In the “real world” software development does not occur in a vacuum. In the risk management exercise you and your group members focused on the development risks that might impact the success of your project. Now it’s time to broaden your view. If your group project were developed in a fortune 500 company as a product, a number of factors would be taken into account to ensure the success of the project. These include the concerns of marketing, sales, support, and upper management.
You work in the software division of a fortune 500 company. The company has developed a checkpoint process for all software development projects. At the outset of a software development project a series of checkpoints are set at key points during development and delivery of the software. At each checkpoint a representative from each of the parties involved in the software development project come together to review the current status of the project, assess any risks that have impacted the project, and make any modifications necessary to the project’s staffing, schedule, or scope of work.
You are going to represent marketing’s concerns during the checkpoint review. Ideally you want upper management to be in the marketing team’s corner. You want them to understand the current status of the project and the impact the project modifications discussed during the checkpoint would have on the marketing team’s ability to successfully market the project. During this exercise it is also imperative that you make a compelling argument to upper management of the importance of the following marketing concerns:
¨ The product being developed was highlighted in the company’s recent worldwide marketing conference. At the conference a list of the product’s features was released and it was announced that the first software shipment would occur on June 1st. To make this shipment date the software and all documentation must be complete by May 1st. This requires the development team to finish the project more quickly than initially planned. Since a list of features was also released it is important that no functionality be dropped from the product. If the release date is not met or any features already marketed are dropped from the product it will be a very public failure of the company. This could impact the price of the company’s stock, customer loyalty, or sales of the product.
¨ The marketing group has been busy researching the products that compete with the one currently under development. To really compete with the other products another feature needs to be added to the product. (You fill in the feature that should be added.) Without the addition of this feature you product is very similar to all the rest. This may lower the price the sales force can charge for the product or reduce the number of customers interested in this product.
¨ The marketing team needs to put the finishing touches on the marketing materials that will be used to sell the product. They need the development team to commit to a code freeze date. Once the code is frozen bugs can be fixed but no features will be added or removed from the product. In other words new development is halted on the product and only testing and fixing occurs in the development team. The earlier the code freeze date the better for the marketing team.
¨ The marketing team just found out that the company that develops our product’s number one competition is going to release the latest version on June 1st. That matches the date our product’s release is planned. To beat them to the punch and make a bigger marketing splash at release time the marketing team would like to move the date up. To make this release date the product must be ready before May 1st.
In addition you should bring up any other issues that you may think of that would affect the successful marketing of the product being developed.