Abstract
Product management has become an established discipline in many industries since Procter and Gamble introduced it in 1931. During recent decades, most software product companies—like Microsoft, IBM, and Google—implemented Software Product Management (SPM). So did some corporate information technology organizations across essentially all industries, as well as some companies that produce software embedded in software-intensive products and services. The role of software product manager has emerged during this time as being of strategic value since it is crucial to the economic success of a product. This chapter puts software product management into the context of software as a business. It outlines the historical context, defines relevant terms and characteristics, looks at software from a business perspective, introduces ISPMA’s SPM Framework, and discusses the role of SPM and its positioning in a software organization. The business context, definitions, and scenarios will help the reader to understand how to implement the many practices that a software product manager has available to him to ensure the success of his product.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arthur, W.B.: Increasing returns and the new world of business. Harv. Bus. Rev. (1996)
Avedillo, J.G., Begonha, D., Peyracchia, A.: Two Ways to Modernize IT Systems for the Digital Era. McKinsey Insights (August 2015)
Axelos: ITIL practitioner guide. TSO, Norwich (2016)
Bass, L., Weber, I., Zhu, L.: DevOps: A Software Architect’s Perspective. Addison-Wesley, Upper Saddle River (2015)
Bekkers, W., Weerd, I. van de, Spruit, M., Brinkkemper, S.: A framework for process improvement in software product management. European Conference on Software Process Improvement (EuroSPI 2010), Grenoble, France, 2010
Bonaccorsi, A., Giannangeli, S., Rossi, C.: Entry strategies under competing standards: Hybrid business models in the open source software industry. Manag. Sci. 52(7), 1085–1098 (2006)
Buxmann, P., Diefenbach, H., Hess, T.: The Software Industry. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Choudary, S.P.: Platform Scale – For a Post-Pandemic World. Penguin Random House India (2021)
Condon, D.: Software Product Management: Managing Software Development from Idea to Product to Marketing to Sales. Aspatore Books (2002)
Cusumano, M., Gawer, A., Yoffie, D.B.: The Business of Platforms. Harper Business (2019)
Cusumano, M.: The Business of Software. Free Press (2004)
Cusumano, M.: Finding your balance in the products and services debate. Commun. ACM. 46(3), 15–17 (2003)
Demil, B., Lecocq, X.: Neither market nor hierarchy nor network: the emergence of bazaar governance. Organ. Stud. 27(10), 1447–1466 (2006)
Denning, P.J., Lewis, T.G.: Exponential laws of computing growth. Commun. ACM. 60(1), 54–65 (2017)
Ebert, C.: The impacts of software product management. J. Syst. Softw. 80(6), 850–861 (2007)
Fricker, S.A.: Software product management. In: Maedche, A., Botzenhardt, A., Neer, L. (eds.) Software for People – Fundamentals, Trends and Best Practices, pp. 53–81. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Gartner Group: Gartner Market Databook, 1Q21 Update, March 2021
Gartner Group: Forecast Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2019–2025, 1Q21 Update, March 2021
Gorchels, L.: The Product Manager’s Handbook: The Complete Product Management Resource, 4th edn. McGraw Hill (2011)
Hecker, F.: Setting up shop: the business of open-source software. IEEE Softw. 16(1), 45–51 (1999)
Hoch, D.J., Roeding, C.R., Purkert, G., Lindner, S.K.: Secrets of Software Success. Harvard Business School Press (2000)
Humble, J., Farley, D.: Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation. Addison-Wesley (2010)
ISPMA.: www.ispma.org (2021). Accessed 20 July 2021
Katz, M.L., Shapiro, C.: Network externalities, competition, and compatibility. Am. Econ. Rev. 75(3), 424–440 (1985)
Kim, G., Behr, K., Spafford, G.: The Phoenix Project. IT Revolution Press. (2014)
Kittlaus, H.-B., Mangipudi, H.: Software Product Management for Startups – The ISPMA-Compliant Study Guide and Handbook (2022)
Kittlaus, H.-B.: One size does not fit all: software product management for speedboats vs. cruiseships. In: International Conference on Software Business (ICSOB 2015), Braga, Portugal, 2015
Kittlaus, H.-B.: Geschäftsmodelle. In: Hilber, M. (Hrsg.) Handbuch Cloud Computing, pp. 29–53. Dr. Otto Schmidt Verlag (2014)
Kittlaus, H.-B.: Software product management and agile software development: conflicts and solutions. In: Maedche, A., Botzenhardt, A., Neer, L. (eds.) Software for People – Fundamentals, Trends and Best Practices, pp. 83–96. Springer (2012)
Kittlaus, H.-B., Clough, P.: Software Product Management and Pricing – Key Success Factors for Software Organizations. Springer (2009)
Knaster, R., Leffingwell, D.: SAFe® 5.0 Distilled: Achieving Business Agility With the Scaled Agile Framework. Addison-Wesley (2020)
Kotler, P., Armstrong, G.: Principles of marketing, 16th edn. Prentice Hall (2015)
Leffingwell, D.: Agile Software Requirements. Addison-Wesley (2011)
Maglyas, A., Nikula, U., Smolander, K., Fricker, S.A.: Core software product management activities. J. Adv. Manag. Res. 14(1), 23–45 (2017)
McGrath, M.E.: Product Strategy for High Technology Companies, 2nd edn. McGrawHill, New York (2001)
Moore, G.A.: Crossing the Chasm. Harper, New York (2014)
Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y.: Business Model Generation. Wiley (2010)
Popp, K.M.: Mergers and Acquisitions in the Software Industry - Foundations of Due Diligence. Books on Demand. (2013)
Popp, K.M., Meyer, R.: Profit from Software Ecosystems. Books on Demand (2010)
Pragmatic Institute, Inc.: Pragmatic Framework (2019)
Reichheld, F.F.: The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value. Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge (1996)
Ries, E.: The Lean Startup. Crown Business (2011)
Rubin, K.S.: Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process. Addison-Wesley (2012)
Rust, R.T., Kannon, P.K.: E-Service: A New Paradigm for Business in the Electronic Environment. Commun. ACM. 46(6), 37–42 (2003)
Sandy, K.: The Influential Product Manager – How to Lead and Launch Successful Technology Products. Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2020)
Schwaber, J., Sutherland, J.: The Scrum Guide – The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game. https://www.scrumguides.org (2020)
Tapscott, D., Williams, A.D.: Wikinomics – How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Portfolio/Penguin (2006)
Teece, D.J.: Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long Range Plan. 43(2), 172–194 (2010)
Torres, T.: Continuous Discovery Habits. Product Talk LLC, Amazon (2021)
Tukey, J.W.: The teaching of concrete mathematics. Am. Math. Mon. 65(1), 1–9 (1958)
Vogels, W.: The Story of Apollo - Amazon’s Deployment Engine. www.allthingsdistributed.com/2014/11/apollo-amazon-deployment-engine.html (2014). Accessed 25 Dec 2016
Weerd, I. van de, Brinkkemper, S., Nieuwenhuis, R., Versendaal, J.M., Bijlsma, A.: On the creation of a reference framework for software product management: validation and tool support. In: International Workshop on Software Product Management (IWSPM’06), Minneapolis, MN, 2006
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kittlaus, HB. (2022). Management of Software as a Business. In: Software Product Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-65116-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-65116-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-65115-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-65116-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)