Product management

Product management is an organizational function within a company dealing with the product planning or product marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product life cycle.
Product Management is also a collective term used to describe the broad sum of diverse activities performed in the interest of delivering a particular product to market.
From a practical perspective, product management is an occupational domain which hold two professional disciplines: product planning and product marketing. This is because the product's functionality is created for the user via product planning efforts, and product value is presented to the buyer via product marketing activities.Product planning and product marketing are very different but due to the collaborative nature of these two disciplines, some companies erroneously perceive them as being one discipline, which they call product management. Done carefully, it is very possible to functionally divide the product management domain into product planning and product marketing, yet retain the required synergy between the two disciplines.Product planning typically deals with these activities:

·   Defining new products and gathering market requirements

·   Product Life Cycle considerations

·   Product portfolio management

·   Product differentiation

Product marketing typically deals with these activities:

·   Product positioning and outbound messaging

·   Promoting the product externally with press, customers, and partners

·   Bringing new products to market

Product management typically deals with these closely-related functions:

·   Product planning

·   Product marketing

·   Program management

·   Project management

Product Planning is the ongoing process of identifying and articulating market requirements that define a product’s feature set. <p>Market Requirement is an aggregate unit of information which represents with sufficient detail the functionality that is sought to address a specific facet of a particular market problem.
Producing market requirements is a key deliverable of product planning. Market requirements are documented in the Marketing requirements document. </p><p>Market Requirement Components</p><p>Market requirements are built using four components: directive, constraints, rationales and sources. The essential component of a market requirement, that must be present in any market requirement, is the directive. Constraints, rationales and sources are considered vital components, and their presence is strongly desired in any market requirement.The four market requirement components are defined as follows:</p><p>·   Directive – instruction, guiding what is to be accomplished. </p><p>·   Constraints – limitations imposed on the solution. </p><p>·   Rationales – reasoning that support a claim. </p><p>·   Sources – information origin validating a claim. </p><p>Product marketing</p><p>deals with the first of the "4P"'s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Placement, and Promotion. Product marketing, as opposed to product management, deals with more outbound marketing tasks. For example, product management deals with the nuts and bolts of product development within a firm, whereas product marketing deals with marketing the product to prospects, customers, and others. Product marketing, as a job function within a firm, also differs from other marketing jobs such as Marcom or marketing communications, online marketing, advertising, marketing strategy, etc.</p><p>Role of Product Marketing</p><p>Product marketing in a business addresses four important strategic questions: [1]</p><p>·   What products will be offered (i.e., the breadth and depth of the product line)? </p><p>·   Who will be the target customers (i.e., the boundaries of the market segments to be served)? </p><p>·   How will the products reach those customers (i.e., the distribution channels to be used)? </p><p>·   Why will customers prefer our products to those of competitors (i.e., the distinctive attributes and value to be provided)? </p><p>Product Marketing vs. Product Management</p><p>Product marketing frequently differs from product management in high-tech companies. Whereas the product manager is required to take a product's requirements from the sales and marketing personnel and create a product requirements document (PRD)[2], which will be used by the engineering team to build the product, the product marketing manager can be engaged in the task of creating a marketing requirements document (MRD), which is used as source for the product management to develop the PRD.</p><p>In other companies the product manager creates both the MRDs and the PRDs, while the product marketing manager does outbound tasks like giving product demonstrations in trade shows, creating marketing collateral like hot-sheets, beat-sheets, cheat sheets, data sheets, white papers, and case studies. This requires the product marketing manager to be skilled not only in competitor analysis, market research, and technical writing, but also in more business oriented activities like conducting ROI and NPV analyses on technology investments, strategizing how the decision criteria of the prospects or customers can be changed so that they buy the company's product vis-a-vis the competitor's product, etc.</p><p>In smaller high-tech firms or start-ups, product marketing and product management functions can be blurred, and both tasks may be borne by one individual. However, as the company grows someone needs to focus on creating good requirements documents for the engineering team, whereas someone else needs to focus on how to analyze the market, influence the "analysts", press, etc. When such clear demarcation becomes visible, the former falls under the domain of product management, and the later, under product marketing. In Silicon Valley, in particular, product marketing professionals have considerable domain experience in a particular market or technology or both. Some Silicon Valley firms have titles such as Product Marketing Engineer, who tend to be promoted to managers in due course.</p><p>Program management is the process of managing multiple ongoing inter-dependent projects. An example would be that of designing, manufacturing and providing support infrastructure for an automobile manufacturer. This requires hundreds, or even thousands, of separate projects. In an organization or enterprise, Program Management also reflects the emphasis on coordinating and prioritizing resources across projects, departments, and entities to ensure that resource contention is managed from a global focus.</p><p>The UK government has invested heavily in program management. In Europe, the term normally refers to multiple change projects: projects that are designed to deliver benefits to the host organization.</p><p>Program management provides a layer above project management focusing on selecting the best group of programs, defining them in terms of their constituent projects and providing an infrastructure where projects can be run successfully but leaving project management to the project management community.</p>Program management responsibilities can vary. For instance, manufacturing program management responsibilities will be much different than program management responsibilities for a pharmaceutical trial and data collection program. <h3 style="background: #f8fcff; margin: auto 0cm">Key factors in Program Management</h3>

