Jarno Vähäniitty

A tentative framework for managing software product development in small companies

Deploying an appropriate software process can improve the effectiveness of software engineering. Still, small companies find it hard to allocate resources to software process improvement and tailor existing process models for their needs. We present a tentative framework for managing software product development in small companies. The framework combines business and process management through four cycles of control: (1) strategic release management provides the interface between business management and product development; (2) release project management handles the development of individual product versions; (3) iteration management deals with the incremental development of product functionality within release projects; and (4) mini-milestones are used to get an indication of system status during development.

Towards a conceptual framework and tool support for linking long-term product and business planning with agile software development

For a software company it is essential to understand how to link business management and software development decision-making. Agile methods adhere to the viewpoint of individual development projects, leaving business concerns such as long-term product and release planning and multi-project management mostly unaddressed. With poorly governed fast-paced development, the big picture of the ongoing work and its link to the companys overall business goals and strategy may become unclear. The difficulties in linking business and development are also reflected in current project management/issue tracking tool support. In this paper we present a conceptual framework of the links between long-term business, product and release planning and agile software development. The framework aims to provide a common language through which the big picture of software development - including needed roles, responsibilities and decision structures - can be analyzed, communicated and discussed. We also present Agilefant, a proof-of-concept tool based on the framework.

Linking business and requirements engineering: is solution planning a missing activity in software product companies?

A strong link between strategy and product development is important, since companies need to select requirements for forthcoming releases. However, in practice, connecting requirements engineering (RE) and business planning is far from trivial. This paper describes the lessons learned from four software product companies that have recognized the need for more business-oriented long-term planning. The study was conducted using the action research approach. We identified five practices that seem to strengthen the link between business decisions and RE. These are (1) explicating the planning levels and time horizons; (2) separating the planning of products’ business goals from R&D resource allocation; (3) planning open-endedly with a pre-defined rhythm; (4) emphasizing whole-product thinking; and (5) making solution planning visible. To support whole-product thinking and solution planning, we suggest that companies create solution concepts. The purpose of the solution concept is to provide a big picture of the solution and guide RE activities.

Supporting Scaling Agile with Portfolio Management: Case Paf.com

This paper is a descriptive case study of how one department at Paf, Paf.com, introduced portfolio management to help support scaling agile software development. Paf.com had experienced problems with long time-to-market due to thrashing, which was caused by frequently changing priorities due to an ad-hoc prioritization process and handovers. Also, there was lack of visibility into projects entering and progressing in the development pipeline. No structured way of starting projects was enforced company-wide, and too many parallel projects got started. As a result of introducing a structured portfolio management process, the number of ongoing projects has dramatically reduced, from over 200 to 30, reducing thrashing. Listing all projects in priority order in the Paf.com backlog provides visibility into what is currently ongoing, helping coordinate the work of multiple Scrum teams. The portfolio follow-up function provides progress data on the projects, helping managers make more informed decisions, considering the whole portfolio.

Towards an Approach for Managing the Development Portfolio in Small Product-Oriented Software Companies

Managing product development activities as an explicit portfolio is crucial to the long-term success of product-oriented software companies. Portfolio management has been studied in the field of new product development for over two decades, but existing approaches transfer poorly to small software companies due to contextual differences. Based on new product development and software engineering literature and three company cases, this paper presents an approach for implementing portfolio management in small, product-oriented software companies, along with initial experiences. The approach integrates portfolio management basics such as strategic alignment, portfolio balancing and go/kill/hold decision-making with modern, time-paced software development processes for the small company context. Our findings suggest that using the proposed approach increases awareness of what projects and other development activities are underway, and how these are resourced. It also helps in making informed decisions and trade-offs when necessary.

Small software organizations need explicit project portfolio management

The concept of managing new product development projects as an explicit portfolio originates from the context of large organizations. However, the question as to whether explicit portfolio management is relevant for small organizations is rarely discussed. We conducted a qualitative multiple-case study of six small organizations (with 15-40 people) that developed software and provided related services. Five of the organizations did not practice explicit portfolio management. They also seemed to suffer from problems that, in the literature, are considered symptomatic of inadequate portfolio management, such as having too many simultaneous projects, overcommitment in terms of workload, and ineffective executive decision making. In one of the studied organizations, the management personnel had recognized the need for explicit portfolio management and introduced portfolio management practices such as regular reviews of the project portfolio, appointing specific people for resolving cross-project conflicts, and limiting the number of concurrent projects to which a person can be assigned. The personnel we interviewed perceived clear improvements with respect to various challenges since the introduction of these practices. Our preliminary study suggests that explicit portfolio management is relevant for small software organizations, at least in cases in which the development personnel possess multiple roles and responsibilities and are concurrently performing many different types of activities.

Strengthening the link between business decisions and RE: Long-term product planning in software product companies

Long-term product planning (i.e. roadmapping) is an approach that companies operating in the software product business have used to bridge the gap between business planning and product development. A strong link between strategy and product development is important, since companies developing software products need to select requirements for forthcoming releases based on the business decisions of the company. However, in practice, connecting requirements engineering decisions and business management is far from trivial. This paper reports lessons learned from four software product companies that recognize the need for more business-oriented long- term product planning. The study was conducted using the action research approach. We identified four practices that seem to strengthen the link between business decisions and requirements engineering. These are: 1) explicating the planning levels and time horizons needed in product planning, 2) separating the planning of business goals relating to products from R&D resource allocation, 3) conducting open-ended planning by pre-defined rhythm and 4) emphasizing whole-product thinking.

Long-Term Planning of Development Efforts by Roadmapping A Model and Experiences from Small Software Companies

Success in the software product business requires timely release of new products and upgrades with proper quality and the right features. For this, a systematic approach for managing the contents, timing and roles of future product releases as well as the product architecture is needed. In practice, such an approach is often missing, especially in small companies, due to inexperience, unclear priorities, time-to-market pressures, or the lack of suitable process infra-structure. In this paper, we present a model to visualize product roadmaps developed together with three small software companies and experiences from its use. The model depicts release and development schedules, the composition of individual releases, services that require attention from the developers, changes to the underlying technology and the planned resource usage. We also present lessons learned from the case companies and outline directions for future research.