Management of a product that will be sold, rather than management of a project or process; what the product should do, rather than how the product does it. Not synonymous with Project Management.

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12
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5answers
2k views

What is the difference between Project and Product Management?

From a cursory survey, they appear extremely similar. Is this the case? Other than Projects tending to be short-term and Products tending to be ongoing endeavours, is there a difference in the two? ...
11
votes
7answers
289 views

Project complete but does not really satisfy the end users. Business owners unhappy

Some background on the project: I recently completed a project for a company. The project was a fairly large line of business web site. The customer was a company with no prior experience ...
10
votes
6answers
5k views

Agile methodologies such as Scrum in non-software development projects

Even though Scrum was originally suggested for managing product development projects, its use has focused on the management of software development projects. None of the project management teams I ...
9
votes
5answers
256 views

Training methods in small team

I'm working for a startup company where there are only a few employees (5 programmers). I'm senior in terms of my time with the company and experience even though I'm only 23 years old. I have no ...
9
votes
7answers
312 views

What are some ways you are getting your business engaged with your Agile team?

I continue to see Agile adoptions that focus on the R&D or Engineering team. There seems to be this acceptance that the core of Agile rests there. I'm absolutely not convinced. I think that if the ...
8
votes
2answers
126 views

Product Owners- Tips for engaging non-Engineering in the agile process

From my experience, in mid to large size software companies, agile most often grows out of the eningeering organization. Either grass roots up, from the team level, or exec sponsored from the ...
7
votes
3answers
231 views

Tips for Selecting an Existing Employee to Be a Project Manager

Projects are defined as being temporary. As a result, this means that unless more projects will follow, a project manager could be any employee with the necessary skillset who is selected to see the ...
6
votes
5answers
389 views

How to organize multiple releases/feature sets

I'm the product manager for two of my company's application sets, and I've been running into some difficulties trying to manage future releases and how best to move them around. If I have version 2.2 ...
6
votes
2answers
456 views

How does a Project Manager's job change when transitioning from waterfall to Agile?

When adopting Agile and moving away from waterfall what specifically changes in the day-to-day job duties of a PM? I'm interested especially in hearing from PMs who have made (or are in the process of ...
6
votes
4answers
645 views

How and What to Learn - New to Product Management

What documentation, skills & tasks should a new (Technical) Product Manager concentrate on learning first to effectively do their job? I have read this Wikipedia article, and it didn't answer my ...
5
votes
5answers
371 views

Issues with the Iterative Development Model

I am the Product Manager for a software company. We use an iterative development model (similar to Agile) to separate out versions of our software (i.e. 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, etc.) Prior to each version, ...
5
votes
2answers
164 views

In Scrum, how do you account for tasks with lead time?

I am the scrum master for a project that involves not only software, but firmware development, electrical engineering and industrial design. Some tasks involve a small amount of time from a team ...
4
votes
7answers
222 views

How to manage client feedback during wireframe phase

My team and I offer freelance web development services, often to non-technology personal. We started to incorporate a wireframe phase in our web software development process (as opposed to ...
4
votes
5answers
186 views

Running training session for a software product

I am running a training session for external users of our software product soon, and am currently planning how to approach it. I have a good idea how to run through the specifics of our platform ...
4
votes
2answers
125 views

Measures to get out of fix-test-fix cycle

We have completed the feature implementation for new release of a product. The product is strategic for the company with a large customer base and making good revenue. The product has had lifetime of ...
4
votes
4answers
532 views

Mapping user stories to specification

I'm looking for a tool which help me keep the product backlog and the specification consistent. Consider that I have specification from client. Based on the specification I create the user stories ...
3
votes
6answers
404 views

What are Some Tools and Techniques for Communicating Product Updates to Existing Customers?

I am a product/project manager for a product we've created. We have customers using the product, which we are continually updating as it is Web based. What are some tools and techniques for managing ...
3
votes
6answers
360 views

What Is the Ideal Number of Departments/People for a Product/Program Manager to Manage?

Recently, the workload has been getting heavier and there are more areas to coordinate in an ongoing program to develop and market a product. The product has reached the sales stage and has taken on ...
3
votes
5answers
162 views

How do I end crashed sprints and remain responsive to the customer?

We have been using Scrum methodology and have been mostly successful, but there are few weeks where the sprints are totally crashed by customer demands or defects. Is there a better way of handling ...
3
votes
2answers
119 views

Prioritizing Features

Question for fellow product owners/product managers. How do you prioritize your features? We are currently trying to develop some common criteria (as objective as possible) that we can use to ...
3
votes
4answers
211 views

IT Project Management tool aimed at developers, but still generic enough for general purpose use?

I am a lead software developer, and I have just been tasked with revamping our software development process. Part of this will be to implement a system with the following: Source Control Build ...
3
votes
2answers
276 views

Questions to ask to the client before making any cms for them?

I need a comprehensive list of questions or at least basic idea of which questions to be asked to the client before customizing a cms for them? I may use Wordpress, Drupal, Sharepoint or anything, I ...
2
votes
5answers
309 views

What Techniques Do You Use to Deal With Other Managers Who Try to Change Your Product Vision?

You're a product manager in charge of developing a new product, and you've done months of research to determine a direction and a vision for the product. The product development is going well, and ...
2
votes
3answers
130 views

Reassuring boss that our product will be one step ahead of competition…

I am the development project manager for a web-based software product. I have been asked the following question from my superiors: Our product is facing increased competition from other ...
2
votes
4answers
98 views

How strictly can we differentiate the importance of Project Scope and a Product Scope for developers

Is it always important for developers to know about the entire product before they get their hands on to develop a certain module of it? Let's say that if the customer wants to keep the product ...
2
votes
1answer
76 views

How to introduce a dedicated PM and separate myself from those tasks to become a Product Manager?

Like most PMs, I wear many hats. The one which fits me better and is consuming more of my time is the Product Manager one, so I would like to start planning for the recruiting and responsibility ...
2
votes
4answers
224 views

PM Software that handles both large projects and small tasks

All of the project management applications I have found only deal with large scale projects, such as Jira and Basecamp. How about the simple tasks? For example, I work with many sites and will get ...
1
vote
2answers
101 views

Difference between “Earned Value” and “Contribution Margin”?

I have been searching here and there for the meanings of "Earned Value" and "Contribution Margin", it doesn't seem to make sense to me why so many project could have a positive(+) Contribution Margin, ...
1
vote
2answers
60 views

Is a Partner Manager role different from a Project Manager role?

A partner manager is there to maintain relationships. What's the difference between the partner manager role and that of a project manager?
1
vote
3answers
115 views

What is the PM's mindset who is facing a project from scratch and with no clear direction?

Is there a PM starter kit that the PM needs to know in order for him to take on any projects whether its complicated or not, from scratch or from any other project scenario?
0
votes
1answer
84 views

What are the steps to be taken in the initial projects in Software Companies? [closed]

I'm working in the middle level of a software company. My role is a software developer. I don't know what processes are to be handled in the Software Development company? Can you explain me in ...