Governance: Programs need a more robust structure and control because of the larger impact their failure can have

Management: At the lowest level project managers co-ordinate individual projects. They are overseen by the Program Manager who accounts to the Program Sponsor (or board).

Finances: Tracking of finances is an important part of Program Management and basic costs together with wider costs of administering the program are all tracked.

Infrastructure: Allocation of resources influences the cost and success of the program. The Program Management office monitors overall and project specific resource usage.

Planning: Each project manager creates a plan which fits in with the wider plan of the Program itself.../

Project management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources in such a way that these resources deliver all the work required to complete a project within defined scope, time, and cost constraints. A project is a temporary and one-time endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service, that brings about beneficial change or added value. This property of being a temporary and a one-time undertaking contrasts with processes, or operations, which are permanent or semi-permanent ongoing functional work to create the same product or service over and over again. The management of these two systems is often very different and requires varying technical skills and philosophy, hence requiring the development of project management.

The first challenge of project management is ensuring that a project is delivered within the defined constraints. The second, more ambitious, challenge is the optimized allocation and integration of the inputs needed to meet those pre-defined objectives. The project, therefore, is a carefully selected set of activities chosen to use resources (money, people, materials, energy, space, provisions, communication, quality, risk, etc.) to meet the pre-defined objectives.

Definitions

  • PMBOK (Project Management Institute - PMI):"Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements."[3]
  • PRINCE2 project management methodology: "The planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of the project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance."[4]
  • DIN 69901 (Deutsches Institut für Normung - German Organization for Standardization): "Project management is the complete set of tasks, techniques, tools applied during project execution"

The project manager

Project management is quite often the province and responsibility of an individual project manager. This individual seldom participates directly in the activities that produce the end result, but rather strives to maintain the progress and productive mutual interaction of various parties in such a way that overall risk of failure is reduced.

A project manager is often a client representative and has to determine and implement the exact needs of the client, based on knowledge of the firm he/she is representing. The ability to adapt to the various internal procedures of the contracting party, and to form close links with the nominated representatives, is essential in ensuring that the key issues of cost, time, quality, and above all, client satisfaction, can be realized.

In whatever field, a successful project manager must be able to envisiage the entire project from start to finish and to have the ability to ensure that this vision is realized.

Any type of product or service —buildings, vehicles, electronics, computer software, financial services, etc.— may have its implementation overseen by a project manager and its operations by a product manager.

The traditional triple constraints

Like any human undertaking, projects need to be performed and delivered under certain constraints. Traditionally, these constraints have been listed as scope, time, and cost. This is also referred to as the Project Management Triangle, where each side represents a constraint. One side of the triangle cannot be changed without impacting the others. A further refinement of the constraints separates product 'quality' or 'performance' from scope, and turns quality into a fourth constraint.

The time constraint refers to the amount of time available to complete a project. The cost constraint refers to the budgeted amount available for the project. The scope constraint refers to what must be done to produce the project's end result. These three constraints are often competing constraints: increased scope typically means increased time and increased cost, a tight time constraint could mean increased costs and reduced scope, and a tight budget could mean increased time and reduced scope.

The discipline of project management is about providing the tools and techniques that enable the project team (not just the project manager) to organize their work to meet these constraints.

Another approach to project management is to consider the three constraints as finance, time and human resources. If you need to finish a job in a shorter time, you can throw more people at the problem, which in turn will raise the cost of the project, unless by doing this task quicker we will reduce costs elsewhere in the project by an equal amount.

Time

For analytical purposes, the time required for each task is estimated. It is important to divide the work into several smaller pieces so that it is easy to measure progress. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is commonly used to develop the list of tasks each of which is then given a time estimate. Time is not considered a cost nor a resource since the project manager cannot control the rate at which it is expended. This makes it different from all other resources and cost categories.

Cost

Cost to develop a project depends on several variables including (chiefly): labor rates, material rates, risk management, plant (buildings, machines, etc.), equipment, and profit. When hiring an independent consultant for a project, cost will typically be determined by the consultant's or firm's per diem rate multiplied by an estimated quantity for completion.

