priorities and roadmaps product camp

June 14, 2008

Priorities and RoadmapsGuiding the Successful Business

Pat Scherer patscherer@sbcglobal.net

© Copyright 2008 Pat Scherer 1

Assign

Prioritize

Gather

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Where do your

requirements come

from?

Gather

© Copyright 2008 Pat Scherer 4

Where do your

requirements come

from?

Gather

Who? Accountable sources

Why? How much? Reward for delivery.

What is required? Not how it should be implemented.

When? Window of opportunity.

© Copyright 2008 Pat Scherer 5

Organize• By product/service• By parts affected• Duplicates, alternative and conflicting requirements

Gather

Document

• Source

• Opportunity

• Time constraints

• Dependencies

© Copyright 2008 Pat Scherer 6

Anticipate where the

opportunity will be,

not where it’s been.

Gather

“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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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?

ROI

LTV Niche

MarketLeader

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PrioritizeProcess

• 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.

© Copyright 2008 Pat Scherer 9

Assign RoadmapsHow far out should you plan?

Product

size and

complexity

Deliverychannels

Releasecycles

Assign

Adapted with permission from work by R. Ritthaler, BMC Corp. 10

Enterprise

Product Line

Product

A B

C D

MeasurementRequirements

Roadmap

Framework

Architecture

Execution

Iterate

Iterate(2 wks)

Design

Test

Build

Release(3 mo)

Harden

and Ship

Req

Plan

Iterate Iterate

Iterate

Releases

Organization

Release

Framework

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AssignProcess• Estimate resources • Assign to releases• Adjust for dependencies/risk • Review with stakeholders• Manage change

Release Content

• Top priority “must haves”

• Best effort additions Document• Assumptions• Task breakdown• Schedule and assignments• Risk (unknowns/size/complexity)• ROIs, as needed, for prioritization/pricing

Assign

Prioritize

Gather

© Copyright 2008 Pat Scherer 12

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