Managing Software Products in a Global Context

Follow-the-sun has evolved to follow-the-talent. Managing a product thus has a true global perspective. Products increasingly are developed in virtual teams using agile set-up and gig economy practices. The success of a product or service depends on its product management. Recently software product management has moved closer to software development in its understanding that market decisions have technical impact, and vice versa. This research provides results from an empirical field study with twenty companies on software product management in its global context. The empirical study provides concrete practices to fertilize and evolve software product management in global teams and thus the success of products in terms of predictability, quality and efficiency. We show that with institutionalization of a consistent and empowered product management role, global product development benefits in terms of schedule, quality and duration.