Scope

Requirements specified for the end result. The overall definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish, and a specific description of what the end result should be or accomplish. A major component of scope is the quality of the final product. The amount of time put into individual tasks determines the overall quality of the project. Some tasks may require a given amount of time to complete adequately, but given more time could be completed exceptionally. Over the course of a large project, quality can have a significant impact on time and cost (or vice versa).

Project Management activities

Project Management is composed of several different types of activities such as:
  1. Planning the work or objectives
  2. Analysis & Design of objectives
  3. Assessing and controlling risk (or Risk Management)
  4. Estimating resources
  5. Allocation of resources
  6. Organizing the work
  7. Acquiring human and material resources
  8. Assigning tasks
  9. Directing activities
  10. Controlling project execution
  11. Tracking and Reporting progress
  12. Analyzing the results based on the facts achieved
  13. Defining the products of the project
  14. Forecasting future trends in the project
  15. Quality Management
  16. Issues Management
  17. Issues solving
  18. Defect prevention
  19. Project Closure meet

Project Management artifacts

Most projects, to be successful, must adequately document objectives and deliverables. These documents are a mechanism to align sponsors, clients, and project team's expectations.
  1. Project Charter
  2. Business case/Feasibility Study
  3. Scope Statement / Terms of reference
  4. Project Management Plan / Project Initiation Document
  5. Work Breakdown Structure
  6. Change Control Plan
  7. Risk Management Plan
  8. Communications Plan
  9. Governance Model
  10. Risk Register
  11. Issue Log
  12. Action Item List
  13. Resource Management Plan
  14. Project Schedule
  15. Status Report
  16. Responsibility assignment matrix
  17. Database of risks
  18. Database of lessons learned
  19. Stakeholder Analysis
These documents are normally hosted on a shared resource (i.e., Intranet web page) and are available for review by the project's stakeholders. Changes or updates to these documents are explicitly outlined in the project's configuration management (or change control plan).

Project control variables

Project Management tries to gain control over variables such as risk:

Potential points of failure: Most negative risks (or potential failures) can be overcome or resolved, given enough planning capabilities, time, and resources. According to some definitions (including PMBOK Third Edition) risk can also be categorized as "positive--" meaning that there is a potential opportunity, e.g., complete the project faster than expected.

Customers (either internal or external project sponsors), external organizations (such as government agencies and regulators) can dictate the extent of three variables: time, cost, and scope. The remaining variable (risk) is managed by the project team, ideally based on solid estimation and response planning techniques. Through a negotiation process among project stakeholders, an agreement defines the final objectives, in terms of time, cost, scope, and risk, usually in the form of a charter or contract.

To properly control these variables a good project manager has a depth of knowledge and experience in these four areas (time, cost, scope, and risk), and in six other areas as well: integration, communication, human resources, quality assurance, schedule development, and procurement.

Approaches

There are several approaches that can be taken to managing project activities including agile, interactive, incremental, and phased approaches.

Regardless of the approach employed, careful consideration needs to be given to clarify surrounding project objectives, goals, and importantly, the roles and responsibilities of all participants and stakeholders.

The traditional approach

A traditional phased approach identifies a sequence of steps to be completed. In the traditional approach, we can distinguish 5 components of a project (4 stages plus control) in the development of a project:
  1. project initiation stage;
  2. project planning or design stage;
  3. project execution or production stage;
  4. project monitoring and controlling systems;
  5. project completion stage.

Not all the projects will visit every stage as projects can be terminated before they reach completion. Some projects probably don't have the planning and/or the monitoring. Some projects will go through steps 2, 3 and 4 multiple times.

Many industries utilize variations on these stages. For example, in bricks and mortar architectural design, projects typically progress through stages like Pre-Planning, Conceptual Design, Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Drawings (or Contract Documents), and Construction Administration. In software development, this approach is often known as 'waterfall development' i.e one series of tasks after another in linear sequence. In software development many organizations have adapted the Rational Unified Process (RUP) to fit this methodology, although RUP does not require or explicitly recommend this practice. Waterfall development can work for small tightly defined projects, but for larger projects of undefined or unknowable scope, it is less suited. Because software development is often the realization of a new or novel product, this method has been widely accepted as ineffective for software projects where requirements are largely unknowable up front and susceptible to change. While the names may differ from industry to industry, the actual stages typically follow common steps to problem solving--defining the problem, weighing options, choosing a path, implementation and evaluation.

