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Whole Product Planning transforms market
and product strategies into the execution world of Market Requirements
Documents (MRDs), product management, and release planning.
MSI's
whole product planning services include:
· Development of Market Requirements
Document (MRD)
· Development of Product Architectures
· Review of Product Architecture
· Development of Product Roadmaps
· Development of Product Release Plans
· Participation in Product Advisory Boards
· Mentoring and Coaching of Executives
· Customized Engagements
Development
of Market Requirements Document (MRD)
A central part of our
approach to preparing MRDs is the development of one or more conceptual
views of the product. The conceptual views represent the external
characteristics of the product from different viewpoints. For example,
what concepts underlying the product does a user need to understand in
order to use it effectively? What does an installer or systems
administrator need to understand in order to deploy the product
effectively? The conceptual views provide the basic structure for the
refinement of the descriptions of the individual components. We use
well-proven description techniques for these models, but we emphasize
that we are modeling external conceptual models, rather than internal
structure and organization.
MSI has developed MRD templates that we adapt to the needs of each
engagement and company. Each MRD template includes discussion of product
feature definitions, non-functional product attributes, platforms
supported, post-delivery services, anticipated changes, product
migration, retirement and rollout considerations. We work with product
management, marketing, and engineering through an active creation and
review process to achieve an agreed MRD.
The MRD is a living document that evolves as technologies and markets
change. MSI can also help define and guide the execution of the product
management processes that keep the MRD alive and relevant.
Development of Product Architectures
The engineering process often begins
with the development of a product architecture or the adaptation of an
existing architecture. The architecture describes the disposition of
software components over the sites of distributed systems, if necessary,
as well as the decomposition into components.
Key
architectural elements include:
· service requirements across product
families
· general architectural requirements such as scalability, reliability,
interoperability, etc.
· a logical architecture to satisfy service and architectural
requirements
· a physical architecture that realizes the logical architecture
· a componentization strategy that describes the modularity and packaging
of physical architecture into individual elements that can be separately
released
Today's thrust towards component-based architectures means that many
elements of the architecture can be purchased as commercial off-the-shelf
(COTS) technology. Build versus buy decisions, and their trade-offs with
functionality, need to be viewed within the context of first mover
advantage that may be a cornerstone of the company's market strategy.
MSI's staff can work with your Engineering and Product Management groups
to develop a product architecture (or a product architecture evolution)
that provides a sound basis for your short and longer-term product structure.
Typical activities and deliverables from such an engagement include:
· architectural approach
· facilitation and creation of documented architecture
· facilitation and creation of plan to realize the architecture
incrementally, with specific attention given to use of 3rd party
products/services where appropriate.
Review
of Product Architecture
We view product architectures as being
engineering solutions to business problems defined and characterized by
product management. An architecture has no commercial merit outside the
business context in which it was created. MSI's staff is skilled at
reviewing architectures in the light of the market strategies, Whole
Product Plannings, COTS technology availability (that can affect
time-to-market), and technology evolutions in order to identify the
strengths and weaknesses of the architecture.
For early market companies in young product categories, architectural
flexibility is invaluable. At this stage, customer needs are not
well-understood, are evolving as the customers gain more experience with
the technology and products, and competition between vendors in similar
categories is fierce. Architectural flexibility gives the company the
agility it will need to stay ahead of developments in these areas.
Development
of Product Roadmaps
A Product Roadmap captures a company's
vision of the core product elements and how the company's product
offering will evolve over a period of time. We take input from executive
management, sales and marketing, analysts' reports, customer feedback,
and industry sources to identify trends in technology and market. We
understand the current products' capabilities, and we construct, using an
iterative process with the executive team and other stakeholders, the
roadmap for product features.
Development
of Product Release Plans
Effective execution of a product
development and delivery strategy for software companies requires great
product release planning. Release Planning encompasses a number of
activities and disciplines. We help companies to define release types,
recognizing the differences between software license and ASP models of
software product delivery. We have template release description documents
to help structure a company's information about a release's content. A release
plan describes one or more release streams, with each release stream
containing multiple releases of different types. We help companies
prepare an initial version of the release plan, and show them the
processes they need to maintain it and execute against it, including the
product management processes controlling release plan changes and release
content management.
Release deployment is very different for software license and ASP models
of software delivery. We can help you understand those differences and
plan for them effectively.
Participation
in Product Advisory Boards
Often times companies would like an
outside perspective on market, technology, and product trends. In such
cases, MSI assists companies in the formation of product advisory boards
for these purposes and may also participate on a product advisory board.
Mentoring
and Coaching of Executives
Start-up companies that have focused on
technology development sometimes lack the depth of product and
engineering infrastructure that is needed to bring the technology
effectively through product definition, release planning and development.
MSI staff is skilled at assisting existing staff with execution, coaching
them through unfamiliar processes and occurrences. We can also suggest
organizational structures that have proven effectiveness and respect the
talents and interests of the company's staff.
Customized
Engagements
Many clients have specific needs that do not fit neatly into any single
MSI service offering. In these cases, we work with the senior management
of the client company to develop a customized engagement scope of work
and plan to meet its individual needs. Such engagements often involve
elements from several of our service offerings.
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