By Somenath Nag

Introduction

The recent sharp downturn in the economy is forcing independent software vendors to reconsider their approach towards product engineering. In light of the new business realities, companies are forced to consider how they can reduce their R&D budget, or get higher return on the same or incremental investments. However, it is becoming increasingly important for ISVs to enhance customer loyalty and reduce support cost! ISVs are realizing that one way to achieve this is by improving the quality of the product without increasing the cost of quality. Consequently, ISVs are actively considering outsourcing non-core functions like testing to cut costs quickly, avoid new capital investment, and improve product quality.

Abstract

How many products hit the market and are too expensive, too big, don't have the desired features or take too long to develop?

Lean is a Process Improvement Tool to reduce waste in organizations. Few processes cross over as many different departments in a company as product development. Product development can include hard-goods, software or new services. As the efforts cross marketing, research, engineering, purchasing, operations and sales there are numerous opportunities for the product development effort to stall or reverse direction. This can be due budget problems becoming visible; product definition being rushed and/or the operational problems.

I recently came across the new ad from Domino's Pizza where they show a clip of focus groups they conducted with consumers about their products. I love it! The message was clear: they listened to their customers. Their management and product teams were brave enough to really pay attention to what customers think. I'll be eternally grateful to Domino's pizza for the message sent about the value of market research.

New Product Development
By Jason Gluckman

New product development is one of the most important components of product policy and product management. Product lines and products are appraise and are positioned effectively. Brand decisions are taken wisely. For a higher level of growth, a firm has to look beyond its existing products. A progressive firm has to consider new product development as a cardinal element of its product policy.

I've always found the running style of Chicago Bear Walter Payton more appealing than that of Washington Redskin John Riggins. Payton, the leading rusher in the history of the National Football League, dances around ends, snaking through imperceptible holes. His game is a ballet. The appropriate image for Riggins, on the other hand, is a bulldozer. He charges head on at the biggest guys on the field, and consequently spent much of his time between games last year in traction.

Product definition is a critical starting point in the development of any new product. Yet for its importance, there are a number of common shortcomings to the process of product definition in many companies:

• No defined product strategy or product plan
• Lack of formal requirements as a basis for initiating product development
• Product requirements developed without true customer input
• A marketing requirement specification (MRS) that is completed late-after development is underway
• Engineering having little or no involvement in development of MRS, thereby lacking a true understanding of requirements
• An incomplete, ambiguous, or overly ambitious MRS
• Creeping elegance or a constantly evolving specification that requires increasing development scope and redesign iteration

by Mike Slinn, CTO & Founder of Zamples, Inc.

There is no "School of Developer Relations" that one can attend to learn how to manage a developer relations program.  Having participated as a developer in many developer relations programs, and having been involved in setting up others, I have seen a few shining examples of how to do it right, and many more marginal examples.  This top 10 list of issues will assist you in developing your own program.

INTRODUCTION
A competitive product must address factors such as cost, performance, aesthetics, schedule or time-to-market, and quality. The importance of these factors will vary from product to product and market to market. And , over time, customers or users of a product will demand more and more, e.g., more performance at less cost.

Cost will become a more important factor in the acquisition of a product in two situations. First, as the technology or aesthetics of a product matures or stabilizes and the competitive playing field levels, competition is increasingly based on cost or price. Second, a customer's internal economics or financial resource limitations may shift the acquisition decision toward affordability as a more dominant factor. In either case, a successful product supplier must focus more attention on managing product cost.

Once a product plan is established which defines the target market and customers, the next step is to plan how to capture these customer's needs for each development project. This includes determining how to identify target customers, which customers to contact in order to capture there needs, what mechanisms to use to collect their needs, and a schedule and estimate of resources to capture the voice of the customer (project plan for product definition phase).

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Rapid time-to-market is important for the competitive success of many companies for the following reasons.

• Competitive advantage of getting to market sooner;
• Premium prices early in life cycle;
• Faster breakeven on development investment and lower financial risk;
• Longer market life cycle; and
• Greater overall profits and higher return on investment.

The key process requirements for rapid time-to-market are:

• Clear understanding of customer needs at the start of the project and stability in product requirements or specifications;
• A characterized, optimized product development process;
• A realistic project plan based on this process;
• Availability of needed resources to support the project and use of full-time, dedicated personnel;
• Early involvement and rapid staffing build-up to support the parallel design of product and process;
• Virtual product development including digital assembly modeling and early analysis and simulation to minimize time consuming physical mock-ups and testing; and
• Design re-use and standardization to minimize the design content of a project.