Critical chain

Critical chain is an extension to the traditional critical path method.In critical studies of project management, it has been noted that several of these fundamentally PERT-based models are not well suited for the multi-project company environment of today. Most of them are aimed at very large-scale, one-time, non-routine projects, and nowadays all kinds of management are expressed in terms of projects. Using complex models for "projects" (or rather "tasks") spanning a few weeks has been proven to cause unnecessary costs and low maneuverability in several cases. Instead, project management experts try to identify different "lightweight" models, such as, for example Extreme Programming for software development and Scrum techniques. The generalization of Extreme Programming to other kinds of projects is extreme project management, which may be used in combination with the process modeling and management principles of human interaction management.

Process-based management

Also furthering the concept of project control is the incorporation of process-based management. This area has been driven by the use of Maturity models such as the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) and ISO/IEC15504 (SPICE - Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination), which have been far more successful.Agile project management approaches based on the principles of human interaction management are founded on a process view of human collaboration. This contrasts sharply with traditional approach. In the agile software development or flexible product development approach, the project is seen as a series of relatively small tasks conceived and executed as the situation demands in an adaptive manner, rather than as a completely pre-planned process.

Project systems

As mentioned above, traditionally, project development includes five elements: control systems and four stages.

Project control systems

Project control is that element of a project that keeps it on-track, on-time, and within budget. Project control begins early in the project with planning and ends late in the project with post-implementation review, having a thorough involvement of each step in the process. Each project should be assessed for the appropriate level of control needed, too much control is too time consuming, too little control is too costly. Clarifying the cost to the business if the control is not implemented in terms of errors, fixes, and additional audit fees.

Control systems are needed for cost, risk, quality, communication, time, change, procurement, and human resources. In addition, auditors should consider how important the projects are to the financial statements, how reliant the stakeholders are on controls, and how many controls exist. Auditors should review the development process and procedures how they are implemented. The process of development and the quality of the final product may also be assessed if needed or requested. A business may want the auditing firm to be involved throughout the process to catch problems earlier on so that they can be fixed more easily. An auditor can serve as a controls consultant as part of the development team or as an independent auditor as part of an audit.

Businesses sometimes use formal systems development processes. These help assure that systems are developed successfully. A formal process is more effective in creating strong controls, and auditors should review this process to confirm that it is well designed and is followed in practice. A good formal systems development plan outlines:

  • A strategy to align development with the organization’s broader objectives
  • Standards for new systems
  • Project management policies for timing and budgeting
  • Procedures describing the process

Project development stages

Regardless of the methodology used, the project development process will have the same major stages: initiation, development, production or execution, and closing/maintenance.

Initiation

The initiation stage determines the nature and scope of the development. If this stage is not performed well, it is unlikely that the project will be successful in meeting the business’s needs. The key project controls needed here is an understanding of the business environment and making sure that all necessary controls are incorporated into the project. Any deficiencies should be reported and a recommendation should be made to fix them.

The initiation stage should include a cohesive plan that encompasses the following areas:

  • Study analyzing the business needs in measurable goals.
  • Review of the current operations.
  • Conceptual design of the operation of the final product.
  • Equipment requirement.
  • Financial analysis of the costs and benefits including a budget.
  • Select stake holders, including users, and support personnel for the project.
  • Project charter including costs, tasks, deliverables, and schedule.

Planning and design

After the initiation stage, the system is designed. Occasionally, a small prototype of the final product is built and tested. Testing is generally performed by a combination of testers and end users, and can occur after the prototype is built or concurrently. Controls should be in place that ensure that the final product will meet the specifications of the project charter. The results of the design stage should include a product design that:
  • Satisfies the project sponsor, end user, and business requirements.
  • Functions as it was intended.
  • Can be produced within quality standards.
  • Can be produced within time and budget constraints.
 

Closing and Maintenance

Closing includes the formal acceptance of the project and the ending thereof. Administrative activities include the archiving of the files and documenting lessons learned.Maintenance is an ongoing process, and it includes:
  • Continuing support of end users
  • Correction of errors
  • Updates of the software over time

In this stage, auditors should pay attention to how effectively and quickly user problems are resolved.

Over the course of any construction project, the work scope changes. Change is a normal and expected part of the construction process. Changes can be the result of necessary design modifications, differing site conditions, material availability, contractor-requested changes, value engineering and impacts from third parties, to name a few. Beyond executing the change in the field, the change normally needs to be documented to show what was actually constructed. Hence, the owner usually requires a final record to show all changes or, more specifically, any change that modifies the tangible portions of the finished work. The record is made on the contract documents – usually, but not necessarily limited to, the design drawings. The end product of this effort is what the industry terms as-built drawings, or more simply, “asbuilts.” The requirement for providing them is a norm in construction contracts.

 

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