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SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 1 24.-25.5.2004 Jarno Vähäniitty Helsinki University of Technology.

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Presentation on theme: "SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 1 24.-25.5.2004 Jarno Vähäniitty Helsinki University of Technology."— Presentation transcript:

1 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 1 24.-25.5.2004 Jarno Vähäniitty Helsinki University of Technology Software Business and Engineering Institute (SoberIT) http://www.soberit.hut.fi/ Product Portfolio Management in Small Software Product Businesses A Tentative Research Agenda Supervisor: Prof. Casper Lassenius

2 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute 2 This Research Agenda is About... The state-of-practice of product portfolio management and related problems & challenges The helpfulness of state-of-the-art literature for solving the problems & challenges found Identifying and closing gaps between existing literature and practitioners needs

3 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute 3 Portfolio Management in Small Companies – Why Needed & Why Difficult? Portfolio mgmt means Selecting and prioritising products and/or features based on perceived costs, rewards and risk Reducing risk through having a diverse and balanced portfolio of revenue sources Question: How can a small company actually achieve this? (e.g. multiple products or product lines???)

4 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute 4 Reducing Risks through a Portfolio of Different Types of Development Effort Application development Platform development Tailoring Deliveries Consultancy The real question: How to actually manage such a portfolio? Problems: Resources are shared single project decisions ripple across the portfolio A common understanding of the portfolio missing Unclear and shifting priorities Fire-fighting portfolio decisions by project management Overbooking of resources, causing some important activities to be neglected Product Development

5 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute 5 Why is Answering this Important? Application development Platform development Portfolio management crucial to product-oriented SW companies long-term success (e.g. Cusumano 1995) Small companies need support for deliberate and systematic product development decision-making (Berry 2002, Crowne 2002, Vähäniitty 2002) How to actually manage such a portfolio? Tailoring Deliveries Consultancy

6 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute 6 A Gap in Theory Software engineering (SE) Primarily technical (Glass et al. 2002) Viewpoint of individual development projects New Product Development (NPD) Proven models for portfolio management (e.g. Cooper et al.) Based on assumptions that are invalid for the context Dedicated resources Senior management not involved in hands-on work Resource constraints not absolute

7 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute 7 Research Problem How should product portfolio management be implemented in small software product businesses? Specifically, how should the contextual differences be accounted for?

8 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute 8 My Previous Work A model for implementing portfolio management Developed together with three small product- oriented companies Case studies Interviews & regular discussions w/company personnel Participation in real meetings Joint problem-solving Experiences support the practical utility of setting up portfolio management in small companies Reported in "Pacing Software Product Development: A Framework and Practical Implementation Guidelines". Rautiainen, K., and C. Lassenius (eds.) Helsinki University of Technology Software Business and Engineering Institute Technical Reports 3. Helsinki, 2004

9 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute 9 Up Next Continue developing the model Keep observing the original three companies Deploy & refine the model with four new case companies More detail on how to do long-term product and release planning Test the model with a controlled experiment Undergraduate students solving case assingments Report the experiences

10 SoberIT Software Business and Engineering Institute 10 Thank You for Your Attention Questions & Discussion

11 A Model for Implementing Portfolio Mgmt for Shared Resources doing Time-Paced Development Portfolio control points 2 weeks Portfolio ReviewsRoadmap Revision Fire Brigade Target spending levels (example %) Application development (30%) Platform development (20%) Tailoring (20%) Body shopping (20%) Deliveries (10%)


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