Software engineering and management has borrowed many practices over the years from traditional industries such as construction, automotive and manufacturing. One such practice is the notion of managing software development and delivery based on projects.
According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), a project is defined as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. A project is temporary, in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and, therefore, defined scope and resources.”
Many enterprises today manage software delivery via a project-centric software delivery approach. New software projects are identified based on probable business cases. Business opportunities are identified and prioritized based on potential business benefits and estimated cost. This is done with the assumption that the exact market needs, the estimated cost, start and end dates, and potential benefits are certain and known up front. Once the business case is approved by senior management, projects are initiated. In an environment where the scope, schedule and cost of projects can be defined upfront, this provides a predictable approach for software delivery management and governance.
But, do we live in a world of total certainty? In the volatile and uncertain world in which we live—with the very fact that software is not a physical good—accurate predictions of market needs, cost, timing and end-user benefits are far from reality. In addition, companies are competing in the marketplace by exploring innovative ways to create and deliver new products and services.
Why is the project-centric delivery approach used by so many IT organizations if it is a challenge? Projects can no longer be the vehicle for software development and delivery if enterprises want to stay ahead of the competition. Then, what is the alternative approach?
Introducing the Product-Centric Delivery Model
A product-centric delivery model is a new way of organizing people, and continuously delivering valuable software to customers.
Let’s take a look at the steps an enterprise needs to follow in order to transition from project-centric to product-centric software delivery.
Identify Products Instead of Projects
What are software products? Organizations across the world provide value to their customers in the form of goods and services. These goods and services are called products and are often driven by software and IT systems. For example, to a bank that provides digital banking services to its customers, its online banking solution is a product, not a project. Similarly, for a retail company, its catalog and product search becomes a product. These kinds of products are different from the actual physical goods that these companies sell.
Organize and Fund Stable Teams Around a Product, Not a Project
Once your products are identified, the next step is to organize and fund your software teams around these products. These cross-functional teams include members from business development, IT development, support and operations. This team must be empowered to build and deliver the product on their own and will collaborate, decide what to build, how to develop it and how to manage the product with frequent updates. The team must be outcome-oriented, long-living and cross-functional. They can be organized as a team-of-teams or squads, resulting in better collaboration, focus and ownership from any corner of the world. This will also help in scaling the overall capacity of the product. A common shared services team, supporting multiple products might be an added advantage.
Define Product Vision, Define Objectives, Deliver and Measure Value
After the products and the teams are in place, you need to define the product vision. The product vision defines the reason for its existence and the long-term goal that it is trying to achieve. This also aligns business objectives with IT delivery and provides guidance for all decisions made regarding the product development and delivery.
The business stakeholders define the product vision and derive the near-term objectives that will guide the teams to further decide the set of initiatives they need to work on.
The teams then identify relevant product features, plan and deliver those in short increments or time boxes, thereby delivering continuous value to end users.
At the end of each time-box, stakeholders will measure the product outcome with the stated objectives and changes in the market needs. The findings will help the business decide on whether to continue investing in the product or not.
Conclusion
Product-centric delivery paves a new way of organizing people and continuously delivering software value with more emphasis on outcome rather than the output. It provides a continuous flow of work to the product teams and continuous value to the end users. It aligns the business strategy to software development and execution, while empowering the teams to decide what is best for their product.
