What Tools Do You Use For PM and Why? P-Camp 2008 Discussion Moderated by Nils Davis Director of Product Management Accept Software Thanks to all the participants in the discussion! (Notes by Nils Davis)

Categories of PM Activities * Marketing * Requirements * Collaboration Working with engineering * Customer feedback Enhancement requests Defects Ideas Internal Customers Decisions that need to be made Communication management Who owes me what? Workflow Roadmapping Items with *’s were prioritized higher for discussion

* Marketing

* Requirements

* Collaboration

Working with engineering

* Customer feedback

Enhancement requests

Defects

Ideas

Internal

Customers

Decisions that need to be made

Communication management

Who owes me what?

Workflow

Roadmapping

Marketing How do you get the word out about your product (Sounds like product marketing) Use Ad Words This turned out to be a short discussion

How do you get the word out about your product

(Sounds like product marketing)

Use Ad Words

Requirements What are the requirements problems? Always changing Markets are changing Changing priorities Customer feedback Business strategy Deal of the Day Funding Competitors Figuring out how valid the requirements are Centralizing Single source of truth Sharing and communicating Tying together reqs and UE design and technical design Am I done?

What are the requirements problems?

Always changing

Markets are changing

Changing priorities

Customer feedback

Business strategy

Deal of the Day

Funding

Competitors

Figuring out how valid the requirements are

Centralizing

Single source of truth

Sharing and communicating

Tying together reqs and UE design and technical design

Am I done?

How Do People Manage Requirements? Giant Word document Giant Excel spreadsheet Giant GoogleDocs Wiki Benefits: Doesn’t have to be perfect – low friction Everybody has access – more diverse inputs Basecamp - comments underneath the wiki, but doesn’t change the wiki page “ Meta comment level” Cons Can’t prioritize wiki pages Hard to get QA test plans out of the wiki No logical order “ Depends on wiki” – if programmable, can write scripts Not as authoritative as a document Potential loss of control Can use scripts to impose some workflow (Flexwiki) Search can be a problem if wiki is large

Giant Word document

Giant Excel spreadsheet

Giant GoogleDocs

Wiki

Benefits:

Doesn’t have to be perfect – low friction

Everybody has access – more diverse inputs

Basecamp - comments underneath the wiki, but doesn’t change the wiki page

“ Meta comment level”

Cons

Can’t prioritize wiki pages

Hard to get QA test plans out of the wiki

No logical order

“ Depends on wiki” – if programmable, can write scripts

Not as authoritative as a document

Potential loss of control

Can use scripts to impose some workflow (Flexwiki)

Search can be a problem if wiki is large

How Do People Manage Requirements? Online app Does both bug tracking and requirements (TargetProcess) Bug tracker Jira (+ Clearspace) TRAC – not recommended SourceForge – painful Bugzilla Backlog tols VersionOne, Rally, Scrumworks, etc. Gets very complicated Four days of training and setup required Living specs – prototypes UML Basecamp Use messages for discussions Also use Writeboards They just accumulate and can’t be nested

Online app

Does both bug tracking and requirements (TargetProcess)

Bug tracker

Jira (+ Clearspace)

TRAC – not recommended

SourceForge – painful

Bugzilla

Backlog tols

VersionOne, Rally, Scrumworks, etc.

Gets very complicated

Four days of training and setup required

Living specs – prototypes

UML

Basecamp

Use messages for discussions

Also use Writeboards

They just accumulate and can’t be nested

How Do People Manage Requirements? Mindmapping Omni Outliner Use personally, then print out Personal wiki Omni Focus Write on paper or whiteboard Then digitize and put in repository Lighthouse Enables tagging

Mindmapping

Omni Outliner

Use personally, then print out

Personal wiki

Omni Focus

Write on paper or whiteboard

Then digitize and put in repository

Lighthouse

Enables tagging

Goals for Requirements Management Clarity of what to do Need to describe what you want to have happen Be able to prioritize Tie the $$ associated with the feature to the individual requirement How about business objectives Depends on the PM Different tools fill in different areas of weaknesses Memory enhancement Prioritization help Visibility of business side to engineering team

Clarity of what to do

Need to describe what you want to have happen

Be able to prioritize

Tie the $$ associated with the feature to the individual requirement

How about business objectives

Depends on the PM

Different tools fill in different areas of weaknesses

Memory enhancement

Prioritization help

Visibility of business side to engineering team

What About Getting Ideas and Customer Feedback? Goals Comment: Requirements written by or developed with a customer are implicit contract Reluctant to write down everything a customer wants Would rather use a conversation about their products “ It’s a plan, not a commitment” Value of PM is taking lots of input, and synthesizing it Breakdown of customer-based ideas vs. internal Customer community systems? Clearspace runs their own community How about control? Benefit if customers create their own community for you GetSatisfaction – create communities for you with no commitment from you Probably need 500 customers for this to work Is there a relationship between the type of s/w and success of a community?

Goals

Comment: Requirements written by or developed with a customer are implicit contract

Reluctant to write down everything a customer wants

Would rather use a conversation about their products

“ It’s a plan, not a commitment”

Value of PM is taking lots of input, and synthesizing it

Breakdown of customer-based ideas vs. internal

Customer community systems?

Clearspace runs their own community

How about control?

Benefit if customers create their own community for you

GetSatisfaction – create communities for you with no commitment from you

Probably need 500 customers for this to work

Is there a relationship between the type of s/w and success of a community?

Prioritization Use Excel for calculating a priority based on # of customers calling in, etc. Can forward emails to a certain bucket, and they review the bucket for the amount of activity

Use Excel for calculating a priority based on # of customers calling in, etc.

Can forward emails to a certain bucket, and they review the bucket for the amount of activity

Tools Used For UI Mockups Omni Graffle Paper – low friction “ Agile usability” discussion group on Yahoo has a really long thread on usability tools Visio PPT 2007 with animation Photoshop Axure Captures interactions Generates HTML Expensive?

Omni Graffle

Paper – low friction

“ Agile usability” discussion group on Yahoo has a really long thread on usability tools

Visio

PPT 2007 with animation

Photoshop

Axure

Captures interactions

Generates HTML

Expensive?