrial case studies.